Hercules - One great big silly, fun cliché

There’s nothing worse than a film that’s completely clichéd in every way.  Or at least I thought so until I watched ‘Hercules.’ It’s absolutely everything you’ve seen a thousand times before, therefore it’s a mystery as to why I enjoyed it as much as I did.

From what I hear it’s hardly based on fact (and when I say ‘fact’ I mean the Greek legend of Zeus and Mount Olympus etc).  Instead, it’s based on a comic book which, in turn, is based on the classic tale of Zeus’ half human-half god son, Hercules, and his adventures.  Seeing as I’ve completely forgotten everything I learned about Ancient Greece at school and I’ve never read the comic books, I can’t comment on how well it ties into whatever source material it’s based on.  However, I can tell you that – if you’re in the right frame of mind – it is quite good fun.

Dwayne ‘The sometimes Rock’ Johnson plays our titular character and he plays him with as much charm as you’d expect from our muscle-bound leading man.  Many have criticised him as an ‘actor,’ but then he doesn’t need to do an awful lot of soul-searching to find inspiration to smash every baddie he encounters in the face.  He does the job.  He’s cool.  He’s likable.  And he wipes the floor with monster he meets.

And Dwayne’s not alone in his quest.  Unusually, we get to see quite a lot of his mates, namely the band of warriors who follows him wherever he goes, generally picking off anyone who’s still alive after Herc has beaten an entire army to a pulp.  Yes, his homies are all walking clichés, but they’re also fun enough to root for and it’s simply nice to see that, despite being ‘part immortal’ on his father’s side, even Herc needs a chum or two to get things done.

Do you really need to know what they do?  There’s a baddie doing bad things.  Herc and co have to stop him.  Don’t bother wasting any more time on plot intricacies than that.

The film runs for an hour and a half and, if I’m honest, it actually feels a bit rushed.  If they’d added an extra 20-30 minutes of character development, they really could have made something quite epic (as opposed to a fun little B-movie).  Perhaps the worst thing about it is the computer-generated effects.  And they’re worse at the beginning.  Seriously, there are some scenes near the start that looked like they were created by a media student for his homework assignment (they do get better.  A bit).

If you want to know what sort of mind frame I was in when I watched this, I’ll tell you.  I was home from work with a cold.  I didn’t feel 100% and was wrapped up under a blanket as I watched Hercules and his posse kicking ass.  I didn’t want a deep and meaningful, heart-wrenching drama or anything I had to think about.  I just wanted a fun little action movie to rest my brain to.  And I got one.  If you find yourself in a similar state, this is the kind of movie that should nurse you back to full health.

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that