This Action Star's 2014 Hercules Movie Was A Disastrous Box Office Flop

Renny Harlan's "The Legend of Hercules" was released in January of 2014 to widespread indifference and low box office receipts. It's one of the ultimate examples of a January movie, that is: a piece of junk that the studios decided to unceremoniously dump in theaters at the time of year when people are paying attention to new releases the least. January is usually the time when mass audiences are catching up with Oscar fare from a month prior, and ignoring everything else. There's a reason why the kids over at Red Letter Media call the month "F*** You, It's January." 

On a $70 million budget, "The Legend of Hercules" opened to a mere $8.8 million, which is typical for most January releases but terrible for the studio. It was also a critical flop, widely panned by critics, with a 5% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes (based on 80 reviews). To make matters even more embarrassing, the film was handily outdone both financially and critically by Brett Ratner's own Hercules movie, titled simply "Hercules," which was released seven months later. That film stars Dwayne Johnson as the legendary Greek hero, and made $225 million internationally. Ratner's film only got a 58% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes (based on 119 reviews), but that's a sight better than 5%. 

Hercules is played by Kellan Lutz, who some of you might know as Emmett Cullen from the "Twilight" movies. Coincidentally, Lutz had previously played Poseidon in Tarsem Singh's "Immortals." The film also stars Scott Adkins as Hercules' father, Amphitryon, and Adkins is a recognizable action star who played fighters, soldiers, thugs, and cops in movies like "Black Mask 2," two "Undisputed" movies, "The Bourne Ultimatum," and many others. He played the post-mutation Deadpool in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," and was recently in "The Rip." 

"The Legend of Hercules" — previously called "Hercules: The Legend Begins" — takes an interesting break from the tradition of Hercules movies by removing gods and magic from the story. Renny Harlin was clearly imitating the muddy, down-to-earth vibe of Ridley Scott's "Gladiator" more than the fun-loving cheesiness of any of the Steve Reeves Hercules movies. Kellan Lutz plays a prince named Alcides whose mother (Roxanne McKee) swears is the half-divine son of Zeus and eventually reveals that his real name is Hercules. This Hercules, like Steve Reeves, is a full-on beefcake and is seen strangling a lion early in the film. This scene was meant to evoke the original Hercules' task of slaying the Nemean Lion, I suppose, but with a completely uninteresting context. 

While on a war campaign, Hercules is kidnapped and forced to fight in a gladiatorial arena. This pleases Herc's adopted father, Amphitryon (Adkins), the film's villain. The gladiator stuff is a clear knockoff of Ridley Scott's "Gladiator," and reduces the original Hercules story to a boring rehash. Hercules becomes so famous as a gladiator that Amphitryon's soldiers desert and join Herclues in an eventual uprising. This, of course, evokes Stanley Kubrick's "Spartacus." It would be nice if any of this evoked Hercules. 

The film also stars Kenneth Cranham from "Hellbound: Hellraiser II," as well as Jonathan Schaech, Liam McIntyre, and Rade Šerbedžija. Gaia Weiss plays Hebe, Herc's girlfriend. One only needs to glance over the credits, however, to note the most notable absence from "The Legend of Herclues": namely, there are no actors playing Zeus, Hera, or any of the other Olympians. Call me old-fashioned, but those folks should be in Hercules movies. 

Disney's 1997 animated feature "Hercules" featured gods. Heck, even "Herclues in New York" had the gods on camera. "The Legend of Hercules" tried to take a story marked by its magic and ground it in real-world politics and actual physics. What a snore. 

"The Legend of Hercules" opened small and stayed small. It ultimately earned $18.8 million domestically and about $61.3 million worldwide. On a $70 million budget, that's a pretty miserable flop. Even though it was released in January, the Razzies didn't forget it the following year, nominating the film for Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Actor (Kellan Lutz), and Worst Actress (Gaia Weiss). The movie was "beaten" in the Worst Picture category by "Saving Christmas." 

The critics weren't wrong on this one. It's a dull, sludgy affair. Its photography is colorless and boring, and its performances flat and uninteresting. Kellan Lutz looks great in the fight sequences, and was clearly hired for his outsize musculature, but he has no charisma. If you just want to watch hot, beefy men in loincloths, I suppose, then "The Legend of Hercules" will provide the goods. Sadly, Adkins does not get to whip out his well-worn action chops for the flick.

I don't know why the makers of modern peplum films decided to wash out all of their visuals; a muddy, indistinct palette was also a feature of "Gladiator," "Clash of the Titans," and even Zack Snyder's "300." I suppose those films were all hits, however, so maybe "The Legend of Hercules" was merely Renny Harlin's stab at imitating their success. It says a lot about the awfulness of this movie that even Brett Ratner was able to make something more broadly appealing. 

We called it one of the worst Greek mythology movies of all time.