Uber-hack Brett Ratner's adaptation of Radical Comics' Thracian Wars strip has already ruffled feathers within the comics community, with writer Alan Moore calling upon fans of the late Steve Moore (who wrote the source material) to boycott "this wretched film". While the end result is palpably stupid, it's not as terrible as one might expect.

Dwayne Johnson is no Steve Reeves, but he seems to have fun debunking and then rebuilding the Hercules myth, ably surrounded by a team of scenery-chewing thesps (you can almost taste John Hurt's pay cheque) who roll eyes and Rs with pantomime relish. Murky 3D silliness abounds as Dwayne and his band of merry warriors variously throw knives, butt heads and wear short skirts.

The primary palette is 300-lite, with blood-letting pre-cuts helping to achieve a super-lenient 12 certificate despite shouty anachronistic swearing (one "fucking centaurs", plus assorted "shit", "crap" and "bastards") and a high body count. Not terrible, then, although Pompeii was funnier and had better visual effects.