The Legend of Hercules - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Legend of Hercules

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
Lionsgate has been pumping out the catalog 4K UHD titles faster than any studio has so far, and even with the few glitched titles at the inception of the format, they have largely been put out great looking transfers. The only problem I see is that they are largely putting out some fairly schlocky films instead of re-doing some of the classic films that we'd really like to see. However, I won't complain too much as more 4K UHD material is never something to be sneezed at and we have to take some of the bad with the good.

King Amphitryon (Scott Adkins) is a walking tornado of destruction, A king who lives on the battlefield, his reign of destructions and tyranny cause him to be a loathed tyrant. So much so, that even his own bride (Roxanne McKee) wishes him dead and enters into an agreement with the goddess Zeus and Hera to carry Zeus’s son so that he might one day take down Amphitryon. 20 odd years after this fateful pact, the son, Alcide (Kellan Lutz) grows up with Amphitryon’s natural born son, and bears the mark of an unwanted child. Thrown to the back of the line in everything, including love, Alcide must watch as his older brother Iphicles (Liam Garrigan) take even the lovely princess Hebe of Crete from him. In a fit of passion, he and Hebe make a valiant run for the border, to run off into the distance and live a happily twilight after. Being only 20 minutes into the movie we all know the outcome. Alcide and Hebe are captured and Alcide sent off to war, where he and his legion are ambushed in an effort to kill the prince.

Now Alcide must hide his true identity and go under the name his mother gave him, Hercules. Living as a gladiator, Hercules survives long enough to prove himself one of the greatest warriors of the arena. With such a legend around him, Hercules is sent to Greece once more, so that he can fight in King Amphitryon’s arena of death. There he gains his freedom and ferments a rebellion against his murderous Stepfather. Upon learning of her mother’s death at the hand of Amphitryon his rage knows no bounds and it is only a matter of time before the two legends must face off.

The film is shot in that glossy sort of 300 feel to the film with copious amounts of slow-motion shots and wire work galore, in order to show off the prowess of the Demi god. The actually interesting parts of the Hercules lore are left out here and instead it focuses on a goofy love interest that barely holds the story together long enough to lead into the next fight scene. Battles are all over the place, but surprisingly tame, even for PG-13 standards. The only real stand out in the whole slew of battles is watching Scott Adkins eat the scenery up as the psychopath king Amphitryon. Adkins is famed for being an absolutely incredible martial artist and fight choreographer, so it’s pure cinematic gold to see him lose his cool, gritty composed characters that he normally plays and see him go all Van Damme in a slather of velveeta cheesiness. Kellan Lutz stumbles through the movies as a baked hulk who’s had a few too many HGH injections and would look more at home on the California beaches rather than the stage, but he still manages to spit out his lines decently enough.

With so much cheese you can see why this bombed at the box office. It feels more like it would have been better put straight to DVD rather than be criticized at the theatrical levels, where it might have garnered better press. For while it’s not a great film, it is nowhere near the bottom of the barrel. For in DTV standards it’s actually pretty decent, with some fun fight scenes and the final 20 minutes actually show some fun potential. THE CGI is poor, the acting is poor, and even the director seems to waste his potential here. It’s not at that stage where it’s so bad that it’s good, but in no way can it be considered a decent movie by itself. The best I can say that it’s a cheesy one time watch that has some spectacular 3D thrown in the mix if you're going to see it in 3D. Otherwise the 4K is just a little prettier version of the horrible story.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense combat action and violence, and for some sensuality




Video:

Shot entirely on Red Epic cameras, The Legend of Hercules comes to 4K UHD with a stellar looking video encode that is miles better than the actual movie itself. The heavily graded film was mastered in 2K back in 2014 and there has been no intimation of them re-doing the master for this release. The image still looks incredible though, and there is distinctly visible color and textural upgrades from the 1080p Blu-ray. The sense of depth and layering is still quite impressive, as the film was shot with 3D in mind (the Blu-ray in the combo pack is the same 3D/2D Blu-ray from 2014) so the shots translate well in 4K, with intense colors (such as the final lightning storm at the end, or the bursts of brown and red in the arena), and the sandy ground shows off more grains of sand and dust than previous imagined. Black levels are deep and inky, and the mild color banding (a bane of Blu-ray and DVD) is minimized almost to the point of nonexistence. It's definitely a solid upgrade over the 1080p disc, and for those who did like the movie, will be the strongest reason to buy along with the audio remix.






Audio:

What I love about big, dumb action films, is the fact that they are almost always accompanied by a big, dumb action sound track. Lionsgate gave us a stellar 7.1 DTS-HD MA track for the Blu-ray, but has amped it up notch with a full on Dolby Atmos audio mix that outshines even the stellar 7.1 mix. The track trembles and vibrates with every footstep of the legendary demi-god and the LFE track sends waves of deep low end throughout the entire film, from the shaking of the battle armor, to the bone crunching shield slams in the arena. Not only is it powerful, the LFE manages to be intricately detailed and accurate as well, blending seamlessly into the film with a myriad of tones, instead of satisfied to be a one note boom track. Directionality is fantastic, as the track immerses the viewer with a constant barrage of surround information. What makes it even better is the fact that not only does the track like to be loud and boisterous, it gives us a plethora of minutely detailed ambient noises, from the crunch of footsteps on sand, to the creaking of a door in the background. The overheads give a spacious feel to to the already immersive track, especially in the arena where you feel like the entire crowd is cheering in a 360 degree field of sound. The dialog can sometimes be overwhelmed by the intense





Extras:

• Audio Commentary with Director Renny Harlin and Actor Kellan Lutz
• "The Making of The Legend of Hercules" Featurette

Final Score: ​

I didn’t get the sheer loathing that the critics gave to “The Legend of Hercules” in the theaters. It was nowhere near the worst movie of the year as portrayed. It IS a poorly written movie that only really ties together the minutes between fight scenes, but it’s still fun to watch, especially for the 3D presentation, which really shines. HOWEVER, after coming back and revisiting the film, I have to say that I really started to understand why this movie was loathed so much. It's big, it's dumb, and it has the brains of a cocker spaniel in terms of writing and acting. The movie is heavily flawed and doesn't stand up to repeat viewings as much as I have a weakness for big, dumb action movies The lack of extras is still disappointing, being that Lionsgate just kept the two minimal extras from the Blu-ray, but then again, this isn't exactly the type of film that you're going to be pouring hours of your life into finding out all the minute details behind the scenes. It's much more a watch it once and forget it type of affair. Cheap Rental is my recommendation despite the great looking audio and vidoe.




Technical Specifications:

Starring: Kellan Lutz, Gaia Weiss, Scott Adkins
Directed by: Renny Harlin
Written by: Sean Wood, Daniel Giat
Aspect Ratio: 2.40.1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), English DD 2.0 for Night listening, English DVS 5.1
Studio: Lionsgate
Rated: R
Runtime: 118 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: September 19th, 2017

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• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Cheapie Rental

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Great for when nothing else is on..