MoeJackson

Photo Credit: Paramount
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The best thing I can say about the new Hercules is that it is infinitely better than the one starring Kellan Lutz that came, blew up and went a few months ago. That being said, it’s still a pretty forgettable film – and frankly pales in comparison to the only decent film on Herakles that Hollywood has ever made: Disney’s animated Hercules back in 1997.

This one tells us that the Hercules you know – the overly brawny, ass-kicking, ever-flexing son of god/Zeus – is really just a myth. He is kinda divine, but mostly that’s just good PR. He’s actually pretty mediocre in a battle and waits until the last possible moment before getting it all together and saving ancient Greece from endless varieties of foreign kings, Hydras and Hades.

There is very little plot in the film – it’s mostly just a collection of action sequences which are really just comprised of Dwayne Johnson flexing angrily over and over again. Johnson plays his part as best he can with his trademark self-effacing charm . . . though why they didn’t cast an actual Greek in the role escapes me. Still, he’s mostly believable when one suspends disbelief.

The show belongs, however, to the scenery-chewing performance by Joseph Fiennes, who plays an effete European king who wants to vanquish Hercules. The performance is taken just to the edge of absurdity and then pulled back, played with such gusto and fervent joy that it makes this routine action blockbuster intermittently watchable.