Hercules
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) | Release Date: July 25, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
47
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
12
Negative:
7
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
Village VoiceSherilyn ConnellyJul 28, 2014
Johnson is genuinely talented. He's often the best thing in bad movies, and Ratner's Hercules is, at the very least, pretty good. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinJul 25, 2014
The mythically powerful demigod is back on the big screen in the simply titled Hercules and the results are canny, fast-paced, and, for what the film attempts to accomplish, enjoyable. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterStephen FarberJul 24, 2014
It may sound like a backhanded compliment to praise this sometimes cheesy movie for never taking itself too seriously, but in a summer of bloated spectacles, this modesty should not be underestimated. Read full review
70
VarietyScott FoundasJul 23, 2014
It’s a grandly staged, solidly entertaining, old-fashioned adventure movie that does something no other Hercules movie has quite done before: it cuts the mythical son of Zeus down to human size (or as human as you can get while still being played by Dwayne Johnson). Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleWilliam GossJul 30, 2014
If anything gets lost in the mayhem, it’s Johnson’s reliably charming personality. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyJul 25, 2014
Unsurprisingly, Johnson makes for a perfect movie-star Hercules, and the film gets a lot of mileage by playing his charismatic-but-modest take on the character off of the strong, predominantly British cast. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghJul 25, 2014
There's a welcome lack of pretension to the proceedings. Stalwarts like Hurt and Ian McShane are on hand to class up the joint — everyone's got a British accent except for Johnson — while the predictable story bludgeons its way towards an inevitable conclusion. Read full review
60
The DissolveKeith PhippsJul 25, 2014
Brett Ratner remains a director of no great distinction, but here, he proves himself an adept orchestrator of battle scenes, clearly presenting the forces on both sides, and using clear, coherent editing and dynamic compositions. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriJul 25, 2014
Hercules has no right to be as entertaining as it is. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanJul 25, 2014
Fast-paced, funny, and packed with – to indulge in a bit of ad-speak — eye-popping action. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyJul 24, 2014
Sure, the film is crude, calorific and full of groanworthy half-jokes, but it holds together. It stacks up as an oafish pleasure for an undemanding summer – a rewriting of myths in scrawled crayon, with a nonchalant quality that makes its judiciously brief running time fly by. Read full review
60
EmpireDan JolinJul 23, 2014
With Hercules, Brett Ratner and Dwayne Johnson are out to entertain you — no more, no less. And that is just what they do. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawJul 23, 2014
There are some rousing battle scenes, preceded by stirring addresses on the subject of going to Elysium – all cheekily borrowed from Ridley Scott's "Gladiator." Read full review
60
Total FilmJamie GrahamJul 23, 2014
By the beard of Zeus! Brett Ratner delivers fast, fun thrills to score a sound victory over Renny Harlin’s laborious The Legend Of Hercules. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJul 26, 2014
Director Brett Ratner has always been associated with spectacle but, even for him, this represents a misstep because the "wow!" factor is muted. Read full review
50
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergJul 25, 2014
As the plot clogs up with foreseeable reversals, wisecrack duties go to Mr. McShane, whose oracular character keeps wrongly predicting his own death. Like Hercules, the movie is plagued by a split identity: It’s half-slog, half-Mel Brooks. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyJeff LabrecqueJul 25, 2014
When Johnson is wearing the head of the slayed Nemean lion in battle, walloping enemies with his tree-trunk sized club, and heaving charging horses to the ground with remarkable ease, he's in his Rock comfort zone. But as a tortured hero hampered by self-doubt, Johnson labors. Read full review
40
Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonJul 23, 2014
Strap on your swordbelt, buckle your sandals and oil up your rippling six-pack, because here comes yet another interminable, CGI-drenched mythic mish-mash with far more money than brain cells. Read full review
38
Rolling StonePeter TraversJul 31, 2014
Director Brett Ratner could boast solid source material in the five-issue Radical Comics series Hercules: The Thracian Wars by the late Steve Moore. They had a shot at something here, and they blew it. Read full review
38
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreJul 24, 2014
For all the fun these folks could have had with Hercules maintaining the supernatural assistance facade, or denying it as his handlers gild his lily testifying that it’s true, the movie is content to just go through the motions. Read full review
37
Washington PostJohn DeForeJul 25, 2014
This outing does not suffer the epic badness one associates with films that aren’t screened early for critics, and in fact it offers moments of actual entertainment. It simply fails to exploit its assets: an amusing, revisionist take on the mythological strongman, and the charisma of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Read full review
33
The PlaylistGabe ToroJul 25, 2014
It's mythmaking for dummies, a Hercules with no poetry, only incompetent brute strength. Read full review
25
RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonJul 25, 2014
Watching Hercules, you can feel your intelligence being insulted in almost every frame. Read full review
20
TheWrapInkoo KangJul 25, 2014
It's a supernatural epic that never feels quite colossal or consequential enough, as well as an utter waste of Dwayne Johnson‘s unique dopey-flirty charm. Read full review
12
Slant MagazineRob HumanickJul 26, 2014
The film fluctuates haphazardly between semi-serious reverence and tongue-in-cheek camp, with no shortage of opportunities for the inevitable Rifftrax accompaniment. Read full review
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