The Legend of Hercules is a 2014 action fantasy directed by Renny Harlin, written by Daniel Giat and Sean Hood, and distributed by Lionsgate. It runs 99 minutes and stars Kellan Lutz as Hercules, Scott Adkins as his tyrannical stepfather King Amphitryon, Gaia Weiss as Hebe, Liam McIntyre as Sotiris and Roxanne McKee as Alcmene. It holds a 5 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 80 reviews, with an average score of 2.7 out of 10, and a Metascore of 22.

This film would have been a smash hit with a couple of small changes.

One, hire a lead actor who can act. Two, rewrite the entire script so that it is not trash. Three, do not make it.

Three tiny tweaks. Absolutely enormous hit.

What I actually sat through was a genuinely awful experience, and I want to go through why.

There was nothing going for Hercules. Nothing at all. And I am in extremely good company on that, because the near-universal critical line at the time was that Lutz looks excellent in the fight sequences, was very obviously cast for his physique, and possesses no charisma whatsoever. One review suggested the entire cast, Lutz especially, should sign up for advanced acting classes.

But the single best detail attached to this production is this. Harlin, the director, specifically instructed Lutz not to bulk up for the role. Lutz had wanted to transform his body for it, and Harlin told him no, he simply wanted his abs to pop out a bit more. And despite that restraint, reviewers at the time still came away convinced that the physique on screen was partly computer generated. So the man was told not to go to the gym, complied, and people assumed it was fake regardless. A genuinely remarkable result for everybody concerned.

The rest of the film is an equivalent mess. The script reaches constantly for things it has not earned, including a series of rousing battle speeches that one reviewer accurately identified as somebody having watched Braveheart and The Return of the King and concluding that what this needed was more speeches. They are emotionless and forced.

Commercially it was a disaster. It cost roughly $70 million and took $61.3 million worldwide, of which only $18.8 million came from its domestic run.

It was subsequently nominated for four Razzies, which is to say a clean sweep of the headline categories: Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Actor for Lutz and Worst Actress for Gaia Weiss.