Modern aspects of the Film

Being relevant or fresh is something that a lot of films fall flat on, or at least struggle to do properly. Hercules on the other hand does a fantastic job of being relevant or consumable to a wide variety of ages and audiences for a few main reasons. The first of those reasons is the interaction between the characters and the references as well as representation that is brought up. The characters in your standard toga film will be stoic if you're a man or weak if you're a woman but overall serious no matter what or who is around. The way Hercules depicts its characters is unique in the genera in the sense that they speak to one another like we speak to a friend or family, the interactions between Hercules and Meg can be seen as awkward and cringe worthy in some instances, this is in stark contrast to the way relationships and communication is portrays in previous films in which the man knows exactly what to say and swoons the woman off her feet. In other interactions like between Hades and the three fates, Hades is shown to speak like an upset boss or a stressed man, completely unexpected of a god or a powerful figure but the fates are the same way. The four individuals communicate like work acquaintances, even having vocal gags where they cut each other off and frustration in each other's voices can be detected, it's the little things like that are what separates the mood of the film from serious to fun. Additionally to the communication between characters, the use of adult imagery in the film allows the age bracket of who can enjoy the movie to expand from young children and teens to even adults, this kind of hidden humor that goes over the heads of the children allows re-watch ability, things that you wouldn't pick up in your first watch when you were a child of 11. To get an example of the little hidden jokes the image on the right side of the page is a very obvious male genitalia hidden in the quick cuts of the fight scene, too fast or too subtle for me as a kid but It was easily picked up now. A more obvious example of hidden jokes or double meanings is when Philoctetes or Phil, insults Hercules on being distracted by Meg, saying “You can't get distracted by a pair of big goo goo eyes” while quickly getting from his chest to his eyes, poking fun at a the teenager being obsessed with a woman's figure but hidden in a PG way. Finally to talk about the representation of Hermes and even Hades in this movie, before being homosexual in these movies is a symbol or sign of being sexually deviant, however as tides turn in society we finally got Queer Coded representation. This meaning even if it is not stated specifically that the characters are gay, the references for the characters personality and even mannerisms is based on the  personality and mannerisms of a queer or gay individual. We see this specifically in Hermes and how he is shown to be flamboyant, the reason why this is more of a modern attribute is because of the fact that the directors decided to not make that a negative aspect of the character.