Hercules (2014) ***/5: A good film while you're watching but does not resonate after the credits roll. Too much of a moral fable and less of a genuine action adventure. Some of the testosterone charged moments ring false.

Hercules has always been one of my favourite super heroes. I wonder if it’s ok to call him a superhero. Heroes like Hercules would have been the prototypical superhero in the time of Ancient Greece although their morals were questionable and this placed them more on the level of tragic heroes. The pure morals held so dear by the superheroes of America would not necessarily apply to the tragic/dramatic Greek heroes. Regardless of that distinction I was taken with Greek myth before I turned to comic books and Hercules was clearly the greatest hero in that era. This is why I intended to watch this current release regardless of the quality. The Legend of Hercules (2013) was atrocious but it had little or no correlation to the original mythic tales. I looked forward to this film, Hercules,  because it appeared that they would be featuring some of his legendary adventures, particularly the famous 12 labours. I must admit that I was a bit disappointed although I understood the approach being taken by director Brett Ratner especially as the story was based on a comic book.  Instead of high adventure I was treated to a moral fable and this limited the film in many ways.

The story is about the legendary Hercules (Dwayne 'the rock' Johnson), the son of the Zeus(king of the gods), who is a wandering mercenary who leads a  team of fine  warriors that do various combat like services, such as violently defeating those that offended the paying party, for pieces of gold. He uses the legend of his name to strike fear into those who he must defeat on behalf of his employer. In what will hopefully be his last job, before he departs from Greece, he is commissioned by the king of Thrace to defeat the  warlord Rhesus who is said to be subjecting the outlying  territories to a merciless conquest. However things are never what they seem, a common theme in the film, and Hercules must assert himself as the man he was born to be.

Positives

The primary positive in this film is how Hercules is portrayed as a legend. It also makes you wonder about first impressions when you actually see the legend. The grand stories told about him by Iolaus, his nephew, serve to reinforce a grand image in the eyes of many but for the present, in the film, we are confronted by a man haunted by the past. His family were killed and you get to understand that many believe that he was responsible. Instead of the legend I would have preferred how the legend was born. The approach taken to fashion the legend of Hercules applies to other famous names in Greek myth. One can see that with how the centaurs are portrayed, what made the  Hydra so famous in the eyes of many and there is also a twist regarding the hound from hell, Cerberus. Things are never what they seem in this film although it is never explained why this is so. It’s as if most of the legends were mere concoctions and would correspond to a time when people were  limited in their mental scope.  It was a time however where people could be manipulated because anything that stood out in a forceful way would be very influential in a time when humans were bound to a very mild existence and the natural environment was still very awe inspiring in terms of its scope and it’s supposed secrets. The people in this film could not grasp things for what they were and so relied on first impressions, superstition, folktales and magic. No god of Greek myth is even featured in this film but you hear a lot about their great power. You get the impression that it is nature worship in its most grand form. It still does not explain how Hercules got his strength and so there must be some truth behind the legend.

Regardless of all these legends Hercules stands out and milks it for money.  You get the impression that he has sunk very low because when a man loses his heart in general social causes or movements and only takes care of himself it means that he is probably empty or broken mentally. Humans are social beings and so one who, by choice, has lost interest in being social it must be because  something happened to the individual that  forcibly took him/her away from the social scene. Hercules is such a man in this film because he does not do deeds to improve the social structure of human beings in general he does it primarily for his band of brothers and a sister so that they may receive payments in gold. They are ironically bound to a social cause of their own but it is a limited one.  I liked that for Hercules to redeem himself he must again become a part of a social movement because whether he likes it or not his deeds inspire people on a general basis.  This is a good element in the film although the film uses Hercules to channel yet another moral fable. When a man uses his individual talents to uplift himself and others it is likely that he will become a major force in society.  You become a force because your individual talents mean nothing if it is not demonstrated in the social scene or where others will be witnesses of your great exploits. You have to engage in the social scene to stand out on your own.

The action in this film was very good because I was looking forward to see how Hercules would demonstrate the use of his legendary strength. I was a bit disappointed in the demonstration by Hercules because there was no real test but the all round action was sufficient to keep you engaged.

Negatives

The primary negative of this film was that Hercules was not provided with a sufficient test for his abilities. He does exhibit his strength but based on the trailers I was expecting them to provide more detail of his legendary 12 labours. If they actually spent more time on his legendary labours this film would have been much more entertaining. It is the 12 labours that make Hercules legendary to this day and so only a scant reference of them at the beginning was a letdown. The feats that he performed throughout the film were a good demonstration of his legendary strength but they did not make him appear legendary in my eyes.  They could have crafted a better story around his labours and infuse it with the tragic element to highlight how he received redemption for his terrible crimes. In the brutal world of Greek myth you have to be prepared for heroes that are very shady and not as pure as superman. Basing this story on a graphic novel was a mistake because the graphic novels, for all their bloodletting, always exaggerate the hero’s qualities while denying all the negatives. This was very problematic for 300: Rise of an Empire.

The film was also limited as a moral fable.  It, therefore, seems that the story was limited to delivering a message. I never got the sense that the story was fully developed and this was why I was expecting the film to give Hercules more formidable challenges and to delve into the feats that made him great. When I saw the trailer I was impressed because this would have been the first film to actually address his 12 labours. No film has done so to this point and so when the opportunity does come they can actually explore the 12 labours and tie it into a form of rebirth. According to the original myth he undertook the 12 labours as a form of penance for murdering his children after being driven to madness by  the goddess Hera.  The labours were devised for him to achieve some form of salvation and redemption and afterwards his legend would be born and he would gain renown. Why not do a movie surrounding his 12 labours?  Instead Hercules becomes a vehicle to tell us about high moral values and how men can become like gods. I think there was a lot of room to make this film into an epic with fantastic creatures and featuring the gods on Mt. Olympus. Trying to make the film realistic and being a moral fable limited the amount of dynamics that could have been employed in telling a more complex tale surrounding tragedy and redemption. The moral fable makes it seem like a quick flyby film that does not resonate. It would have resonated if they did not rely on the moral fable and introduced some more complexities into the story.  Few Greek heroes are pure because what was considered a hero then was a person who performed extraordinary deeds.  Few of them had high moral values. The 12 labours of Hercules are significant because it was an excruciating form of redemption. There were a lot of issues that could have been raised as a result. Why even mention Cerberus as the 12th labour and allude that he will only find peace once he accomplishes it? I thought that this was the direction that would have been taken where the various labours represent a stepping stone to redemption. Similarly as they deconstructed the myth around Cerberus they could have done the same for the other labours.

I didn't like the twist to Greek myth. Firstly, how can Hercules come after Achilles and Odysseus who fought in the Trojan war. In  Greek myth the exploits of Hercules represented the peak of the Age of Heroes  just as his legendary form of death represented  its decline. Why present him in such a fashion? It was jarring and affected how I viewed the film. Hercules embodied all that was fantastic about Greek myth and so to present him in a time when all the great deeds have already been done cannot bring back the same aura. The only thing left is his strength.

I know the film is testosterone charged and from an action point of view ‘The Rock’ does deliver however there is a lot that does ring false. There is a scene, for instance, when Hercules exclaims, dramatically, ‘I am Hercules.’ It’s in the trailer so I am not spoiling anything here.  That particular scene is charged with testosterone and muscle but as a genuine source of inspiration for the audience it rings hollow.  I am also suspecting that it was the scene where Hercules was expected to rediscover what made him great in the first place.

In the end I was expecting a more fantastic journey and was looking forward to relive the exploits of the mighty Hercules. It is not enough for a film with such a big budget to be good while it lasted.