Great Supernatural Epic With Great Action Scenes And Comedy

"Surprisingly good. Dialog could use some work, but great action scenes and comedy. It knows what it's going for, and hits the spot."

Watch Hercules Online. In Greek mythology, Heracles was the product of Zeus getting his Mt. Olympus freak on with a mortal woman. Heracles was named to honor his philandering daddy’s angry wife, Hera, but her vengeance had dire consequences for the future hero. Hera drove him insane, at which point Heracles murdered his wife and children. After regaining his sanity and realizing the horrible nature of his crime, Heracles accepts as penance the famous labors most of us know about from high school English class. These included defeating the Nemean Lion, the hydra and the Erymanthian boar.

This was the legend I expected from Brett Ratner’s “Hercules.” Instead, I and the 12 other people who showed up for last night’s screening were treated to yet another comic book adaptation by studios desperate to hang on to its stereotypical core market of men in states of arrested development. I know nothing about the Radical Comics series upon which this is based, but I sincerely hope it is not the half-assed, warmed over “300” rip-off its cinematic counterpart is. Watching “Hercules,” you can feel your intelligence being insulted in almost every frame.

Watch Hercules 2014 Online. Shorn of the graphic violence and blatant homoeroticism that made “300” gore-soaked camp, the PG-13 rated “Hercules” is left with poorly rendered CGI battles and a fear of any semblance of darkness. There’s also the potentially interesting idea of how one man’s legend can shape the minds and actions of many, but “Hercules” is afraid of that too. For all its violence, “Hercules” coddles you, protecting you from any kind of complex or sad emotion the material might inspire. It’s so afraid of upsetting you that it can’t even give its most interesting character the noble death it so beautifully sets up for him. Even the character is pissed off about this.

Ratner dispatches with the labors in the pre-credits sequence of the film, turning them into a story told by Hercules’ nephew Iolaus (Reece Ritchie). Iolaus is being held hostage by a band of pirates who suspend him over a long, jagged spear of rock aimed at his nether regions. “Hercules” posits that the legends of its titular hero have the power of scaring men into submission, but these pirates temporarily prove the exception. “That’s bulls—t,” one of the pirates exclaims after hearing of the Nemean lion.

Of course, Hercules (Dwayne Johnson) makes his entrance wrapped in the lion’s hide. Ratner shoots this as if Johnson were on the runway of a fashion show at Ernest Hemingway’s house. Clad in fur and covered in smoke, Hercules announces his new role as mercenary for anyone willing to pay his price. He is joined by a crew of people including Amphiaraus the Oracle (Ian McShane) and an Amazonian archer (Ingrid Bolsø Berdal) who should have “Katniss Everdeen” tattooed across her beautiful forehead.

After dispatching the pirates and saving his nephew from a stalagmite-like enema, Hercules’ next job for hire is at the behest of Lord Cotys (John Hurt, putting a much hammier spin on his "Snowpiercer" character). Cotys wants to stop the terrible reign of Rhesus (Tobias Santelmann), a leader who supposedly possesses otherworldly powers of persuasion and an animal-like appearance that, in a case of missed opportunity, is not that of a monkey. Hercules complains that Cotys’ army is far too untalented to face Rhesus, but a payment worth twice Hercules’ weight in gold changes Hercules’ mind. Cue numerous scenes of The Rock as Hercules as General Patton, speechifying and pacing before leading his hapless motley  crew of an army into war.

Mythological heroes have undergone numerous changes throughout history, so there’s barely a shred of justification in complaining about how far away a story strays from its most well-known incarnation. However, I must grasp that shred to illustrate my point about how depressingly infantile “Hercules” is. Out of nowhere, Ratner and his editors suddenly insert bloody images of children and women being murdered. This flashback is so poorly edited that it’s never clear what’s happening, though it ends with a direct rip-off of Kubrick’s "The Shining."

Since “Hercules” had strayed so far from the legend, I was surprised the film would include Hera’s horrific revenge on Hercules’ family. These images torture Hercules whenever they appear, threatening to give the character some complexity. To Johnson’s credit, he attempts to play these moments in agonized fashion—he believes he has murdered his family. It’s all for naught: Screenwriters Ryan Condal and Evan Spiliotopoulos work out an absurd loophole of absolution, pinning the murders on a three-headed dog instead of Hercules. The three-headed dog also turns out to be a hallucination; it’s actually three separate dogs. Responding to this development, the guy behind me at the theater let out a fierce snore. I envied him.

Like Arnold Schwarzenegger before him, Dwayne Johnson was born to play Hercules. Like Ah-nuld, he’s muscular and not without an onscreen chemistry that’s at times perfectly mythological. And Johnson is a welcome change from the Nordic ideal mythical movies usually employ. It’s too bad that Hercules 2014 comes off as a supporting character in his own story. The armies do most of the fighting, and when there’s quiet, Johnson has to share the screen with his team. The movie is stolen by McShane’s oracle, who is the recipient of the aforementioned noble near-death scene, and Tydeus (Aksel Hennie), a warrior so scarred by violence that he is more animal than human. Tydeus’ backstory, which “Hercules” only hints at, is far more interesting than anything we’re following in the present.

The CGI is absolute garbage, and Dante Spinotti’s cinematography is depicted as a muddy mess through the 3D glasses. Yet, there’s one moment that not only proves how little the filmmakers gave a damn but also saves this film from the no-star review it truly deserves. One of the villains is hit by the gigantic head of a statue of Hera that crumbles when Hercules pulls it down. The camera gives us a great look at the impact which, had physics been consulted, would have resulted in a juicy, delicious splatter. Instead, the villain not only remains intact after impact, he also rides the head off a cliff into oblivion. I laughed so hard I woke up the guy behind me. He was not happy.

Hercules 2014 Movie Does A Great Impression

Generally, Hercules "the Rock" does a great impression, but nor is it a piece of garbage. With a little lighter mood and without prejudices can and have fun!

Watch Hercules Online. The first shock came in the introduction of the film when the labors of Hercules announced and played very quickly giving the authority based on the continuity of fiction with new stories.

The truth is that I do not remember to have ever seen a good transfer of this famous ancient Greek myth in cinema. The latest fad is to embody Hercules wrestlers wrestling as the recent Hercules Reborn (John Hennigan). In which case the notification that the new film will be played by Dwayne Johnson (popular wrestler and he's wrestling) fears were exacerbated.

So what are the pros and cons? Very positive impression left by good cinematography, especially in panoramic shots with the army to emerge in all its splendor. The digital effects and 3d is also very well designed and inevitably give a taste of videogame but fits perfectly with the aesthetic and the final result. In less now is definitely the flat acting Johnson. Although they try to "penetrate" the hero the result in my opinion is very moderate. Also in the comic piece of film there are several awkward as funny quotes show that roughly written just to exist. In this scenario there are various twists course without causing particular excitement.

How many of you after reading about a new movie about Hercules with Dwayne Johnson as the protagonist were dismayed to find himself in front of a nobody like Kellan Lutz as the hero more cinematic mythology of Ancient Greece? Do not worry, Hercules 2014 - The Warrior will be released in almost all over the world on July 25, while in our country it will be the movie event of August, since the release is scheduled for August 13.

because it is not the same movie. We got to talking (male) at the time of Hercules - The legend begins, released with great fanfare last February and resoundingly rejected by the public at the box office, but do not fear those who love epic adventures and action-packed, because this Hercules - The Warrior, one of the hottest titles of the summer film 2014, it is quite another thing to start by director Brett Ratner already author of excellent films such as X-Men - The Last Stand until you get to a respectable cast drove right by Dwayne Johnson and enriched by the presence of Joseph Fiennes, Ian McShane, Rufus Sewell, John Hurt and Joe Anderson, the beautiful Rebecca Ferguson and Ingrid Berdal bOLSO, the wrestler Tamina Snuka and hear-hear the onset of the film supermodels Barbara Palvin Irina Shayk and to the delight of the male audience the main receptor of this type of product.

An Incredible Greek Hulk in Hercules as Hired Warrior

This is Hercules as hired warrior, Herc the Merc, an incredible Greek hulk whose “half-man, half-god” story is declaimed, loudly, to one and all by his brash press-agent of a nephew, Iolaus

Watch Hercules 2014 Online :  This is the world of “Hercules,” a B-movie with a hint of “300-Lite” about it. Directed by Brett “I almost ended the X-Men” Ratner and starring Dwayne “Why didn’t they cast me in this ten years ago?” Johnson, it’s a brief, violent and narrowly-focused tale of a Hercules utterly removed from myth.

Iolaus weaves tales of Herc’s 12 labors, his battles with the hydra and gigantic boars and lions. This impresses those who would hire Hercules and his mercenary sidekicks. And theoretically, at least, it intimidates his enemies. Who wants to fight a fellow whom Zeus sired, a man who cannot be killed?

Regarding those “sidekicks” — news to me, too. “In legend, you fight alone,” those meeting the man complain. Herc likes to keep his saga single-handed, for PR sake. But in this tale of the man mountain, he has wily knife-thrower Autolycus (Rufus Sewell), Amazon archer Atalanta (Ingrid Bolsø Berdal), the mute berserker Tydeus (Aksel Hennie) and wizened spear-wielding seer Amphiaraus (Ian McShane) as his crew.

When the King of Thrace (John Hurt) and his hot daughter-in-law (Rebecca Ferguson) need help fighting a warlord, they offer to pay Hercules “twice your weight in gold.”

To which Autolycus cracks, “Eat up.”

The rapists and pillagers confronting Thrace are numerous, tall, bald and painted green.

Watch Hercules Online : “Look at me,” Hercules barks. “Do I look afraid?” Johnson leaves his eyebrow arching bit behind for this action epic, and that’s a pity. The humor is what works best, and most of the funny bits go to McShane, playing a seer who knows when he’s supposed to die, and how — or thinks he knows — and Sewell, every bit McShane’s match in landing a punchline.

What Ratner has turned out here is a myth with all the mythology stripped from it. This 98 minute film has three decent battles in it, and a long training sequence where the Thracians are prepared for battle. Why make a Hercules movie about that?

He’s haunted by the deaths of his family, tormented by visions of the three-headed dog from Hades. Yes, they tell you it’s Cerberus, just in case you slept through that class in school.

Joseph Fiennes shows up as the King of Athens, along with a klatch of character players you’ll recognize. The production team does a swell job of recreating the ancient citadels of the fourth century, B.C.E.

But for all the fun these folks could have had with Hercules maintaining the supernatural assistance facade, or denying it as his handlers gild his lily testifying that it’s true, the movie is content to just go through the motions. Ratner doesn’t so much as ask his actors to walk and talk at the same time. Perhaps the digitally-augmented sets demanded it, but players standing still, staring into each other’s eyes and delivering pep talks, trash talk, threats and jokes to each other is dull and stagy — bad theater.

And Johnson, in a role he was buffed up to play, seems more inclined to go through the motions than his colleagues. At 42, he’s still got the bulk, but the grace of movement is gone, along with the eagerness, the twinkle in the eye and the cocked-eyebrow that always let us know he was in on the joke. “Hercules” was plainly just a paycheck, repayment for all those years in the gym, and in every scene, Johnson reminds us of that.

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for epic battle sequences, violence, suggestive comments, brief strong language and partial nudity

Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Ian McShane, Rufus Sewell, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, John Hurt, Joseph Fiennes

Credits: Directed by Brett Ratner, written by Ryan Condal and Evan Spiliotopoulos. A Paramount MGM release.

Running time: 1:38

Cover Story The Drive and Despair of The Rock

COVER STORY The Drive (and Despair) of The Rock (Hercules 2014 Super-actor)

You'll have to say one thing for Brett Ratner's production of Hercules: This movie has a sense of proportion. Running just over 90 minutes, the movie is often clunky, but at least it's fast and unpretentious. And its likable star, Dwayne Johnson, manages to murder legions without ever seeming sadistic. Less violent than 300, less compelling than Gladiator, this new addition to the sword-and-sandals genre seems likely to please the fanboy audience and stir up some impressive box-office numbers.

Watch Hercules Online Streaming : The film begins by recounting the legend of Hercules, with snippets of his famous 12 labors. But this is not the Steve Reeves version of the tale. Johnson's Hercules (as envisioned by comic book author Steve Moore) is a flawed hero. Bereft over the murders of his wife and children, Hercules has joined up with a band of loyal comrades who will basically sell their services to the highest bidder. In other words, they're mercenaries. But you can bet it won't be too long before Hercules rediscovers a noble purpose. That happens when he is enlisted by the lovely daughter of the lord of Thrace to save her kingdom from civil war. Let the mayhem begin.

The story has a few twists up its sleeve, as heroes turn out to be treacherous and villains are more complex than first appearances suggest. There's just enough plot to keep the movie lurching forward, and there are plenty of battle scenes to delight connoisseurs of carnage. (The movie's PG-13 rating seems fairly lenient.) One problem with these battle scenes is the frenetic editing, an unfortunate staple of contemporary action pictures. On the positive side, the sets (by production designer Jean-Vincent Puzos, who also designed one of Ratner's favorite movies, Amour) are impressive, and the crowd scenes, even if enhanced by CGI, stir happy memories of films like Spartacus and Ben-Hur.

Watch Hercules Online : The classy cast also elevates the picture. Ian McShane gives a droll performance as a soothsayer who's always surviving predictions of his own death. John Hurt is working in the glorious tradition of Claude Rains in The Adventures of Robin Hood while Joseph Fiennes is doing a Basil Rathbone as his venal confederate. As the one woman in the troupe of mercenaries, Ingrid Bolso Berdal wields a mean bow and arrow. Tobias Santelmann (star of the Norwegian Oscar nominee Kon-Tiki) has an imposing presence as Hercules' antagonist-turned-ally.

Some of these actors have won awards, but a trip to the dais is not likely to be in the future for our star. Still, Johnson plays his role with good humor and more conviction than Steve Reeves could ever muster. When he finally breaks free of his chains and bellows, “I am Hercules 2014,” the audience responds with just the right degree of childish glee.

There are some neat 3-D effects, but as with so many recent 3-D offerings, the format doesn't seem absolutely essential. The cinematography by Ratner's frequent collaborator Dante Spinotti is vibrant, and the musical score by Fernando Velazquez is rousing. Most important, the pacing is snappy. It may sound like a backhanded compliment to praise this sometimes cheesy movie for never taking itself too seriously, but in a summer of bloated spectacles, this modesty should not be underestimated. 

Production: Paramount, MGM, Flynn Pictures

Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Ian McShane, John Hurt, Rufus Sewell, Joseph Fiennes, Tobias Santelmann, Ingrid Bolso Berdal, Peter Mullan, Rebecca Ferguson

Director: Brett Ratner
Screenwriters: Ryan J. Condal, Evan Spiliotopoulos; based on the graphic novel by Steve Moore
Producers: Brett Ratner, Beau Flynn, Barry Levine
Executive producers: Peter Berg, Sarah Aubrey, Ross Fanger, Jesse Berger
Director of photography: Dante Spinotti
Production designer: Jean-Vincent Puzos
Costume designer: Jany Temime
Editors: Mark Helfrich, Julia Wong
Music: Fernando Velazquez Rated PG-13, 98 minutes

Hercules 2014 is out to entertain you

Plot

Having completed all (but one) of his legendary labours and built up a mythical reputation as a superhuman demi-god, Hercules (Johnson) works as a roving mercenary alongside a motley bunch of merry men (and one woman). But when is hired by Lord Cotys of Thrace (Hurt) to take on an army of deadly marauders, things get problematic.

Review
Watch Hercules Online Putlocker : Based on the graphic novel by Steve Moore, Brett Ratner’s Hercules (boy, we love typing those three words) aims to show us the real Greek hero: the man rather than the demi-god, the truth rather than the legend. Yet this is no grim, gritty, ‘Nolanized’ rethink of the popular ancient myth. Of course it isn’t. This is Brett Ratner’s Hercules. And you know what? It’s way more fun than shovelling divine-cattle dung.

Speaking of which, it begins with, and pivots around, a great in-joke. Any scene featuring an obviously CG monster (hydra, giant boar, burly lion) is revealed as being bullshit. Made-up. As any audience member would expect from watching The Rock take on an obviously CG monster. It’s a neat, expectation-undercutting visual trick that we’re pretty sure is deliberate. Those Twelve Labours? Flagrantly embellished, to increase our hero’s currency as a hired sword (well, club). Meanwhile, until the final act at least (and aside from the occasional wide- or aerial shot), Hercules’ battles are impressively practical: good ol’ fashioned human-on-human rough-housing with only minor digital augmentation. Ratner keeps it real. (Well, mostly.)

Watch Hercules 2014 Online : Despite loping around in the Steve Reeves-superplus form of Dwayne Johnson, this Hercules ain’t Olympian. He couldn’t achieve nearly as much without his pals, a Mythnificent Seven (minus one), if you will. And they’re a fun crew to hang with, including Rufus Sewell’s knife-throwing Autolycus and his dry asides; Ingrid Bolsø Berdal’s Amazon archeress Atalanta — aka Legolass; and Ian McShane serving up succulent ham on a giant-spear kebab as the amusingly precognitive old-timer Amphiaraus. There is also Aksel Hennie from Headhunters as a mute berserker. He’s not The Rock, but he rocks.

The surprising thing is that Johnson himself is the dourest of this lot, having to suffer throughout those ever-inevitable inner demons. It’s a shame we’re not seeing him do the loud, braggart version of Hercules who was so much fun in Jason And The Argonauts. Still, Ratner’s a savvy enough showman to gift him a few brilliant zingers. Our favourite? “Fucking centaurs.”

Pushing the 12A rating as far as it can, this is brisk, brutal, silly (in a good way) pulp entertainment, whose clunky exposition and continuity errors can be easily forgiven. Harder to swallow is the way it lets its own central conceit down during a blandly OTT and muscle-headed final blast. Still, while it may not be Conan The Barbarian (1982), it’s certainly far superior to Conan The Barbarian (2011).

Verdict

With Hercules, Brett Ratner and Dwayne Johnson are out to entertain you — no more, no less. And that is just what they do.

He is Hercules: hear him roar like comic book superhero

Today’s comic-book superheroes are the modern equivalent of Greek Gods, so why not a swords-and-loincloths bedecked origin story for the nattily clad Batmans, Spider-Mans and X-Men now conquering our screens? Watch Hercule 2014 Online Below:

Only Hercules is also an origin story unto itself – based on the Radical Comics title, it offers the truth behind the myth by presenting the fashioning of a warrior who, for all his strength and courage, is flesh and blood. The action opens with a captured soldier warning his aggressors they will face the wrath of Hercules (Dwayne Johnson kitted with a shoulder-length wig), a demi-god who defeated Hydra, a gigantic boar and a lion to make Asgard tremble as he passed a dozen labours to earn immortality. “What a load of crap,” comes the reply. Man, god of man-god, however, there can be no doubting Hercules’ skill with a sword, and he’s promised his weight in gold by the ruler of Thrace, Lord Cotys (a bushy goatee with John Hurt attached), should he lend his muscle to defeating an evil warlord.

Watch Hercules 2014 Online : ‘Brett Ratner’s Hercules’ are words to strike fear into the bravest of hearts but this is more sly and sprightly than we had any right to expect. Maintaining a neat balance of camp and solemnity, it sees Hercules and his band of trusted allies (Rufus Sewell, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Ian McShane, Askel Hennie) rattle through Greece on the kind of odyssey Homer might have scribbled if he had ADD, stopping off en route for a training montage as Hercules whips Cotys’ depleted army of farmers into shape, and engaging in three big battles – dynamic flurries of swords, shields, arrows, scythes, axes, whips, clubs and spears.

The visuals are often murky but the CGI and 3D are decent, and helicopter shots over rocky mountains bring something of a Lord Of The Rings-style scope to the proceedings.

Still, if it's awe you're after, look no further than Joseph Fiennes' flowing ringlets - the best bad haircut since Princess Leia showed off her buns.

He is Hercules: hear him roar. Pec-oil supplies plummet as the great muscly hero of classical antiquity arrives on the big screen, played by Dwayne Johnson "The Rock" Johnson, in glistening semi-nudity. Brett Ratner's cheerfully ridiculous and entertaining film begins by saying that he is "the son of Zeus – the Zeus!" That's in case there's any confusion and someone blunders up to our hero mid-battle, and says how much they enjoyed his dad's masterpiece The Cat in the Hat.

Yet the film restricts his fabled 12 labours to the opening sequence, and does not dwell on the yucky business of cleansing the Augean stables. It is with tongue in cheek that it focuses on his post-labours career and suggests the stories of those origins may not be literally true, but vital for helping him to believe in himself, and fight the good fight.

What a lesson there is for all of us. Hercules is avowedly the demigod leader of a crew of tough-guy mercenaries, a magnificent seven or so samurai of A-Team Expendables, including the seer Amphiaraus (Ian McShane), the droll Autolycus (Rufus Sewell), super-sexy archer Atalanta (Ingrid Bolsø Berdal), brutish Tydeus (Aksel Hennie) and his silver-tongued nephew, Iolaus (Reece Ritchie), a beardless youth who longs to prove himself in battle.

The king of Thrace (played, slightly inevitably, by John Hurt) hires the crew to defend his lands against sinister marauders, but there is something strange going on in their own camp, and it has something to do with the king's iffy general, played by Peter Mullan. There were no cigars in those days, but if there were, Hercules might well have felt the need to spark one up; instead, he must content himself with other alpha-male mannerisms, such as removing from around his neck the tooth from the Nemean lion he defeated, and presenting it to a wide-eyed little boy who hero-worships him.

There are some rousing battle scenes, preceded by stirring addresses on the subject of going to Elysium – all cheekily borrowed from Ridley Scott's Gladiator, the 2000 film that did so much to revive the swords'n'sandals genre.

See the classical hero to how to defend the king of Thrace

Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson plays the classical hero leading a squad of mercenaries to defend the king of Thrace

 

Watch Hercules Online. Strap on your swordbelt, buckle your sandals and oil up your rippling six-pack, because here comes yet another interminable, CGI-drenched mythic mish-mash with far more money than brain cells. Dwayne Johnson (we’re no longer allowed to call him The Rock) plays the title character who – in this loose adaptation of Steve Moore’s comic book series – is a mercenary warrior who uses inflated tales of his divine parentage and epic labours to psych out his enemies. Hired – along with a ragtag band of sidekicks who include a seer (Ian McShane), a wisecracking archer (Rufus Sewell) and a Swedish ninja with dreadlocks (Ingrid Bolsø Berdal) – to defend the kingdom of Thrace against a mysterious enemy, Hercules soon finds his past coming back to haunt him in the form of Joseph Fiennes sporting a worrying blond mullet.

Hercules 2014 : Given that its director is the widely derided Brett Ratner (‘Rush Hour’, ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’), it’s no great surprise that ‘Hercules’ is a complete mess: the plot barely hangs together, the characters are meagrely sketched and the 3D digital effects are plasticky, indistinct and wearying to look at. The script contains a handful of decent comic asides and there’s one great mid-battle moment where Herc throws a horse, but on the whole this is decidedly non-legendary.

Film Review: 'Hercules'

Watch Hercules Online Megshare : Reviewed at AMC Loews Lincoln Square, New York, July 23, 2014. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 97 MIN.

Production

A Paramount release presented with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures of a Flynn Picture Co. production in association with Radical Studios. Produced by Beau Flynn, Barry Levine, Brett Ratner. Executive producers, Ross Fanger, Jesse Berger, Peter Berg, Sarah Aubrey.

Crew

Directed by Brett Ratner. Screenplay, Ryan J. Condal, Evan Spiliotopoulos, based on Radical Comics’ “Hercules” by Steve Moore. Camera (color, Arri Alexa HD widescreen), Dante Spinotti; editors, Mark Helfrich, Julia Wong; music, Fernando Velazquez; production designer, Jean-Vincent Puzos; supervising art director, Jason Knox-Johnston; senior art director, Robert Cowper; art directors Tom Still, Bence Erdelyi; set decorator, Tina Jones; costume designer, Jany Temime; sound (Datasat/Dolby Atmos), Mac Ruth; sound designers, Tim Chau, Clayton Weber; supervising sound editor, Tim Chau; re-recording mixers, Tim Chau, Chris Burdon; visual effects supervisor, John Bruno; visual effects producer/supervisor, Dean Wright; visual effects, Double Negative, Cinesite, Method Studios, Prime Focus World, Milk VFX, Utopia VFX, Nvizible, Halo, Perpetual Motion Pictures; special effects supervisor, Neil Corbould; supervising stunt coordinator, Greg Powell; stunt coordinator/fight coordinator, Allan Poppleton; associate producer, Hiram Garcia; assistant directors, Jeff Authors, Chris Carreras; second unit director/camera, Alexander Witt; casting, Amanda Mackey Johnson, Cathy Sandrich (U.S.), Lucinda Syson (U.K.).

With

Dwayne Johnson, Ian McShane, Rufus Sewell, Joseph Fiennes, Peter Mullan, John Hurt, Aksel Hennie, Ingrid Bolso Berdal, Reece Ritchie, Tobias Santelmann, Rebecca Ferguson, Isaac Andrews, Irina Shayk.

The Mythical Greek Strongman-Dwyane Johnson

The mythical Greek strongman gets a refreshingly human spin in Brett Ratner's grandly scaled, solidly entertaining popcorn pic. Scott Foundas

 

Watch Hercules 2014 Online. On paper, Brett Ratner sounds like such an improbable choice to direct a large-scale ancient Greek epic that, going into his “Hercules,” one could only hope for a less aggressively preposterous affair than Renny Harlin’s bargain-basement “The Legend of Hercules” from earlier this year. The happy surprise is that Ratner’s “Hercules” is more than a mere improvement on its predecessor. It’s a grandly staged, solidly entertaining, old-fashioned adventure movie that does something no other Hercules movie has quite done before: It cuts the mythical son of Zeus down to human size (or as human as you can get while still being played by Dwayne Johnson). The result is a far classier pic than Paramount’s frenetic trailer — and decision to hide the film from reviewers until the 11th hour — foretold, albeit one that will struggle to find its sea legs at a crowded and underperforming summer box office. Overseas prospects look sunnier.

Ratner’s film owes its counter-canonical premise to the late author Steve Moore, whose five-issue Radical Comics series “Hercules: The Thracian Wars” proffered a Herc who was markedly more man than god, his supposedly divine paternity a useful legend but perhaps no more than that. Screenwriters Ryan J. Condal and Evan Spiliotopoulos have sanded down many of Moore’s rougher edges (including his Hercules’ volatile temperament and bisexuality) for this more family-friendly enterprise, but they’ve built on the idea of the warrior hero as a self-conscious mythmaker, inventing practical, real-world explanations for all of his seemingly superhuman feats. If the gods exist, they’re nowhere to be seen here. The multiheaded hydra Hercules reputedly slayed during the second of his storied 12 labors has become a band of marauders disguised with serpentine masks. And what of a supposed army of half-human, half-equine centaurs? Or Cerberus, the three-headed dog of Hades? All can be explained as mere tricks of the light, or the mind, while Hercules’ dutiful nephew and self-appointed biographer Iolaus (Reece Ritchie) transfigures the narrative into legend as he spreads it up and down the Greek countryside.

The stories prove good for business, Hercules being in the mercenary-for-hire trade, which he practices in concert with a quartet of trusted confidants: Autolycus (Rufus Sewell), a childhood friend who rose with the orphaned Hercules through the ranks of the Athenian army; the fearsome Amazonian warrior Atalanta (Ingrid Bolso Berdal); shell-shocked mute Tydeus (the impressive Norwegian actor Aksel Hennie, from “Headhunters”); and mystical seer Amphiaraus (a superbly hammy Ian McShane), who sees much but is at a loss to unravel the mystery of the violent incident in Hercules’ past that turned him from conquering hero into restless wanderer. The group has a relaxed, Hawksian interplay with touches of humor — Amphiaraus, who claims to have presaged his own death, keeps misjudging the timing of the fated event. They also have one sole objective: a last big score that will allow them to settle into early retirement. (Civilization, Hercules muses, has become too much to bear — which, considering we’re still in the Iron Age, is really saying something.)

Watch Hercules Online : Opportunity knocks in the form of Princess Ergenia (Rebecca Ferguson), who implores Hercules and his cohorts to come to the aid of her embattled father, the kindly King Cotys (John Hurt), whose kingdom of Thrace finds itself at war with the powerful sorcerer Rhesus (Tobias Santelmann). So off to Thrace they go, with the objective of turning Cotys’ population of tenant farmers into a skilled fighting army.

In terms of sheer scale and craftsmanship, “Hercules” represents something of a quantum leap for Ratner, who until now has seemed most comfortable at the helm of lightly diverting, ’80s-style buddy comedies (“Money Talks,” “Rush Hour,” “Tower Heist”), and who appeared profoundly out of his element on the profitable but incomprehensible “X-Men: The Last Stand” (2006). But Ratner has clearly learned a lot about large-scale action directing since then. “Hercules” consists primarily of three elaborate battle scenes held together by some quickly dispatched exposition, and the first — and grandest — of them is a genuine stunner. Arriving at the smoldering remnants of a village seemingly destroyed by Rhesus’ army, Hercules’ troops find themselves ambushed by legions of steely-eyed warriors in camouflaged body paint (think several thousand Col. Kurtzes from “Apocalypse Now”), and the violent rumble that ensues is staged by Ratner and ace cinematographer Dante Spinotti in clean, coherent pieces of action that build steadily in intensity.

We’re a long way away here from the disorienting whiplash effect of most modern action movies, as sweeping overhead vistas give way to carefully framed medium shots and closeups that hone in on specific bits of action. Bone and sinew smash against swords and chariot wheels. Arrows rain down from the skies (and, in the unusually good 3D conversion, right into the audience). Shields and armor clang resoundingly on the Dolby Atmos soundtrack. And while the battle proves devastating for those on both sides, viewers may find themselves exhilarated and slightly giddy at the end of it.

If “Hercules” isn’t quite as compelling off the battlefield as on, it certainly never dawdles, clocking in at just under 90 minutes (sans credits) and keeping ever mindful that the audience for a movie like this is there for the big guns (or, in this case, the big swords) and not the small talk. Ratner holds his ambitions in check: He isn’t trying to make his “Gladiator” or “Fall of the Roman Empire” here, and for all the handsome craftsmanship, he never tries to deny the Hercules story’s intrinsic schlock value. At its best, the movie harks back to the unpretentious fantasy adventures of an earlier era, chiefly Columbia Pictures programmers like “Jason and the Argonauts” (1963) and “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad” (1958), right up to a fiery pit of doom finally complete with flaming torches, plummeting iron gates and one character enthusiastically bellowing “Unleash the wolves!” (All this before someone gets crushed by a giant stone bust of Hera.)

Ratner was smart to stack the cast with the kind of classically trained British pros who can make a line like “Unleash the wolves!” sound faintly Shakespearean. But “Hercules’” strongest asset is surely Johnson, who continues to foster one of the most affable, guileless screen personas in movies today. Johnson may have been born with screen presence wired into his DNA, but he’s gradually cultivated the skills of a canny actor who knows just how to play to the camera and whose brute physical prowess is cut with a sly self-awareness. More than anything else, it’s he who gives this Hercules his human-sized soul.

Among the uniformly top-drawer craft contributions, longtime James Cameron collaborator John Bruno merits special mention for his wonderfully tactile, detailed visual effects work, as does production designer Jean-Vincent Puzos (“Amour”) for his sprawling storybook sets.