Honestly, I don't know what Hercules myth, they were going for, but this movie wasn't Hercules, in any sense of the world. Where were the Twelve Labors? Where's evil Hera? She's supposed to try to make Hercules life, a little hell with raging madness! I know the Heracles tale is one of the most adapted heroes for films, but this had to be one of the worst Hercules ever. It got nothing right with the source material. Directed by Renny Harlin, the movie couldn't even figure out, what to call its title, as it was formerly known as Hercules: The Legend Begins and Hercules 3D. Don't bother, reading up on the myths of Heracles, as this movie redirected you to a new story, where the evil King Amphitryon (Scott Adkins) has just invaded the land of Argos. Feeling in shame of war, Amphitryon's wife, Queen Alcmene (Roxanne McKenna) ask Hera to get Zeus to rape her so that she would have a God-child that would over-thrown the evil King. First off, Hera whom supposed to be the Goddess of virtue women and marriage allow this to happen? Hera was known for her jealous and vengeful nature against Zeus's lovers and offspring. How on Mount Olympia did she allow this to happen? Anyways, after Zeus had his way with the Queen, a child was born and grew up to become Hercules (Kellan Lutz). Oops, my bad, He-Man. No, that isn't right, I meant Alcides. Kellan Lutz is so one-dimensional dull that it was painful to see him in this role. The man doesn't look like a damn like the Heracles in mythology. Where is the Nemean lion coat? They really misused that lion. Why is it, smiling? Anyways, Alcides is having a great life being in love with his incest sister, Hebe (Gaia Weiss) who somehow lose her God-like powers of youth. When she's force to marry, Alcides's brother, Iphicles (Liam Garrigan), with Alcidies's disagreement. Amphitryon is forced to sell Alcidies into slavery as a gladiator. Now, Alcides must find a way back to his homeland, and defeat this evil father. Yes, the movie is not only ripping off the slow motion unrealistic fighting styles clichés from 2006's 300, but also the whole plot of 2000's Gladiator. The movie doesn't even seem to know the difference between the Romans and the Greeks. There is little prove of that there were Gladiator type fights for entertainment in Ancient Greece. The 3D work is pretty bad. There were scenes, where my eyes hurt after watching it. One good example is the lake scene where little white dandelion pieces were flowing everywhere. The action scenes were alright, but I just can't take a movie that has a silly scene with Hercules waving a lightning bolt bullwhip, seriously. It felt so formula, like it was model after the God of Wars video games. The CGI background were pretty horrible. You can tell in some scenes that it was filmed in green screen. The movie has little to no sense of time. The queen and the king don't really aged in the film. They look like they haven't aged in the last 22 years. The production seem limited, it really did look like they re-used extras and props from Star's Network TV Series Spartacus: Blood and Sand. The movie lacks with the PG-13 rated as Hercules was always meant to be a pretty hardcore violence film. Overall: For all the modern Sword and Sandals films, it's probably one of the movies, I wouldn't check out, until last. It's one of those movies, you really can't stand seriously. It's so bad, it's might be good, depending on what you deem as fun. For me, the Legend of Hercules is a punishment straight from Hades. For a movie about Hercules; I have to say, there are other films that might be better than this. Go see 2014's Hercules with Dwayne Johnson. If not go find Kevin Sorbo's Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (1995–1999) television show. Even Disney 1997's Hercules that had little to do with the main story was better than this. Still, this movie is a lot better than 1959's Hercules Unchained, 1983's Hercules and others. Why can't Hollywood ever take a story that works and make it compelling without dumbing it down, getting it mostly wrong and totally missing the point? I'm still waiting for a good Hercules movie. In my opinion, this movie wasn't the one, I was looking for.
Review of The Legend of Hercules
