The Legend of Hercules is a 2014 film starring Kellan Lutz as the titular Greek hero of Classical Mythology, who is destined to stop the mad king Amphitryon's rule. It also stars Scott Adkins and Liam McIntyre, and is directed by Renny Harlin.
This film provides examples of:
- Adaptation Species Change: Chiron is a centaur in the original myths, but here he is a normal human.
- And Now You Must Marry Me: Iphicles tries to force Hebe, Hercules's love interest, into a marriage.
- Ancient Grome
- Hercules becomes a gladiator. The Romans invented Gladiator Games, not the Greeks.
- The Greek soldiers use a testudo formation, and call it by that (Latin) name.
- The name Hercules itself is the Roman form of the Greek Herakles.
- Attacking Through Yourself: This is how Iphicles is killed when he holds Hebe hostage. She stabs herself through the chest, barely missing her heart to hit his through her back, and amazingly survives.
- Bloodless Carnage: To the point that what seems like a decapitation ends up with the dead person having his helmet knocked off with the head still on his shoulders.
- Casting Gag: Kellan Lutz, a devout Christian in real life, playing the Greek demigod Hercules.
- Combat by Champion: Amphitryon conquers Argos by killing the King. Hercules at the end makes a similar offer to Amphitryon but the latter refuses.
- Everybody Loves Zeus: Hera allowed her husband to cheat on her with Alcmene so that Hercules could be born and become a hero to Greece.
- Faking the Dead: Hercules is at first known by his birth name Alcides, but was named Hercules by Hera. After surviving an Uriah Gambit, he takes the name Hercules so that Alcides can be reported as dead.
- A God I Am Not: Hercules says he's just a man despite being the son of Zeus.
- Hijacked by Jesus: Hercules's conception. Instead of Zeus having sex with his mother Alcmene while disguised as Amphitryon, Hera appears to Alcmene to tell her that she can become the mother of Zeus's son who will deliver the land from evil. Alcmene allows it, and Hera names the son Hercules. This is rather evocative of the angel Gabriel appearing to Jesus's mother Mary as told in the Gospel of Luke in The Bible.
- In Name Only: The story has little to do with the legend of Hercules. If anything it feels like it steals a thing or two from the 2011 film adaptation of Marvel Comics' Thor, most obviously the conflict between a fair haired hero (Hercules) and his evil dark haired brother (Iphicles).
- Mystical Pregnancy: Possibly combined with Express Delivery. Zeus somehow impregnates Alcmene without taking a physical form. She starts to act up in bed even though there is apparently nobody else present.
- Rogues' Gallery Transplant: One of the opponents Hercules has to face is called Humbaba. This is the name of an enemy of the Mesopotamian hero Gilgamesh, and thus not even from Greek mythology at all.
- Shirtless Scene: Hercules with Hebe. Not counting the scenes where he fights without chest armor.
- Shock and Awe: In the final battle, Hercules calls upon Zeus who charges his sword into a lightning whip.
- Unexplained Recovery: During the climax, Hebe stabbed herself to kill Iphicles and seems to die herself. Then, the next scene we saw her completely alright without a single explanation about how she survives.
- The Unfavorite: Iphicles is this compared to Hercules, fueling his antagonism, due to his mother focusing more on raising Hercules as the chosen hero that is destined to stop a great evil while his father blatantly regarded him as a disappointment. He makes it a point when attempting to force Hebe to marry him to demand that she will bear his children and she will love them equally afterwards.
- Uriah Gambit: Hercules is sent away to the wars in Egypt so he can be disposed of.
