Hercules Unchained Review

Interest: 6.5/10

Acting: 6.5/10

Storyline: 6/10

Adventure: 6/10

Fights Guns or otherwise: 6/10

Excitement: 5/10

Funny: 2/10

Nudity: 0/10

Music Score: 7/10

Logic: 7/10

Hercules Unchained is a 1959 film. It is still a fantasy adventure film, with a runtime of one hour and thirty-six minutes. Will this be a much more serious film? Will it be even funnier? Who knows, Read until the bottom to find out!

Interest: Hercules Unchained is an older movie with sets, which is fine and actually help tremendously with the thematic vision the film is trying to have. They are beautiful and well done. And it is also shot out on some locations as well. It starts of slow and stays there mostly. There are fights and the plot does keep you wondering what will happen. But it is an older film that sometimes feels like they’re holding up the plot to make you hopefully keep interested, instead of having enough going on to keep you actually interested.

Acting: The acting is okay. It isn’t the greatest thing ever, it falls into the pretty regular rut that most of these films do, that they still think this is a play, and it isn’t sadly. That being said, nothing is inherently wrong with that, it just makes them seem rigid and a little wonky. It still conveys what it needs to though, so really a no harm no foul thing, just isn’t necessarily my thing.

Storyline: The storyline is pretty straight forward and isn’t that complicated. Two brothers swap being king in a town every year. Hercules goes to make sure that happens, and shit goes awry. It sounds like I’m underselling it, but really I’m not, one bad thing happens after another and they have to figure it out. It is simple, and for this movie, that is okay, most films from this era don’t have complicated and convoluted plots, they typically want a simple story that typically ties up nicely, and show off some acting skills of people.

Adventure: The actual amount of adventure in this film is mediocre at best. There are about four or five places that they travel to. No crazy escapades like rock climbing or something dangerous. I’d really say there isn’t any adventure. Or nothing that really creates that feeling for me at least.

Fights Guns Or Otherwise: There are a few fights here and there, but it really isn’t anything to be excited about. The ending of the film does have a pretty nice fight scene, but it is other wise cursing people, and sharp tongues lashing out the fights in this film. That’s not terrible, but in a movie about Hercules, you’d certainly think that it would be a lot more action and a lot less talk.

Excitement: This movie just doesn’t stir up the excitement like a Hercules movie should. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen newer (And better) movies that do excitement much better than this movie. Maybe it’s because even for a movie at this time, it just wasn’t good at keeping people interested in the movie at all, but because it may have had an actor you liked, or just liked Greek Mythology, you drudged through it. Either way, this movie is not good with excitement even when there is supposed to be.

Funny: If I had a dime fore every time I chuckled at this movie, I’d maybe have a dime. It is definitely a serious film. And there isn’t any humor in it, which is totally fine, but with its shortcomings everywhere else, I really wish it would of tried to do something on the humor side of things. But alas, you may only get a small chuckle or two, maybe a smirk. That’s really it.

Nudity: There is no nudity in this film, I mean it is the 1950’s after all. If you’re going to see nudity, it’s probably from some anatomy class film you have to watch, not a real movie. Although again with the shortcomings of this film, this also could of helped it possibly. I will also mention in what part there is “seductive dancing” that may or may not actually be that, but I can’t wrap my head as to what it really is, but it doesn’t get “hot and steamy” or anything like that, just one girl, dancing randomly, and slightly erotically as well.

Musical Score: The Score of the film is pretty decent, I always liked older movies for their musical talents and scores. The music tried to lift the rest of this movie up out of the six foot hole it dug itself. It’s a real shame, because the composer(s) tried so hard to make it work out for the movie, but it just doesn’t work.

Logic: The logic checks out in this film. If Gods and hubris type stories and dealings are your thing. The story being pretty simple and primitive, helps makes sure there are no holes in the story and makes everything tie up nice and neat. It is a typical older movie.

So do I recommend this movie? Absolutely… Not! I really had to struggle to get through this one at all. It is slow, and stays slow. Action is dry and sluggish, and far and few between type of thing. And honestly, it was just plain boring. And the problem is, you can’t really rip on this film for much at all. I mean you can, but it isn’t simple easy things like Hercules In New York. All in all unless you’re just super interested in older films or into watching someones whole filmography, just pass this by, and assume it was never made. In total the score was 52/100. That’s pretty darn low. Well until Next time!