Rating: PG-13, for sequences of intense combat action and violence, and for some sensuality.
Director Renny Harlin’s 300 rip-off is a dully derivative take on the Hercules origin story. There’s plenty of slick action violence — slowed down and then sped up, the de rigueur style these days — but it all might be too numbing to make any kind of impact. Hercules (Kellan Lutz, one of the hunky Twilight vampires), the illegitimate half-son of Zeus, doesn’t even go through all of the 12 quests as depicted in Greek mythology. But he does use his brawn to take part in plenty of battles, with various body parts and weaponry flinging themselves at us through the screen in converted 3-D. It all looks like the fake product of CGI, though, so it’s probably harmless for older kids. But you may have to have a conversation about the way Hercules was conceived, because it goes down a bit differently than they’re learning in seventh-grade health class.
