Hercules (2014) Review

Hercules is ripe with flaws, has a weak cast and an even worse director. There isn't much story at all, but two movie elements make up for, and even outweigh everything that went wrong with Hercules. Those two would be: The Action and the Characters. Let's start with the characters. Notice how I didn't say the action, the characters, and the performances? Yeah, Dwayne Johnson hasn't really gripped what acting is yet, but he can play a kick-a*s hero. John Hurt doesn't succeed at being likeable at first, and isn't evil enough in the end. That actor is pretty good, but he didn't bring any of his talents when filming Hercules. Everyone else, though, did a pretty good job. Especially Ian McShane as the funny guy in an action movie. Funny, not hilarious. The characters were pretty good. The villain were downright awful, Rhesus wasn't evil, intimidating, or skilled in any way. Eurystheus was too short and too cowardly. Cotys was just an annoying b*tch who couldn't do anything right. The protagonists, were much better. It was an action movie with a sense of humor, which I like, and most marvel films are doing that these days, so each character spat out some joke that was decently funny every once in a while. (Except for Hercules).This right away made me like the characters. The characters were mostly well-spoken, especially Ian McShane's, and Atalanta works perfectly as an action heroine. Unlike the villains, the heroes were skilled in battle. Every hero worked together to make awesome action battles, and fantastic killings. Unfortunately, there's no story and meaning to it, but Hercules was extremely fun at the moment. The ending was far from perfect, but it worked. And you know what I'd like to see that would help get criticism away from Hercules: a prequel starring just Dwayne Johnson being in all the myths that were talked about but never (or briefly) shown. And ramp up the action, add in an actual story, get a better cast, replace the director, and make scarier villains. We'll call it Hercules: The Twelve Labors with a release date of July 21, 2017. I'm excited for it.
Movie Rating: B+