My summer of big-budget action movies continues with Hercules!

The title character is played by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, my favorite wrestler-turned-actor. Hercules features the titular demigod, but features a cast of other Greek worthies, though it’s hard to really say anything about them without going into spoiler-territory. The trailers that I’ve seen have done a very good job of keeping key plot-points out of them, so this review is going to necessarily brief to prevent any spoilerage.

Can you smeeeeeeeell…what the Rock is wearing?

 

At its heart, this movie is a fairly standard The Rock action movie. That said, I think its plot and storytelling were very solid, much more solid than some other action tentpoles of the past. The producers and writers gloss over some details, but they don’t leave any gaping holes in the story, at least not that I noticed. And while it is an action movie, for the most part the action serves the story, not the other way around. As with most Rock movies, it doesn’t take itself too seriously, and neither should the audience. There’s plenty of joking around, and sometimes the dialogue is a bit anachronistic, but on the whole it works well.

Aside from the Rock and all his Rockiness, there’s a decent-sized cast attached to this movie. Some of the actors are recognizable, but not the point where I thought, “Oh, it’s that person from that film.” Of course, everyone’s movie exposure is different, so your mileage may vary. I felt that these other ensemble members a good fit, and contributed well to the movie’s overall theme. In particular, I felt the female warrior’s contributions were much more kickass than Gamorra’s from Guardians of the Galaxy, despite Gamorra being a feared interstellar assassin.

Unfortunately, I can’t say much more about Hercules for fear of giving away any of the plot. In brief: Hercules was entertaining, and I enjoyed it.

Grade: B+

Crystal’s take: “It was better than TMNT.”