Hercules - 8.0/10
This is an interesting case. I've been studying Greek Mythology since I
was eight years old, so I had a lot of the same issues as I had with Pocahontas
when this came out. And unlike that film, which liberally applies an
artist's interpretation upon historical events, this one takes classical
mythology, shits on it, rolls it all up into a burrito, eats it and
then shits it back out. So why does it bother me so much less?
First off, just like Pocahontas, it's much easier to enjoy if you
just ignore the "loosely based on" aspect of it and just take it for
what it is. You pretty much have to, because if you try to keep track of
all the atrocities they've committed in the name of adaptation you'll
want to murder someone with a shattered table leg three minutes in. And
anyway, what it is actually turned out pretty good. They took a lot of
really original choices that I never would have thought of, let alone
associated with the myth of Hercules, but they made them work. The
musical score is some kind of eclectic hybrid of gospel and Vegas, which
is a lot of fun. The movie itself seems to run on the premise of "What
if ancient Grecian society was exactly like ours?". It's kind of like
the Flinstones with sandals and urns.
The story itself is nothing special. Standard coming of age/hero's
journey that we've all seen a million times before. The decision to make
it a comedy, something I didn't agree with when I heard about it,
really makes it all fresh and entertaining. And I will say this: James
Woods singlehandedly saves and carries this movie. I'm serious; the rest
of it could be like the gargoyles from Hunchback of Notre Dame
and I'd still love it just for his performance alone. Danny Devito's not
bad, but honestly aside from Hades none of the other characters are
particularly memorable.
If there's one choice I could never really get
behind, it was the transformation of Hercules, the mythical paragon of
manliness, into an stammering, awkward farmboy everydude. It wasn't enough to
make me hate the character, and honestly everything else was so unlike
the Hercules story that after a while you just sort of forget about it
and learn to like the character for who he is, not who he was based on.
Just like the rest of the movie. And there are several jokes that you would need a cursory knowledge of mythology to get, so I did appreciate that and had a few laughs.
Seriously, though. James Woods. Why is he not in everything?
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