Review: Hercules

Having done a remarkable job botching 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand, director Brett Ratner seems to have learned a thing or two about staging action sequences. Hercules is, if nothing else, three well-executed set pieces broken up by a somewhat solid, unpretentiously cheesy story.

Drawing on Steve Moore's comic book take on our mythical hero, Hercules (Dwayne Johnson) is more mortal than god though he and his band of mercenaries are more than happy to sell the legend. When you're offering up your services to the highest bidder, what better advertisement than being the son of Zeus and capable of superhuman acts of derring-do. In reality, the multi-headed hydra was actually a gang disguised with serpentine masks, the centaurs mere men on horseback.

Nevertheless, his reputation is enough for the Princess Eugenia (The White Queen's Rebecca Ferguson) to seek him out. Her father's Thracian kingdom is threatened by Rhesus (Tobias Santelmann), a sorcerer who has the power to control people's minds. Hercules and his team agree to help the kindly King Cotys (John Hurt) - for a price, of course - and do what they can to turn his subjects from farmers to battle-ready warriors.

There's also a bit of back story involving Hercules's earlier life in Athens. Celebrated by his king Eurystheus (Joseph Fiennes) and his people, Hercules was then banished, falsely accused of slaughtering his beloved wife and children. His comrade Amphiaraus (Ian McShane), reminds him that there is still a labour left to be finished, and Hercules must confront his demons and embrace his fate.

Really, all of this is blather - the action's the thing and the flick does not disappoint. Arrows are flung, swords are branded, bones are crushed, throats are slashed, flesh is pierced and speared, all manner of animal is punched. The carnage is giddy and pitched just right for a swords-and-sandals- movie that has no ambition other than to entertain.

Johnson, who has proven himself to be a dependable performer in most genres, does a great job; he delivers quips and emotional and physical brawn with skill and aplomb. The quartet of Brits (Hurt, McShane, Fiennes, and Rufus Sewell) seem to have conspired to unleash their inner hams, which is to say they're all having a helluva time. McShane, in particular, is a delight as the man more than happy to meet his final destiny but always finding himself still standing.

Hercules

Directed by: Brett Ratner

Written by: Ryan Condol, Evan Spiliotopoulos; adapted from Steve Moore's comic

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Rufus Sewell, Ian McShane, John Hurt, Joseph Fiennes, Rebecca Ferguson, Aksel Hennie, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Reece Ritchie, Peter Mullan, Tobias Santelmann