Athena

Powerful, and brilliantly full of cinematic visual energy.

"Athena" succeeds from the first 10 mins continuous shot in the opening scene to soak you in with its fast pace, and ongoing tension that pushes you on the edge and doesn't fail to blow your mind with its climactic chaotic beauty and changing emotions.

Simple story executed big with great performances. I would've loved to see a bit more depth in the story, It would've strengthened the premise and given it further narrative depth than the stylistic approach, which I didn't mind much.

The cinematography is the strongest element of the movie, the visuals were striking!! It's highly impressive on the technical level, the camera work delivered such an incredible dynamic immersion that transformed you into the action.

THERE IS NOTHING SMALL ABOUT ATHENA. THEREFORE, THE ONLY WAY TO DO JUSTICE TO THIS MOVIE IS TO WRITE A REVIEW IN CAPITAL LETTERS.

IT STARTS WITH AN ATTACK ON ALL SENSES IN A SHOT THAT SEEMS TO STRETCH THROUGH THE ENTIRE MOVIE.

THE MASS SCENES OF UNREST GIVE YOU AN INSIGHT HOW A SIEGE IN ANCIENT TIMES HAVE LOOKED LIKE. AND WITH DIFFERENT COSTUMES AND WEAPONS, YOU MIGHT HAVE HAD A FEELING OF PARTICIPATING IN A BATTLE BACK THEN.

AND JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT ADRENALINE IS EVERYTHING ATHENA HAS TO OFFER, THE AUTHORS OPTED FOR EMOTIONS AND REACHED THE HEIGHTS OF AN ANCIENT GREEK TRAGEDY. THE CHARACTERS HAD TO MAKE DIFICULT CHOICES, TO SAY THE LEAST.

THE RUNNING TIME OF ROUGHLY 90 MINUTES WAS THE RIGHT DECISION. EVERYTHING BEYOND WOULD BE PERSIFLAGE.

IF I NEED TO SUM THIS ALL UP, I'D SAY ATHENA WAS MORE OF AN EXPERIENCE THAN MERELY A FILM. IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME A MOVIE I STREAMED DIDN'T MAKE ME REACH FOR THE FAST-FORWARD BUTTON. IT FELT AS IF SOMEONE WAS PUNCHING ME IN THE STOMACH DURING THE WHOLE DURATION OF THE MOVIE.

IF WE ARE TO TAKE A LIGHTER APPROACH TO THIS REVIEW, ATHENA WOULD BE HATE (1995) MEETS TROY (2004).

IN TERMS OF IMDB STARTS ATHENA IS AT THE TOP OF THE RANGE.

I was expecting a lot more from this film because I am long time admirer of both Romain Gavras work in music clips, and acting of Dali Benssalah. First of al good things: visuals!!! Piece of art, starting from first scene all the way to the very last moments of film.

Secondly very good acting by leading roles, although unrealistic emotions at some moments ruined truly epic performance. You could definitely see a lot of talent here, but really bad script, so many plot holes, mistakes and goofs. Shortly speaking film started with somewhat around 8.5 and then steadily going down. No deeper meaning or cliffhangers definitely didn't save overall poor film. 6 is being very generous and only because pros I've mentioned was at high level.

This is very good. The initial scene is one of the best intros...in the cinema history. As simple as that. Technically the film is always great and one of those that I would really have preferred to watch in a cinema room. Unfortunately, Netflix doesn't want that.

I see some people criticising the plot or the script. Well, the plot is good IMO. For a film that happens in one night I think it touches in many things and isn't even politically correct (a lot of the spectators would have preferred to blame only the police because for them is always white and black). The script is...honestly, good enough? Yeah, some dialogue is not that great, but what do you think would be the real dialogue in a situation like this one? Do you really know how these people or most people usually speak in these scenarios?

A very good film. Really surprised to see this is the first film of one of the main actors and one of those films that will force me to watch previous films of this director.

Athena is one of the most surprising films I've seen this year and I think it's safe to say I ended up loving it, I didn't know what to expect going in and this film wonderfully surprised me, while it's basically a retelling of the year between George Floyd's death and the trial in 2021, but it managed to put a few twists and turns in also.

It's a visual spectacle with a brilliant atmosphere, beautiful cinematography and truly bone cracking fight scenes, our main character, Abdel, is brilliant, Dali Benssalah put on a truly raw and powerful performance perfectly portraying the pain we all felt during the time of violence and riots.

The musical score is absolutely wonderful, wow, it's some of the best I've heard since Causeway, Athena manages to give us a driven character story while also having a somewhat breathtaking ending to pull it all together, and I'm proud to say I loved it.

Athena gets an A-