Hercules (2014) [Blu-ray]

Last summer saw a rebirth of the Hercules legend with its genesis in Hollywood with Mr. America/Pro. Universe, Steve Reeves (the muscle man who was featured in comic books that created a generation of bullied youths who took up the sport with the view of payback) which later featured Arnold Schwarzenegger's role model as an aspiring bodybuilder in Austria, the next major champion to defeat Steve Reeves as Mr. Pro. Universe, U.K.'s Reg Park (who was given first class travel arrangements and accommodations for his role), which will later be played by Lou Ferrigno (who had the most successful run of Hercules movies and whom most cinema audiences associate with the Hercules franchise), a role which Arnold will later assume in the box office flop Hercules in New York; given the fact that the last Hercules movie featuring Arnold was in the seventies, Renny Harlin figured it was time to reboot the entire franchise with a box office flop entitled, The Legend of Hercules, in the same manner that Rupert Wyatt deemed necessary to reboot the critically acclaimed Planet of the Apes franchise that was based on Pierre Boulle's Ape Planet, which had a successful run in the seventies as a box office trilogy and was serialized for TV - given its unsuccessful reboot as a franchise by Tim Burton, resulting in a similar reboot to the Hercules franchise this summer in a phenomenal box office hit by Brett Ratner, featuring awesome CGI by Double Negative, and the most awesome physique since Arnold and Lou - with Dwayne Johnson, playing Hercules and the handsome Ingrid Bolso Berdal playing Atalanta, the only female heroine, with Hercules being commissioned by King Eurystheus to serve as protector of Rome to defeat twelve mythical creatures that was threatening the empire, which was supposedly sent by his father, Zeus' wife, Hera, to task Hercules owing to jealousy over her husband having mated with a mortal woman, Hercules' mother, Alcmene, following which he butchered Hercules's family and spread rumors to the effect that Hercules had butchered his wife, Megara, and their children, and, having done so, banished Hercules from Rome, following which Hercules transforms into a mercenary for hire and finds himself being commissioned by Lord Coty to train an army of peasant to rise against Rhesus (which gave birth to Obama and John Kerry's strategy in Syria and Iraq) - who was the only one who rose in protest against Lord Cotys after he has poisoned Ergenia's husband to claim the throne, with Hercules, eventually, uncovering the truth from Ergenia and turning against Lord Cotys, who was colluding with King Eurystheus in an attempt at world conquest, and, having done so, discovering Hercules defying him, and unearthing the truth about what King Eurystheus did to his family, and, thereby, turning against the invincible army he had trained and successfully defeating them, defying the prediction of his oracle, Amphiaraus - who had prophesized Hercules' and his own death, thereby, claiming his rightful place as the legend of a true hero, which resides in each and everyone one of us as Mariah Carey implied in her song, Hero.

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I guess I hit the jackpot so-to-speak. I received a Best Buy version with the exclusive bonus disc and extended cut. Even the old digital code still worked that states it may expire on 11/4/2016). 5 stars for the version received, 3.5 stars for the movie. Not sure Dwayne Johnson was the right fit, but the 3D was awesome.

Good movie. An entertaining story of Hercules.

One of the most interesting thing about mythology is considering: what people or events might have inspired legends of gods, heroes and monsters?That question seems to have inspired "Hercules," the second movie about the Grecian strongman in less than a year... and thankfully, it involves no bleached-haired "Twilight" actors. Instead, this simple and cheesy yet action-packed story depicts a "realistic" Hercules played by the charismatic Dwayne Johnson, who is one of the few men alive who actually LOOKS like Hercules.In this movie, Hercules (Johnson) is the leader of a band of mercenaries -- including an Amazon warrior, a thief, a feral berserker and a seer who is waiting for his death to turn up -- who take on ridiculously difficult tasks. Hercules' nephew Iolaus (Reece Ritchie) works PR for them, spreading stories of how Hercules is supposedly the offspring of Zeus, explaining his ridiculously awesome strength. The reality is a bit more tragic, as indicated in flashbacks to his pre-merc days to a wife and children who have just two days until retirement.Then Hercules is approached by Ergenia (Rebecca Ferguson), a Thracian princess whose dad Cotys (John Hurt) wants him to train his army to resist the warlord Rheseus (Tobias Santelmann). Hercules and his compatriots successfully fix up the rather pathetic army into a successful fighting force, and even lead them into battle... but soon Hercules begins to suspect that he and his followers have been tricked into being on the wrong side."Hercules" is a pure popcorn movie -- it has no pretensions of being deep or artistic, and while it's not a great movie, it's not a bad one either. It's basically a movie devoted to big smashy-shooty battles full of fire and Hercules hitting things with a club. And it doesn't take itself seriously, giving the characters a lot of funny moments ("Excuse me, that was my fate!") until things go dark at the climax.And it is an interesting exercise in whatiffery: what if the legends of Hercules were based on a real man with abnormal strength? Fortunately, Brett Ratner doesn't try to make it TOO realistic, mainly by giving everything an over-the-top atmosphere -- sort of a lighter, less stylized "300" feel. It's handled in a manner cheesy enough to make it amusing, but not so cheesy that it becomes ridiculous.And Dwayne Johnson... well, is there any other actor better suited to playing Hercules? He's huge, he has big muscles, he's good at one-liners, and he has buckets of charisma that just make him darn likable. But he's also able to handle the tragedy of Hercules' past nicely, and conveys his grief despite us seeing almost nothing of Herc's wife and kids.That said, Johnson is the only main character who gets a lot of development -- out of his whole posse, only McShane's character gets more than a single character trait (Autolycus = greedy, Tydeus = animalistic, Atalanta = female), and they have some nice bonding moments. The other actors are quite good, but not given much, though Ferguson has a decent role as a sorta-kinda-maybe love interest, whose young son adores Hercules.As for the villains... well, they're so cartoonishly evil that it becomes ridiculous. Joseph Fiennes is almost comically bad here, campily snickering and smarming until you wish he had a Snidely Whiplash mustache just so he could twirl it. Not since the "Twilight" movies have I been so... AMUSED by a villain."Hercules" isn't a great movie, but it's probably the best Hercules movie in decades -- wry, action-packed and with a clever meta-mythic twist. It's definitely worth a watch when you want some fiery, over-the-top action.