The Legend of Hercules

PG-13

Released Jan 10, 2014

1 hr. 38 min.

Adventure

Action

Fantasy

List

5%

82 Reviews

Tomatometer

33%

25,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

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.

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Critics Consensus

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.

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Georgianna C

Entertaining! Great fight scenes. Held my attention! Was really rooting for Hercules and Hebe!

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

04/19/24

Full Review

Carson P

An atrocious mess on every aspect it has no understanding of what the legend of the muscular warrior god is nor does it understand dumb fun action entertainment in fact it is far from that there is nothing entertaining, nor interesting to watch, the dialogue on every level is cringe inducing and poorly written, the acting is awful from top to bottom, there was not a single good performance from any of these actors, and plus it doesn't even look accurate to its source material of Greek mythology, nothing makes sense one point someone tells someone to come closer when they are already close enough to them to listen speak, there is soo much pointless slow motion that serves no purpose to the scenes, and when there is an event going on all the people seeing it look disinterested and don't look like they care making everyone look emotionless nor putting any effort to their respective roles. Such as that scene with Hercules being chained up and everyone watching doesn't look like they give a $$$$ and not to mention the look, framing, lighting and production design look so cheap and fake that it either looks visually ugly, or just downright lousy and unconvincing, everything from the water to the forests, horses, landscapes and buildings and ships look so fake it doesn't even look like they used anything to depict them. Oh yeah and there is also a bad CGI lion aka the nemeon lion which he fights that almost looks like a giant stuffed animal, and the fight choreography was so poor not just because of the Bad slo no and speed ups but that they just look boring, and unconvincing, with poor editing and disorienting angles and close ups. I even found there to be a scene when an incompetent fighter tries to stab him with a spear but instead shows that it tucked under his armpit, wow how incompetent and lazy was that not to mention the apponents of Hercules in that arena looked so laughable they looked like punk rockers and crust punk bikers with mohawks and sharp dressings. Worst of all is that the film almost feels like some love story which it has but there is no emotional feeling to it the charachters have no chemistry and it was so uninteresting and poorly written, who had the idea to add this to a movie. And that end scene when he used a fake looking lightning whip to wipe out his enemies and then fight the evil tyrant king that slayed every other greek king to become one himself was just so boring and painful to watch with more badly choreographed fight scenes and then showing his girlfriend having babies at the end even though she stabbed herself. It was just awful and the girlfriend princess was just so annoying and unlikeable that I actually wanted her to die and have Hercules loose the one he loved in fact I was actually roooting for Hercules to die and be killed he was just so unlikeable and wimpy here. How do they manage to butcher the charachter/god and make him look like a weakling I felt so bad for it. I walked out of the theater so bewildered and upset that I had to almost ask for my money back but just couldn't get it this movie was a beyond worthless shlockfest with no redeeming charachters whatsoever. Bassically they say movies that have action are made to entertain and have fun regardless if it has silliness to it resulting of them calling them dumb fun popcorn flicks but this was not like that at all even those dumb fun popcorn action film had more intelligence , good writing, dialogue, acting and directing to them as well as making some level of sense and having some level of brain/thought to it even if they were not deep thinking movies and were for the most part used as turn your brain off watches but this was not in that category at all it had no brain, no heart, no soul, and no meaning, or senseful thought to it it was a joyless, boring mess that was just made to ruin the Greek mythology genre or even the genre of sword and sandal fighting in genneral it even butchers the way older ones did it like gladiator and 300 especially gladiator that had some of the best fight scenes and the legend of Hercules looked like a much cheaper and poorly done version of that Renny Harlin cannot match any level of brilllianve Ridley Scott brought to the sword and sandal stadium fighting genre regardless of Roman or Greek this was made with none of the talent that Ridley Scott used to make well staged and realistically convincing fight scenes in gladiator, instead this was just a waste of time and money and just outraged all fans of the story of Hercules, it's soo poorly directed no wonder why Renny Harlin is considered such a terrible director he is almost uwe boll level bad and considering both him and boll are German they are alike already Harlin is a bad director without a single good film not even deep blue sea was good as it was just a knock off of jaws. He is a bad director on every aspect and here with ruining the story of Hercules this is probably his worst film yet. The good news is that there was a better version of it made the same year with Dwayne Johnson and directed by brett ratner watch that instead that one is the real Hercules and the one we have been waiting for to hit the big screen that one was far better made and was more accurate to the mythology, if you want to see a good Hercules movie that is made in this 21st century and has the realistic looks of the landscapes of it's Ancient Greek times see the Brett ratner version. Avoid the Renny Harlin one at all costs it is an Epic Fail with a Capital F Avoid it like the plague if you want to have your favorite Greek god respected and treated the way he is supposed to be depicted. This movie gets a Big Fat F

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

04/08/24

Full Review

Jet M

A bit cheesy at times but a very entertaining movie! Much better than these reviews would lead you to believe. A compelling love story, bad guys that you will love to hate, and a great hero.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/22/24

Full Review

Steven B

90 minutes of "Look, we have muscles! Wasn't there someone named Hercules who had muscles too?"

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

03/16/24

Full Review

John T

Very enjoyable. The "Happy Ending " was the only discordant note.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/14/24

Full Review

Ran S

I enjoyed the movie. Good action and great special effects. Light hearted fun with intensity. Predictable and not much following Hercules history, but fun. .

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/02/24

Full Review

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Renny Harlin

Director

Kellan Lutz

Hercules

Scott Adkins

King Amphitryon

Liam McIntyre

Sotiris

Liam Garrigan

Iphicles

Johnathon Schaech

Tarak

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Chris Stuckmann

ChrisStuckmann.com

This film should be removed from theaters as soon as possible to avoid damaging the brains of people who have the misfortune of seeing it.

Rated: F

Apr 23, 2015

Full Review

Mike McCahill

Guardian

No one seems to have high hopes for it - though it might well help to pass a wet afternoon when it shows up on Netflix 15 minutes from now.

Rated: 2/5

Mar 28, 2014

Full Review

William Goss

Empire Magazine

The lore of Hercules has spanned centuries, yet it's unlikely to ever see a more generic treatment on film than that of Renny Harlin's overblown origin story.

Mar 24, 2014

Full Review

Mike Massie

Gone With The Twins

With such minimal adherence to both the origins and famed labors recounted in Greek mythology, there's very little that relates it to the eponymous hero.

Rated: 6/10

Dec 4, 2020

Full Review

MaryAnn Johanson

Flick Filosopher

Lunkhead Kellan Lutz is the demigod's density in Renny Harlin's 300-lite, MST3K-ready retelling of the classical legend. Think Jesus with muscles, by the power of Greyskull.

Oct 3, 2020

Full Review

Debbie Lynn Elias

Behind The Lens

The Legend of Hercules - a Herculean effort and experience.

Jan 8, 2020

Full Review

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Synopsis

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.

Director: Renny Harlin
Executive Producer: Avi Lerner, Trevor Short, John Thompson
Screenwriter: Sean Hood, Daniel Giat
Distributor: Lionsgate Films
Production Co: Nu Boyana
Rating: PG-13 (Some Sensuality|Intense Combat Action|Violence)
Genre: Adventure, Action, Fantasy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jan 10, 2014, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 1, 2015
Box Office (Gross USA): $18.8M
Sound Mix: Datasat, Dolby Digital

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