HERCULES - Grading & Discussion

[Agent Richard07]

[highlight]***SPOILERS AHEAD***[/highlight]

The new Hercules movie starring Dwayne Johnson is out. It's based on the graphic novel Hercules: The Thracian Wars, written by the recently deceased Scott Moore who was a mentor to Alan Moore (no relation).

On paper, Brett Ratner sounds like such an improbable choice to direct a large-scale ancient Greek epic that, going into his "Hercules," one could only hope for a less aggressively preposterous affair than Renny Harlin’s bargain-basement "The Legend of Hercules" from earlier this year. The happy surprise is that Ratner’s "Hercules" is more than a mere improvement on its predecessor. It’s a grandly staged, solidly entertaining, old-fashioned adventure movie that does something no other Hercules movie has quite done before: it cuts the mythical son of Zeus down to human size (or as human as you can get while still being played by Dwayne Johnson). The result is a far classier pic than Paramount’s frenetic trailer — and decision to hide the film from reviewers until the eleventh hour — foretold, albeit one that will struggle to find its sea legs at a crowded and underperforming summer box office. Overseas prospects look sunnier. - Variety

"We approached the director," said the 55-year-old Sorbo in a recent interview with the syndicated entertainment program Dish Nation. "I don’t know what his reasons are. I don’t know if it was political or ego or what it is. To not put me in for a stupid little cameo? The audience would have loved it." - Kevin Sorbo unhappy he’s not in new Hercules movie

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[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwlynHlZEc4[/yt]​

 

[John Clark]

We're going to see this tomorrow.

 

[Agent Richard07]

I saw it today and have some mixed feeling about it. It didn't do anything extraordinary with the story or the action but I did like the cast as well as how they handled the legend of Hercules.

The trailers are misleading. Aside from being about Hercules, this isn't a fantasy movie with gods and monsters. It's played real world straight, for the most part. Gods, centaurs, three-headed dogs and other mythical elements are there but they're integrated into the story in a real world way. I won't say any more. Check out the movie to see what they did.

Did I go to see Hercules? No, I went to see The Rock as Hercules and I wasn't disappointed. He delivered a pretty decent Hercules. I also liked the rest of the cast. Ian McShane played his character as wise, lighthearted and fun, and he was right there with Rufus Sewell in the same movie. I'm pointing this out because they look alike and I seem to remember getting them confused in the past. There was also Reece Ritchie as Iolaus who held his own the way Michael Hurst did on Kevin Sorbo's show. He reminded me of the young Adama from BSG. Want a Wonder Woman fix? There's that too. Ingrid Bolsø Berdal played an amazon and did so to perfection. Gotta give a shout out to Askel Hennie, William Hurt, Joseph Fiennes and all the rest who brought their parts to life as well.

 

[John Clark]

We went and saw the 3d version. Due to the show times, it actually worked out cheaper than the 2d version.
The 3d wasn't particularly necessary for most of the film in my opinion, but it seemed to add depth.

I thought the film itself was entertaining enough and liked the cast.

 

[Anwar]

Nice to see Sewell playing against his usual type by NOT being the villain this time.

 

[Trekker4747]

Saw this yesterday. Really liked it, thought Dwayne Johnson did a good job. Interesting take on the mythos/legend but given some of Herc's show of strength over the course of the movie I suspect that while the stories of his travels and accomplishments may have been BS, he still had some pretty super-human strength so likely his mythological origins (being the son of Zeus) still was in play.

I saw it in 3D and thought it looked very good, probably one of the better 3D movies.

His entourage also were an interesting group of characters too.

 

[Agent Richard07]

Yep. It's worth a look but it isn't doing too well at the box office. It only made $68 million worldwide as of this posting and it probably won't break even. I'm guessing no sequel. Unless they do a direct-to-video release starring Kevin Sorbo like they did with Johnson's 2004 movie, Walking Tall.

 

[Mr Light]

I saw this and was not that impressed. I was incredibly disappointed that it was a "real world" Hercules story with no paranormal elements whatsoever. The story and the villains just were not interesting.

 

[ManOnTheWave]

Saw it yesterday. It's really quite formulaic in plot, but I enjoyed the take on Hercules that might be best described as "anti-myth/fate." Surprisingly good, and Ian McShane makes the most of his every scene.

 

[Trekker4747]

I dunno, like I said, I'd still argue the supernatural is still there, just not maybe as strong as it is on other takes of the character. Many of feats of strength Herc performs (like tipping over the giant statue of Hera, including crushing the marble/concrete under him) would require some supernatural levels of strength. So, yeah, while Hydras, Centaurs and other mythological beasts may not exist it would seem that Herc is still supernatural and not a mere human.

 

[Agent Richard07]

^ I chalked it up to adrenaline or something like that. He didn't just go and push it over, they made a point to show that he simply dislodged it enough for it to collapse. It was more than a real-world move but not quite supernatural, if you ask me.

 

[Forbin]

The 3d wasn't particularly necessary for most of the film in my opinion, but it seemed to add depth.

 

[John Clark]

Yeah, that doesn't seem to have come out quite right.

 

[Trekker4747]

^ I chalked it up to adrenaline or something like that. He didn't just go and push it over, they made a point to show that he simply dislodged it enough for it to collapse. It was more than a real-world move but not quite supernatural, if you ask me.

The Hera statue was a GIANT statue made of marble, him pushing it over caused the ground to crumble and crush beneath his feet from the coutner-force. Seems pretty super-natural, or at least super-human, to me.

 

[ManOnTheWave]

I see your point. The toppling of the statue is unbelievable and unrealistic, but I don't know that I find it any more super natural than another action movie hero surviving a car/plane/helicopter crash, or walking away from an explosion that would kill a real man.

To be more specific about why I said "anti-myth/ fate," the hydra is presented one way in story and another way in memory. We see centaurs and Cerberus, but with a twist. All of that strikes me as a statement that this in not the Hercules we are used to. As to fate, what happens to Ian McShane's character is as blatant as it is funny.

 

[Mr Light]

For those who saw the movie, did you stay for the credits when they had little cartoons showing how the myths ACTUALLY happened with Herc and his team fighting with him? I thought that was cool.

 

[Trekker4747]

Yeah, that sequence was fun.

I dunno, I still think that maybe on some level Hercules was supposed to be, as according to myth, the son of Zeus. While some of his adventures (fighting the hydra, the Nemean lion, etc.) may have been bullshit and certain mythological creatures such as Centaurs may have not really existed I think there is some degree of evidence in this movie that maybe Hercules is the half-god son of Zeus. There were some things he did in the movie that were a bit "super-human" during the fighting scenes but maybe those were more-or-less a conceit of this genre. But when he stomped on the front of the cart and it flipped over his head, tossing the occupants away or punching people several feet back. Hell even implanting the arrow-tip into the guy's head enough to kill him was all stretching the action-movie conceit a *bit* far.

Hercules' show strength and force during the movie was a bit far even for an action movie. (Didn't get severely bitten in the shoulder by one of the wolves and mostly shrug it off) But pushing over the Hera statue, the ground crushing under his feet, is pushing the idea of that way too much and beyond "action movie strength and stamina." Hell, even him breaking lose of the shackles is a bit much.

Then the words from Ian McShane as he Herc is breaking free seems to maybe support the idea this Hercules is still a bit more than a mere mortal. *This* movie may suggest a mundane world and take on the character but there seems to be some evidence that he's actually more, perhaps if there's a sequel it'll take on more of the mythological aspects of the world.

Afterall, the idea of Centaurs seemed to exist though it seems no one had seen one and Hercules didn't seem to actually believe in them (but at that point he hadn't seemed to accept his true nature.) If there's a sequel perhaps it'll take on some more of the mythology. Because Hercules' supernatural strength certainly seemed to be there even if his earlier feats and trials were B.S. he still displayed extreme feats of strength and stamina even allowing for movie-levels of pushing the bar.