By: debbie lynn elias
One of the great strengths of THE LEGEND OF HERCULES lies in the story origins and bringing in Sean Hood and Daniel Giat as screenwriters, tapping into Hood’s experience with mythology and reimagination with films like Conan the Barbarian (2011). The other is having Renny Harlin direct. The mythology of Hercules is a centuries old favorite and one of the most enduring legends. Hollywood has long ago embraced its wonder as it provides ample fuel for fantasy and visual mastery of technology as it advances. But one aspect of the Hercules story that has always been overlooked (because it’s not sexy enough from an action standpoint) is Hercules’ backstory and his birth.
Queen Alcmene is a good woman, a kind woman, a tortured woman. Her husband is King Amphitryon. A vengeful king and vengeful man, he is murderous and tyrannical to both his people and his wife. Desperate to help her people, Alcmene prays to the gods for help. Her prays are answered in the form a child; a child fathered by Zeus himself. Always suspicious of the child’s birth, Amphitryon nevertheless raises him as his own, but always shows favor to his other son, Iphicles, over Hercules. Favoritism rears more than ugly head when it comes to Hercules and love for as a means to hurt and destroy Hercules, Amphitryon promises Iphicles the hand of Hebe who is deeply in love with Hercules. Attempting to run away with Hebe, Hercules is captured by his father and sent into battle to die. Walking into a trap, Hercules manages to survive together with fellow warrior Sotiris who vows brotherhood and allegiance to Hercules for life. Determined to win back Hebe and save his people from Amphitryon, Hercules and Sotiris plan their own revenge, which takes on even greater meaning with the death of Alcmene at the hand of Amphitryon. And it with her death that the secret of Hercules’ birthright comes to light, setting the stage for Hercules to claim his true birthright.
No stranger to the world of the gods having played Poseidon in Immortals, Kellan Lutz is not only a handsome fit as Hercules, but finds that delicate balance of “right meets might and acting with the heart”, finding both the immortal and mortal within he who would be HERCULES. It’s nice to see an emotional progression within the character, something I wasn’t certain Lutz could achieve. He surprised me. But what I appreciate most in this performance is the growth in him as an actor. He emotes, he captures and elicits differential emotion between the various onscreen relationships. And he nails the action flawlessly. Declaring proudly the fact that “I did 99% of the stunts”, Lutz also gives credit to his stunt double Danko who “would fill in when I couldn’t do it and had to catch up on a shot.” He also had a horse riding double who was called upon primarily in rehearsals. “Sometimes the horses were finicky in the rain, and I’m an animal lover and I didn’t want to smack them, so my horse rider would get on there and do the rehearsals for me and get them ingrained with what they need to do.”
Dedicating himself to extensive mental and physical training for the role, Lutz drew from his childhood. “I always felt like as a little kid I always had middle child syndrome. I grew up on a lot of land with a lot of farm animals so I had a lot of alone time and I was able to use my imagination to create the world of Tarzan, of Mowgli, of He-Man, of Hercules, of the Ninja Turtles. . .Hercules was always that original hero for me. . . I found this passion that I get to relive and fulfill this childhood dream of bringing this character to the screen.” Thanks to his education and love of reading, Lutz was well prepared with the lore of Hercules “because my education and knowledge of Greek mythology was already there. I had already studied a lot of it because I enjoyed it. I really loved The Iliad and The Odyssey. I read those before they were mandatory in school to read! That fantasy world was just amazing to me because they’re all myths, and much our story of Hercules is one of the tales.”
As the vicious, vindictive, jealous and brutal King Amphitryon, Scott Adkins wows and becomes a true leading man. He commands the screen with word, emotion and physical presence. With complete control of the scene and screen, it is impossible to take your eyes from him. His words, vocal inflection and intonation rivals that of any Shakespearean actor. Known best for action roles in films like El Gringo, Expendables 2 and Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, his performances had little if any dialogue. Even in real life, Adkins is a man of few words. But here! He explodes with an intensity by words and action that is mesmerizing. Applause, Applause, Applause!
Johnathon Schaech is deliciously malevolent as Amphitryon’s right hand Tarak, exuding intimidating confidence with every move, every look. And again, chameleonic in look and accent. A perfect actor-director relationship, Schaech and Renny Harlin are a match made in heaven. What was quite evident in 5 Days of War with Schaech playing Captain Avaliani, goes to the next level with his performance as Tarak. New to me is Liam Garrigan. Infusing Iphicles with a wormy smarmy persona, Garrigan is a perfect wannabe for Adkins’ Amphitryon and a perfect foil for Hercules. The casting contrast in personality and physical stature between Garrigan and Lutz serves the story well.
Roxanne McKee is an actress who is made for period pieces – no matter what the period. She is as strong here as the Queen as she is in Game of Thrones. The icy delivery of dialogue when going toe-to-toe with Adkins is as powerful as the Queen’s heart is cold to the King. McKee does a beautiful job at showing tenderness towards Hercules and indifferent disdain to the King. Gaia Weiss exudes a virginal innocence with Harlin’s camera capturing a luminescence that helps fuel the tender, softer and emotional side not only of the story, but of Lutz’s performance as Hercules. A joy to see Rade Serbedzija reteam with Harlin as well. He blew me away in 5 days of War as Col. Demidov and then in Angelina Jolie’s In the Land of Blood and Honey as well as in the Melissa Rosenberg written series Red Widow, but here, as Chiron, we see a soft, tenderness that is welcoming, like that of a kindly grandfather, providing a balance to the brutality of the father-son battles in THE LEGEND OF HERCULES.
Can’t say enough about the men from Down Under and Liam McIntyre does them proud. As anyone who’s seen him as Spartacus knows, McIntyre captures the essence of the period well and raises the bar with performance. He does the same here as Sotiris, imbuing him with palpable unquestioning loyalty and blind faith to Hercules. McIntyre brings a great emotional calm to tense situations, adds a grounding sensibility. And his chemistry with Kellan Lutz feels true and unbreakable. I genuinely felt they were brothers-in-arms that translated to brothers-for-life.
With THE LEGEND OF HERCULES, it’s easy to see Renny Harlin’s love for myth and the Greek myths as a whole. As the visuals unfold, it is clear he taps in to the little boy within himself, capturing the wide-eyed imagination of what he envisioned as a boy growing up reading the HERCULES stories. It is both enchanting and powerful to see this emotional point of view visually come forth on the screen. The battle sequences are as powerful and commanding as any I’ve ever seen done and the use of not only 3D but slo-mo is mind-boggling. We are “in” the battle. The “gladiator” battle in the arena rivals those staged and lensed by DeMille in terms of spectacle, grandeur and intensity (and does give a visual nod to Disney’s John Carter, Spartacus, King of Kings, etc.) HERCULES is replete with great cinematic and literary history touchstones that I just adore. Beyond stunning are some of the “Herculean” tasks performed, and none is more glorious than the creation of a lightening lariat from a sword which is then swung by Hercules through a temple courtyard. By far, my favorite wide-eyed wonder, mouth agape sequence VFX.
Technically masterful with the blend of 3D and slo-mo, Harlin together with cinematographer Sam McCurdy incorporates use of phantom 3D cameras which then puts a completely different spin on execution of stunts. For the extensive amount of battle choreography and wire work – not to mention the phantom 3D cameras – stunt coordinator Rowley Irlam is the best in the biz. These are not easy stunts to choreograph and execute with regular 2D lensing, let alone 3D and slo-mo. There is an intricacy of design and execution when viewed in the context of spears, swords and leather gussets flying amongst heavy wire work. And the wire work is stunning. Stunt execution and choreography is stunning. And KUDOS to all the boys – Adkins, Lutz, McIntyre – for doing as much of their own stunts as possible. With the slo-mo and number of close and midshots it’s easy to see they aren’t faking and doubles aren’t doing all the heavy lifting. Impressive is the use of the 3D in non-battle sequences as it metaphorically heightens the mythology in and of itself.
Lutz gives great credit to stunt coordinator Irlam for making his work authentic and true to a Herculean effort. “That man is like Indiana Jones. You can have a stunt coordinator that knows his stuff but doesn’t know how to work with actors, much like directors. I was blessed in this movie because Renny is such a visually stunning director but also knows how to work with actors. Rowley is the same way. . . I had to learn how to ride a horse as fast as I did. He made me feel like an all-star. . .He really built me up and that’s all it takes.” Of course, the side effect of all the vigorous riding was “chaffing. . .that’s not quite fun when you’re wearing a skirt and you don’t have jeans on!” Similarly, Lutz did extensive sword work and training with co-star Liam McIntyre who was already well acquainted with the art thanks to his prior work as Spartacus. “Liam, being the fighter that he is, I went to him as humbly as I could and said, ‘Look brother. I don’t have time to learn will you help me?’. . . He taught me how to use the mirror in my [home] to just draw 8 lines and stand there in front of it and act like I’m the bad guy, just to get the flow of it, it’s like a dance. The funny thing was he taught me what to do [demonstrating with his empty hand] was, as you’re stabbing people you don’t think about this hand. Most of the time they look like spirit fingers. . . So what we do is we take a little piece of metal to hold in our hands, ‘cause its really hard to remember to do that [clenching the empty fist] but if you’ree holding on to something that no one else can see, you get the strong strikes. That was a really great secret that he taught. He helped make me into Hercules.”
Visual palettes are distinctive and diverse yet cohesive thanks to Luca Thanchino’s production design. Sam McCurdy’s lighting makes the most of each set and location, capturing the texture and darkness of blood-soaked grit and grime of battle as effectively as the sleek polish of midnight blue rain soaked nights and pastoral beauty of the quiet moments between Hercules and Hebe. The visuals are a significant contributing factor to the not only the overall tonal bandwidth of THE LEGEND OF HERCULES, but the metaphoric fuel balancing the emotional beats.
But going beyond the visual and visceral spectacle, we “feel” these characters and we feel for them. We feel the rage, the anger, the hatred, the love, the loss, the pain, the lust for power and much of that is due to some superb casting with surprisingly excellent performances. The blend of story/character/casting/action truly goes hand in hand.
Scoring by Tuomas Kantelinen serves the story well, creating an ebb and flow of strength and power with lighter notes of quiet tenderness.
Bottom line – Performances are solid. Battles are beyond cool. 3D flaming arrows shooting off the screen into the audience dazzle! Lightening bolt lariat is spectacular!!!! Wire work is stunning.
THE LEGEND OF HERCULES – a Herculean effort and experience.
Directed by Renny Harlin
Written by Sean Hood and Daniel Giat
Cast: Kellan Lutz, Scott Adkins, Johnathon Schaech, Liam McIntyre, Liam Garrigan, Gaia Weiss, Roxanne McGee, Rade Serbedzija
