The Legend of Hercules

Kellan Lutz takes a stab at Alcides aka Hercules. Per this movie set in Ancient Greece King Amphyitron (the sexy Scott Adkins) defeats a king and seizes his kingdom. His loving marriage with his wife Queen Alcmene and their son Prince Iphicles (played by Jared Leto 's sexy lookalike Liam Garrigan) changes with his new taste for power. He becomes a philandering, jealous cat with his wife, and a domineering father with his son. One night while praying to Hera, queen of the Gods, Queen Alcmene asks for the strength to deal with her marriage. Hera materializes in human form and tells her she's destined to bear a son named Hercules. She begs not to lay with her husband again, but Hera says she will allow Alcmene to lay with her husband Zeus, king of the Gods. That night Zeus' spirit beds Alcmene. Jealous with rage Amphyitron demands to know whom Alcmene slept with. She bites her tongue, the baby is born and named Alcides. As he grows Alcides becomes a warrior much to the dismay of his "father" King Amphyitron. When he tries running away with his girlfriend Princess Hebe they are caught. Hebe is offered to Prince Iphicles even though she loves Alcides. King Amphyitron sends Alcides on a mission to Egypt...turns out it's a death trap and Alcides along with other soldiers are ambushed. Alcides and Sotiris (sexy Liam McIntrye from Starz Spartacus) are the only survivors. When Sotiris identifies a slain soldier as Prince Alcides to the attackers, Alcides' helmet is sent back and everyone believes he's dead; meanwhile Alcides identifies himself as Hercules (a name is his mother calls him after revealing his true parentage before he left on his mission). Thus begins Hercules & Sotiris' journey back to their home, exposing whom was behind the ambush, and taking down the King and Prince. So what's my rating? 3 out of 5 stars. Why?
Through no fault of their own this feels like a film we've seen SOOOOOOOOOOO many times. Romans, love story, blah blah. I will give them credit for making this a movie for all ages. Liam McIntrye is brilliant as Sotiris, and Scott Adkins is not only beautiful to look at but a powerhouse actor as King Amphyitron. Johnathon Schaech plays the evil Tarak perfectly as well. The one weak link unfortunately is Kellan Lutz. Now Kellan is BEAUTIFUL! Head to toe beautiful. But his acting...it's a stretch calling it acting. I'm not being harsh, but I think he's holding back. There are a LOT of spoilers I left out on purpose, and given those things that happened Kellan doesn't go far enough. The scenes he did "bring it" where the action scenes. He gave those his all, but the emotional and gutwrenching scenes he didn't step to the plate. Like I said he definitely held back; whereas Liam McIntrye ROSE to the challenge. 

The other thing I found jarring was as Hercules none of the Greeks know him as Prince Alcides. You're telling me these villagers have NEVER seen the Royal Family? Ever? No money with his face printed on it? No royal sightings? With this flaw and Kellan's acting that's what bumped the movie from a 4 to a 3 for me. Even in Ancient Greece I'm pretty sure ppl knew the face of the royal family...all of them. Oh and a funny moment was when Hercules turned into Robin Hood and defended the rich from the cruel guards and everyone chanted "Hercules, Hercules, Hercules." I giggled thinking about "The Nutty Professor." It happened again in the movie a couple more times and I giggled.

At the end of the movie I enjoyed it. It wasn't perfect, but I enjoyed it. The real shocker was it was directed by Renny Harlin. I almost spit out my soda. Renny is back folks. I really hope this movie gets a sequel. I'm not sure how accurate it is to Greek mythology, but I don't really care. I liked the movie plot ALOT (aside from that one glaring error).