Why critics are destroying 'Ben-Hur,' which looks like the box-office disaster of the summer

With the biggest summer releases behind us, we're in that strange time in the movie year until the fall releases vying harder for awards come out.

So that brings us to the release of "Ben-Hur" this weekend, the last real attempt at a blockbuster this summer.

It's the latest retelling of the classic Lew Wallace novel best known from the 1959 Oscar-winning film version starring Charlton Heston.

The Heston version will remain the one to watch, at least according to critics who have seen the new "Ben-Hur." It currently has only a 29% ranking on Rotten Tomatoes.

The $100 million-budget Paramount release is projected to make no more than $15 million its opening weekend - a dismal return on what the studio put in, though it's still hoping religious viewers boost box-office numbers.

We've seen the movie, and though it has extremely strong action sequences, its two-hour running time leads to an epic with little story. It's inevitably forgettable.

Below are the major problems critics have with the movie.