Hercules Review and Box Office Report

“Hercules” is the English language adventure movie released in 2014 is a legendary war movie about the Greek character with the same name. The movie has Dwayne Johnson in the title role, while Ian McShane, Rufus Sewell, John Hurt and Askel Hennie are in the supporting roles. Brett Ratner is the director of the film, which has been distributed jointly by Paramount Pictures and MGM Pictures. The movie was released on 25 July, 2014.

The Plot

The movie is adapted from the super hero copmic series by Steve Moore. Hercules is the demigod son of Zeus, who has completed 12 labors, but still chose to live like a mortal after his wife and three children were murdered. Now he has become the leader of a mercenary army, accompanied by his friends and soldiers, Amphiaraus (Ian McShane), Autolycus (Rufus Sewell), Tydeus (Askel Hennie), Atalanta(Ingrid Bolso Berdal) and Iolaus (Reece Ritchie). The army of Hercules is approached by the widowed daughter of the aged king, Lord Cotys to train his army, the army of Thrace, to fight against the vicious warlord Rheseus, which they agree to on the condition of being paid the price in gold. The army of Cotys is able to defeat Rheseus, who is taken prisoner by Cotys. When Hercules comes to know of the wrong ulterior motives of Cotys, he objects and is imprisoned by him, where he finds that King Eurystheus, a confederate of Cotys is responsible for the murder of his family. In the end, he avenges their death by killing the king and his friend Cotys, whereon they move ahead in search of more adventures.

The Performances

Dwayne Johnson is as comfortable in the character of Hercules as he is in his own skin; it seems that the role is tailor made for him as he is totally effortless. The director Brett Ratner has given his best too. Though the film lacks on story, it compensates with some good action and the impressive super-hero like lead actor. The action of the film is superb, as expected from “The Rock”, though the climax in which he lifts a tremendously huge statue and fights wolves bare-handed, may seem a bit too much to digest. The great action makes this big budget 3D flick a delight to watch, despite a weak story line. The sets are well made and the war scenes are impressive too. Overall, “Hercules” is a good film in action adventure genre.

Box Office Collections

“Hercules” has done reasonably well on the box office, making a collection of $ 11 million on its first day and $ 29 million in the opening weekend, over 3595 screens where it was released. The movie was just behind “Lucy”, the sci-fi movie which grossed a total of $ 44 million in its opening weekend. With these collections, the movie added a fresh spark in the faltering summer at theatres across the US. The collections were something beyond the expectations from the film. Abroad, the movie was screened at 3364 theaters in 26 countries, where it was able to make a good box office collection of $ 28.7 million. In a nutshell, a totally watchable adventure flick!