Hercules (Brett Ratner, 2014): US
Reviewed by Richard Caine. Viewed on DVD.
Hercules (2014), Directed by Brett Ratner, is a film of the legendary character himself ‘Hercules’ as he is seeked for help through the King of Thrace. Ratner takes a big role in the film as his reputation carries him from past films he has directed such as Rush Hour (1998), Rush Hour 2 (2001), Tower Heist (2011). Hercules (Dwayne Johnson), isn’t the stereotypical film that was remade and based of Walt Disney’s animation story of the greek god overcoming opticals to get back into the world of where he belongs. Ratner filmed a majority of the scenes in Hungary, and spent almost $100,000,000 to create a piece of work that didn’t quite reach the expectations it was meant to having only grossed around $72,000,000. Film reviewers would deem the film as a failure based on the revenue it lacked in making, however after watching the film myself I enjoyed the effects that were in place and also the story line.
A problem for me would be however right from the very beginning, the lack of an introduction into this dark world makes it difficult to think about what’s going on. For me, it was another success for Actor Dwayne Johnson as it shows yet again that the genre of action would get him to be at his absolute best. As the film starts, you are automatically thrown into Hercules’ life. He is born, he is introduced as the son of Zeus, and is seen as a god from the start. Although the introduction is short, he goes from birth to beast within the first 5 minutes of the film. The opening fighting seen sees him fighting off Hydra, the beast of the sea, through one of his 12 Labours. He then goes onto fight the bore and the lion to prove his worth. The tale is spoken by his nephew who has been captured by pirates as they laugh at his ‘myth’. Hercules soon appears with the lion’s head on his back, and we are soon introduced to the rest of his clan. Amphiaraus (Ian McShane) Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011) and Autolycus (Rufus Sewell), A Knight’s Tale (2001) two notable actors take lead also during the film as being apart of the group that Hercules need’s in order to complete his task given to him from Lord Cotys (John Hurt) Alien (1979). His task was given to him in good need, however, as the plot unveils and we see a different side to Hurt’s character, the storyline is thrown off into a mislead direction causing controversy amongst the characters.
Dwayne Johnson has come a long way to say the least. Many years have now passed since his first departure of the WWE and onto the big screen. He has proven now, that 14 years after his on screen debut in The Scorpion King (2001), that he is now one of Hollywood’s biggest actor. Having being apart of the Fast and Furious films, Johnson has helped produced some of the biggest films that have reached our screen. More recently, Furious 7 (2015), grossed $147,187,040 in it’s first opening week becomes one of the most successful films that will be produced throughout the year. The film was set aside for a while before production started again, this time with one less character. The tragic death of Paul Walker in 2014 made it difficult to decide whether or not production should continue. In the end, it did, and Walker’s brothers Cody and Caleb stepped in along with CGI to complete the film. Johnson, in my eyes, will continue to create some big movies in the next coming years. His next film San Andreas (2015), will see Johnson’s character Ray, a rescue chopper pilot attempting to rescue his daughter but with the natural disaster of an earthquake standing in his way. Lets hope this movie turns out to be one of his better films!
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