Movie review: ‘A Warrior’s Heart’

“Twi”-guy Kellan Lutz’s ab-tastic body is about the only thing shown to its best advantage in “A Warrior’s Heart,” a ho-hum drama whose many moving parts feel decidedly recycled.

Lutz plays Conor Sullivan, a cocky, inexplicably hotheaded California high school lacrosse star, who must move east when his career-soldier father (Chris Potter) again uproots the family. But Conor’s bullish ways on — and off — his tony new school’s lacrosse field intensify when his dad’s redeployment to Iraq has tragic consequences.

A subsequent brawl with a team nemesis (“Glee’s” Chord Overstreet) leads Conor to a week of often-shirtless hard labor in a wilderness camp run by his father’s Iroquois military pal (Adam Beach), whose many lessons and maxims confound as much as enlighten.

A contrived third act finds Conor playing in the national championship against his old school. But, by then, the unlikable lug has so worn out his welcome it’s hard to care about his angsty journey, which also includes falling for his coach’s (William Mapother) defiant daughter (Ashley Greene, another “Twilight” series alum).

Perhaps most egregiously, director Mike Sears, working from Martin Dugard’s awkwardly structured, subtext-free script, builds little excitement for the game of lacrosse, which comes off here as all sticks and legs and bad camera angles.

“A Warrior’s Heart.” MPAA Rating: PG for some thematic elements, language and rough sports action. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes. At Laemmle’s Monica 4-Plex, Santa Monica.