The Legend of Hercules (2014)
_poster.jpg)
From Wikpedia:
The Legend of Hercules (formerly known as Hercules: The Legend Begins and Hercules 3D) is a 2014 American action fantasy film directed by Renny Harlin and co-written by Harlin with Daniel Giat, Giulio Steve, and Sean Hood. The film stars Kellan Lutz, Gaia Weiss, Scott Adkins, Roxanne McKee, and Liam Garrigan.
The film was widely panned by critics and was a box office flop. It was one of two Hollywood-studio Hercules films scheduled for 2014, with Paramount Pictures and MGM's Hercules.
Note: This movie, since they claim it to be a Greek Legend or Myth, should have been called Heracles. Hercules is the Roman name for the Greek divine hero Heracles, who was the son of Zeus (Roman equivalent Jupiter) and the mortal Alcmene. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The TV series and the movies more often than that call him Hercules, even if he is Greek. (info also from Wikipedia)
I didn't watch this earlier this year because people I greatly admire did not like this. In fact, they hated this, just like the aforementioned critics. Last night, rather this morning when I was not being visited by the sandman, I was able to watch this(just before the thunder and lightning war in the heavens). It was not as bad as I imagined it to be, but I understood why the critics did not like it that much.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I know, and as much as possible, I try to see the physical beauty in everyone.
Kate Dowd chose the cast well, but somehow, the ones who did the makeup of the Queen Alcmene(McKee) when she was much older thought to themselves that her beauty was ageless. In other words, she looked much, much younger than her son, Iphicles(Garrigan).
When I was a little girl, I loved Greek, Roman and Norse Mythology, but later in life, I guess I was around seven or eight, I learned that everything my mother read to us were sanitized(yes, that word again) and most of the relationships were quite incestuous, which is gross in my opinion. This movie is no exception. The way Hercules was conceived was somehow like how demons planted seeds in this earth. Instead of a god enveloping Queen Alcmene, it was like she was being possessed by evil.
When Hercules was sold to slavery, the writers almost likened Hercules to Jesus' character. His destiny was to become the savior...the redeemer of the slaves. Still, his life is very, very far from Jesus. So is his character.
While I was growing up, even when I found out the sordid truth about mythologies, Hercules or Heracles was one of my favorite characters. In a way the story is close to the original, but there were things I didn't get like how Iphicles got to overpower him in the early parts of the story. Was it respect for the birthright? They were fraternal twins in books, but here, Iphicles was an older brother who felt that Alcmene only loved Hercules.
Anyways, since I'm NOT a critic, that's as far as I would go with my observations.
Again, I must say, it's not as bad as I imagined it to be, so if one day, you can't sleep and this is on TV, maybe you can give this a chance, but it's still up to you if you want to finish it or not, of course. ;-)
