Think about the story of hercules. At this point he is already a legend. He’s completed the labors of Hercules, accomplished all his mythological feats. He opposes the war. He has fought many battles and thinks it’s stupid for thousands to risk their life for one woman.

I think Pitt chose to portray Hercules like a retired hero who doesn’t gaf and is completely cold and emotionalless because he is a Demi god - he himself is almost one of the immortals so why would he care about the war?

The only thing Hercules cares about is his slave girlfriend and his best friend Patroclus.

And when Patroclus is murdered fighting in Herc’s armor, at the end of the film, that’s when you finally see the real Hercules. That battle with Hector is the best part of the film and pitt’s entire performance is meant to built up suspense and expectations for that climax, I thought.

I think overall the film has a lot of problems. Eric bana and Sean bean are way under utilized. Maybe his performance doesn’t make sense because the film is so inconsistent - but I definitely don’t think he was phoning it in or intentionally sunk the film. I think to some extent an actor like that HAS to play a role like this at some point and there’s got to be a lot of pressure on him because of that.