The film The Legend of Hercules is the kind of movie where I
wonder why they used the name Hercules at all. In one way it is an okay action
movie, if you can overlook the dull parts and a number of cliché scenes that
would be more in place in a far less expensive movie production.
What I can say, without giving away any of the plot is that
if you search for the myth of Hercules on the internet then you won’t learn any
of the storyline of this particular film. The filmmakers seemed to have decided
to completely abandon the myth and just use the name Hercules, along with the
names of some of the other characters in the myth. In watching the film, I was
reminded of two main areas of filmmaking of the past.
One is the Italian ‘Sword and Sandal” films, where sometimes
fancy clothes and hairdos were more important than the story. In fact, some of the
storytelling in this film very much borders on the style of the Sword and
Sandal films.
The other is the endlessly repeated message in American made
films from the mid-twentieth century onwards, in which each Roman epic states that
tyranny is wrong – a less than subtle barb at fascism, communism, and any
nation seen as being of either ilk. This approach of tyranny versus democracy can
still work in a film, as shown in the hit film 300 (whilst ignoring the fact
that Spartans were tyrants who conquered and enslaved other people) – but only
if it is handled correctly and not lathered in a bath of frothy clichés the way
this Hercules film tends to do.
If all you expect from an action movie is cliché characters
and occasional stylish slow motion fighting, then see this film. If you are
looking for something more than that, choose something else.
