Hercules wants to follow the footsteps of the self-proclaimed "historically accurate" movies like King Arthur or Kingdom of Heaven: it strips down the legend of the mythical-creature-fighting demigod to a skilled mercenary, who uses the help of his fellow warriors creating his fame. But at the same time the movie has a similar design to a 300- copycat: cheap dialogs, cheap sets, cheap costumes, weak characters, horrible acting (I mean, what the hell was Joseph Fiennes doing???) and pretentious slow-motion. Most of the battle are like they're from the pages of a comic book (of course, it IS a comic book adaptation, but still...): every swing of Dwayne Johnson's sword kills two or three of his enemies, one of his warriors can shoot 3 lethal arrows at the same time, and most of these things are just simply laughable. Although I must admit, while Brett Ratner's action scenes might not be the most creative, they look cool, and they deliver a little fun in this weak film.
So the main problem is, that while the movie wants us to take it seriously, and not to look like an immature fable, that's exactly what it turns out to be: a shallow, dumbed down, generic fantasy-blockbuster.
So the main problem is, that while the movie wants us to take it seriously, and not to look like an immature fable, that's exactly what it turns out to be: a shallow, dumbed down, generic fantasy-blockbuster.