By Josh Oakley
With Robin Hood,
Ridley Scott incorrectly posited that the world hungered for an origin story
surrounding its titular hero. The film was a creative bust, yawning from scene to
scene in a misguided attempt to transcribe the events that led to the creation
of folklore. Origin story fatigue, commonplace in the superhero world of
cinema, is far from the sole reason that The
Legend of Hercules makes Robin Hood seem
like a forgotten masterpiece. There’s also every other aspect of the film.
The incoherent semblance of a plot sees Hercules going off
to war after having an affair with the fiancée (Gaia Weiss) of his half-brother
(Liam Garrigan). The latter is more-punchable variation on Game of Thrones’ Joffrey, and the former, as I understand, is a
sheet of paper with gold squiggly lines drawn on for hair. Hercules eventually
finds him self in an underground wrestling ring that scoffs at the
homoeroticism of Fight Club. He makes his way home and is finally able to tap into the true,
crayon-drawn CGI lightening powers of his real father.
About those visual effects. The opening shot immediately
orients the viewer in a world more closely aligned with drawings adorning a
grad-school hallway than anything resembling real life. This is ostensibly a
live-action movie, though that classification operates under the assumption
that the actors are alive. But the CGI surrounding these “humans” (again,
merely a theory as to the race of the creatures populating this film) is
atrocious, particularly a lion that seems to have been ported from the Daniel
and the Den episode of Veggie Tales.
The action sequences, such as sword fights with infuriating bursts of slo-mo,
are bogged down with the flat, disgusting world surrounding them. Absolutely
nothing here can breathe in the slightest which hurts any richness or fun this
movie may have had.
There a litany of other issues, such as the fact that the supporting performances are so wretched that Lutz, the poor-man’s Sam Worthington (who already
belongs to the poverty-stricken), seems bearable in the context of those around
him. Also, it bandies about dialogue like “the arrangements may be
spoiled by the next harvest’s moon” with a grave seriousness. Not even the
January dumping ground works as an explanation for a film this lazily slapped
together. The Legend of Hercules is
effortless, in the worst possible way.
Grade: D-
Director: Renny Harlin
Writers: Daniel Giat, Renny Harlin, Sean Hood, Giulio Steve
Cast: Kellan Lutz, Gaia Weiss, Scott Adkins, Roxanne McKee, Liam Garrigan
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