Well done The Asylum! You managed to finish and release this movie just in time before the releases of Dwayne Johnson's "Hercules" movie. It probably won't surprise anyone that this is just another cheap knockoff by The Asylum, to earn them a couple of quick bucks. But you know, at the very same time, these movies are often so bad and ridicules to watch that they actually manage to work out as very entertaining ones. Just not this one as well however...
This is a movie that very easily could have worked out as an entertaining one, if only some more effort got put into the writing and making of it. I mean, just look at all of those silly Italian Hercules movies from the '50's and '60's None of them were impressive looking- or solidly written ones but they at least still were mostly entertaining to watch because they featured a lot of imagination and creativity in them. Not this movie really. It's a disappointingly straightforward and simplistic movie, that doesn't even have an awful lot to do with the Hercules character. He isn't much of a legend or demi-god in this movie. Just a powerful and skilled warrior, with a few pounds of more muscles than the average warrior. And no, he doesn't get to fight any giant mythical creatures or defies any Greek Gods. He only gets to battle a few humans, that are without any special skills. It just shows you how hastily written and put together this movie was. And again, this is a real shame. With just a few minor adjustments and tweaks this so easily could have turned into a pretty decent and fun little genre movie.
Really the most disappointing thing about this movie is the simplistic story of it. It's all far too basic, without any surprises in it or good twists that add to the enjoyment and quality. Most of the time it doesn't even feel like it's following much of a story, since things get handled so poorly and are rarely ever set up in a good and effective enough. For most part of the movie the Hercules character even feels like a secondary character, as if John Hennigan only was available for a couple of days and the movie had to shoot its way around his schedule, resulting in multiple other characters feeling often far more important and relevant to the story. Not that any of those characters are any better than the Hercules one though. All characters get extremely poorly developed and handled in this movie. I still don't know who's who in this movie or understand what his/her motivation is. All characters are extremely uninteresting one, including the villains as well sadly.
But lets be positive as well. Or well, let's try! I for instance like how the movie got shot on location in Morocco, as opposed to in a studio, with lots of green screen, or somewhere in Romania or Hungary, where these sort of cheap movies often get shot. It of course adds to the 'authentic' and ancient feeling of the movie. The settings suit the movie well and gives it a pretty solid and pleasant atmosphere. I also have to say that while John Hennigan is a far from great actor, he does handle all of the action scenes pretty well, which is not too surprising, seeing how he's a WWE fighter and all.
It however also is definitely true that this movie could have used some more fights and action in general in it though. Not that the movie is an extremely boring one but it definitely could have used some more excitement in it and the action definitely was better and more interesting to watch than any of the other stuff this movie ever did.
Really not worth seeing. Not even if you are into cheap and silly B-movies, or just movies done by The Asylum in general.
4/10
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