The Legend of Hercules

The Legend of Hercules is a 2014 action-fantasy film directed by Renny Harlin (best known for the Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger and The Long Kiss Goodnight fame), written by Daniel Giat and Sean Hood and starring Kellan Luts, Gaia Weiss, and Scott Adkins. The film is about the mythological Greek hero/god of strength Heracles (known in the film by his Roman name Hercules).

Plot
As the son of Zeus, king of the gods, and a mortal woman, Hercules (Kellan Lutz) is blessed with extraordinary strength. Caught in a forbidden love, Hercules is exiled by his stepfather, the king, and sold into slavery. The legendary strongman endures harrowing battles and death matches in the gladiators' arena and must use his formidable powers to fight his way back to his rightful kingdom, overthrow its traitorous ruler and restore peace to the land.

Why It Sucks

 * 1) The story is poorly written and uninteresting.
 * 2) Terrible special effects that can look very video game-esque.
 * 3) Overuse of slow motion.
 * 4) Poor acting, especially from Kellan Lutz and Scott Adkins.
 * 5) The action scenes are forgettable.
 * 6) It rips off Gladiator, 300 and Clash of the Titans.
 * 7) Weak romance scenes.
 * 8) The costume designs look awful.
 * 9) Laughable dialogue.
 * 10) The film is derivative of several swords and sandal/Greek mythology movies.
 * 11) Poor grasp of Greek myths:
 * 12) Hebe is supposed to be Hercules' first love interest, but in the story, she was his fourth and final wife after he became immortal and was granted passage into Olympus. Not to mention, Hebe was the goddess of youth and not a mortal princess.
 * 13) After Hercules and his brother Iphicles head back to the castle, they battle the Nemean lion, when the battle with the Nemean lion took place much later in the timeline after Hercules decides to be a hero.
 * 14) Chiron is a mortal human instead of a centaur in the original myths.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) The movie is unintentionally hilarious.
 * 2) Hercules being betrayed by his stepfather and sold into slavery is emotional and heartbreaking.

Reception
The Legend of Hercules was universally panned by critics and audiences. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 5% based on 83 reviews, with an average rating of 2.70/10, based on 82 reviews. The site's consensus reads: "Cheap-looking, poorly acted, and dull, The Legend of Hercules is neither fun enough to qualify as an action movie nor absorbing enough to work on a dramatic level". On Metacritic, the film has a score of 22 out of 100, based on reviews from 19 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.

Box Office
The Legend of Hercules grossed $61.3 million worldwide against its $70 million budget resulting in it becoming a box office disaster.

Award and Nominations
The film was nominated for six Golden Raspberry Awards including Worst Picture and Worst Actor but lost all to Saving Christmas.

Videos
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Trivia

 * This film was one of two movies based on Hercules released in 2014. However, the second film, simply titled Hercules, which starred Dwayne Johnson as the titular character, was a box office success and fared better reviews than this film.
 * This is the second film based on classical mythology which stars Kellan Lutz. The first was Immortals, in which he starred as Poseidon.
 * Even though this film is based on Greek mythology, there is no Greek name among the actors in the entire cast list.
 * Hercules's love interest is called Hebe. In classical mythology, Hebe was the daughter of Zeus and Hera, goddess of youth and cup-bearer of Olympus. After Hercules died and ascended to Mount Olympus, Hera formed a truce with him and allowed him to marry her daughter.