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iolausian-fields · 1 year ago

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I have bad news, and good news.

Both HTLJ and XWP have 1 clip show per season (except HTLJ s1 and s6 because they are shorter). The first HTLJ clip show is really clunky. But because it was so lazily done (I think both Sorbo and Tapert have called it one of their least favorite episodes), it is obvious they really took that to heart and from then on really tried to bring something different to the clip shows. And many of those episodes are actually fan favorites.

The reason this movie is a clip show is because they originally only were meant to make 4 movies. When Universal ordered a fifth one they were low on time (and presumingly budget) so they had to make do. That said, as long as you fast forward/ignore the flashback scenes in this movie, it is my favorite of the five. Probably because of all the cozy scenes where the characters are just happy and familiar with each other. And Iolaus being in danger - definitely a sucker for that.

I must confess I don’t get the same vibe of Hercules not being entirely happy being a family man. Or I mean, of course his longing for adventure is there, but I don’t think it’s weird or problematic? Or even uncharacteristic. I can reminisce about the time I could play games for a week straight without doing anything productive at all, and sometimes you wish you could have that again just for a tiny little while. That doesn’t mean I actually want to trade my family for it, or regret my life choices. I think it’s a very natural part of being a parent or just generally growing up and having responsibilities in your life. I think Hercules absolutely LOVES being a father, it's farming that is dull. He’s just being nostalgic.

And it comes back at the end of the movie. Adventuring was fun and all, but when it’s all said and done they are both very happy to return to their families.

This is enough for Hercules who then kills the Minotaur in a fashion similar to a death we saw flashbacked early on.

Sidenote: The actual move he uses is a copy of the flying kick Iolaus did in the bar fight right after he said "Herc, watch this!" Which is just such a cute little detail. That is also the first time we hear Iolaus call him 'Herc'. Which I feel confident is an ad-lib. 💜

I could gush over this movie forever. There are so many scenes that just make me go *squeee*.

Hercules in the Maze of the Minotaur

The great HTLJ/XWP/YH (re)watch continues!

Real talk, I watched this March 11 (it is now June 20) and then some things happened but I'm back now to type up my thoughts and my notes don't currently make any sense, so I'm going to have to skim through the movie again to remind myself.

Before I reorient myself, I want to highlight my favourite no-context notes I made to myself:

HORSE

Dei looks HOT tits out at dinner lmao

CLips show

Now to remind myself what the hell this movie from 3 months ago was...

OH RIGHT. Okay.

So these chuckleheads traded cows for a map to this place, and they think they're gonna get the treasure of the god or something. I immediately noticed that the door was locked from the outside, and (to his credit) one of them also realizes this halfway through trying to open it, and they have a moment of debate about opening the door, but sadly the titular Minotaur busts out!

From my notes: "That guy fainted haha" Seriously IDK why the one guy just fainting while the other runs for his life tickles me, but it does.

I think the "HORSE" note was just about the massive horse that Hercules has at home because that was my reaction on this rewatch as well haha.

Hercules's sons are fighting, and when Herc tells them the rule is no fighting they argue with him that he fights people all the time. Herc says he only does that to keep people from getting hurt, and when he asks if they understand they're just like "No" and shake their heads like "you make no sense" and honestly that's such a real scene kid reaction. "I am choosing not to accept this rule, thanks!" XD

We then get the first of many extended flashbacks to prior movies.

HILARIOUSLY, it did not occur to me the first time that this was going to be a recurring thing. I was like "huh that's weird they're referencing the last movie. I guess this will be important".... Ugh.

Zeus shows up and asks Hercules if he misses adventuring. He says he does, which I thought was interesting! He first starts off saying nobody has come to him for help in a while, but then he sort of implies that he's staying at home with his wife and kids because of an agreement he made with her? I felt a bit weird about his line delivery there because I think we're just supposed to think he misses the fun of the adventures, but it comes off as a little like "well, I love my kids, but...". (Even tho in the last movie he got distracted staring at them.)

Anyway then Zeus gives him a sea serpent scale (which I was immediately very suspicious of, because I don't trust Zeus) and then we get another flashback, which I literally fast-forwarded through, and this is where I went "oh no..."

I'm not a fan of clip shows. 😅

Then we get the tits-out dinner scene I noted before. Damn, Dei is pretty (though her hair is a bit untamed here). How do they only have 3 kids?

We then get a bunch of shots of the Minotaur's lair and a few teaser shots of the Minotaur.

Then it's back to the house, Herc is putting his kids to bed. They request a story before bed, and since the first two the boys suggest didn't happen in the movies, we instead get a flashback to the movie where Herc meets Dei.

(Fast forward...)

The kids fell asleep, but Dei was into it and she takes our man to bed.

SURPRISINGLY, Herc didn't have a flashback dream overnight! So Herc is going about his morning and BAM!

Iolaus attacks him in the barn. (Playfully.) Now, can I just say, as someone coming from having watched the beginning of Young Hercules first, how nice a callback this is? Like, I realize they were conceived out of order, so the Young Hercules episode 1 scene where Iolaus attacks Herc (playfully) is a reference to this, but what a lovely little parallel! ♥ I love them. Look at how they look at each other.

They start talking about their farms, which honestly seems like exactly what they would talk about since they're both trying to manage farms? But I guess they thought the audience would be like "this is boring" because Iolaus launches into his own "remember the time"...

They then chat fireside and there's so much like, flirtatious vibes from Iolaus? Though I thought their banter was really cute, platonic or otherwise. They kinda tease each other but they're both so happy, it's really nice. I just love when characters clearly like each other this much.

But Iolaus manages to goad Hercules into a sparring match, which leads to the best line in the movie: "Mommy, what's Daddy doing to Uncle Iolaus?" And not just because it's a hilarious line, but also the little girl's line delivery is so precious.

We then get a really sweet scene where Dei and Iolaus talk privately and she confides that Herc has been going a bit stiry crazy. I really believed the worry Dei had for her spouse and her genuine grattitude for Iolaus's friendship with Herc for Herc's sake. We then find out through Iolaus confiding his own hardships to Dei that he's struggling with losing his wife and having to raise their child (I think just the one?) alone. Dei comforts Iolaus a bit. I really liked this whole part.

Then it's ruined by the original guy (who ran) coming to get help from Herc with the Minotaur.

Hercules turns down the request for help - shocking both Dei and Iolaus. And also, understandably, disappointing the dude who came for help.

Dei convinces Herc to go - more for Herc's sake than the people he'd be helping (such a good wife!). Iolaus invites himself along. (And is cute about it, trying to get Herc to admit how helpful he is.)

Another stupid flashback about the giant Herc fought.

Brief interlude where Zeus shows up, and then it's another fucking flashback. (I was fast forwarding so much, my husband thought I didn't like the movie.)

There's a little fireside scene with the three of them where Zeus mocks them for acting like kids when they have kids, and I again got this weird vibe of like "we don't like being parents" which I honestly find really uncomfortable. I understand that parenting is hard and some people genuinely don't enjoy it, but it's kind of a weird impression to give because of how into his family Herc was in the movie before this one. You can love your kids and still like adventure, no? Anyway it's a subtle thing, they don't come right out and say "I wish I'd never had kids", it's just a weird vibe that I think is more meant to convey the desire for adventure.

Zeus then gets weird when he finds out where the boys are going, and immediately fucks off after a half-assed attempt at dissuading them. By now the audience would know this means Zeus is hiding something about his involvement/knowledge of whatever is going on there.

There's a brief bit where a couple is sneaking away from town to boink and they end up in the Minotaur's lair and he captures them. It's kinda gross as we see them put into these weird coccoon things.

The boys get to town but are told there's no monster and everything is fine.

The Minotaur is then shown to be stoked Herc has arrived, and talks about how much he wants to kill him. Zeus then shows up where the Minotaur is and it's revealed that Zeus turned him into this monster as punishment for something, and that they haven't seen each other in 100 years. Zeus says he should have killed the Minotaur before, and tries to again, but just can't bring himself to do so. The Minotaur announces that he just keeps getting bigger and stronger and he won't be satisfied until he hurts Zeus (which Zeus doesn't think he can do). We as the audience know that the Minotaur is after Hercules, but does Zeus?

Then we cut back to the boys in the pub and get the worst flashback of all!!!

Iolaus apparently tells this random woman all about the plot of Movie 1, which he absolutely should not remember, because the plot of that movie ends with Hercules going back in time to NOT let the plot pan out as it had (in order to save Iolaus's life). The memory he relays is one from the series of events that was undone by the time rewind, so Iolaus should not have been telling this story.

It's bad enough to have a clip show, but the internal logic doesn't even make sense. Not that this series of movies has been really careful with "canon" anyway, but dang!!

Anyway then there's a really long fight scene where the whole pub gets thrashed and all the patrons decide to try to fight Hercules for... saying his name is Hercules. Herc wins (Iolaus also does well but gets knocked out at the end) and then takes Iolaus to bed. No, I'm just kidding, he rents two rooms, and deposits Iolaus into one before taking the second for himself.

While Herc is sleeping, some of the losers of the bar fight decide they're gonna kill Hercules, but the Minotaur kills them and frames Hercules for it. The entire town sees Hercules standing over their dead bodies holding a sword (that he literally picked up at the scene) and they mob after him.

Hercules wakes up Iolaus and punches a hole in the wall so they can escape. The mob catches up to them anyway, though, because they head down a dead-end alley (in a rural village?). Luckily the ground swallows some guy and also Iolaus and the mob is confused enough to pause. The brother from the beginning of the movie shows up and Hercules asks if he knows where the monster lives, so off they go.

They run into Zeus on the way. Zeus tries to warn Herc not to go down there, the thing is a terrible monster, etc. He reveals that it was once a very handsome man, but eventually tried to turn a bunch of people against the gods, etc. Zeus cursed him to be "as ugly as his heart". Zeus bemoans not being able to kill him when he had the chance. Hercules knows there's something more to the story, but Zeus won't say what.

Zeus then claims to have never asked Herc to do anything for him... which... I call shenanigans on? What about the previous movies? The Circle of Fire in particular comes to mind. Anyway. Whatever. Zeus wants Herc to kill the monster.

Herc enters the lair with a couple guys from town who the Minotaur kills and it's kinda gross.

Once Herc gets to the Minotaur we finally get a full reveal, and because they seem to have used practical effects, I actually think the visuals on it aged really well! His mouth moves when he talks and he really moves in the space in a believable way (which is not always the case in these movies/shows).

The Minotaur claims that Herc's been "given" everything his whole life, like fame and glory... which Herc denies, saying he's worked for what he has. I think you could probably unpack a lot there, but I think we've seen Herc's life hasn't been easy by any stretch, demi-god abilities or not.

Eventually the Minotaur reveals that he's Hercules's brother, that he's the son of Zeus and that Zeus couldn't kill him because he couldn't kill his own son. At this point, Hercules refuses to fight him, despite the Minotaur insisting.

But the Minotaur forces his hand, saying if Herc won't fight him, he's gonna kill Iolaus. This is enough for Hercules who then kills the Minotaur in a fashion similar to a death we saw flashbacked early on.

Zeus then shows up, and it's kinda cold? The Minotaur is still dying, and Zeus is just like "Sorry son" to Hercules and they just talk like the Minotaur isn't there? DYING? Hercules says he understands why Zeus couldn't tell him, and says he's just sorry Zeus had to lose a son.

I was really surprised there was no mourning for the loss of the possiblity of getting to know his brother or change his nature or anything... which I assume was why Herc didn't want to fight him a minute earlier? But whatever, they beat the bad guy...

Zeus then is like "I loved you, son" to his dying monster kid, but like, in a "and I don't now" tone. The Minotaur begs Zeus not to let him "die this way" (I think meaning ugly?) and then dies, and then Zeus turns him back into a (dead) man, and says "You're free now" and IDK MAN, it just didn't really work for me... Did not like.

Then Hercules saves Iolaus from the pods, and they let everyone else free. They decide to go home.

On the way home, Hercules remarks that he doesn't want to go on any adventures for a while, and Iolaus agrees...

...which makes me SO CONFUSED how the show ends up starting after this movie, so I can't wait to see!!

Final thoughts:

A bit thin on plot? I clocked that the Minotaur was Zeus's son right away, and it felt like a weird reveal.

Herc and Io were soooo keen on an adventure, but then came home wanting to not do that for a while... When do they decide to go on their Legendary Journeys? I'm starting to wonder if I'm stupid and these movies take place after the show chronologically haha.

On that note, Herc still has a wife and 3 kids, and Iolaus has at least one kid (no wife tho...)

Boo to clip shows. I hope there aren't many in the show proper. I kinda forgot they were a thing.

Hercules and Iolaus are a great dynamic! I love Michael Hurst.

I trust and like Zeus less the more I see of him. I don't think he will protect my boys and I don't like that haha.

What is going to happen to Dei????? I like her... I'm scared haha. Anya got written off without even an explanation just "she's gone" kinda thing.

Overall I'd say the relationships between Herc, Dei, and Iolaus were the standout bits. 🥰

Now I get to start the show proper!!

#hercules in the maze of the minotaur #the great (re)watch #htlj

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