Athena

Athena

Hours after the tragic death of their youngest brother in unexplained circumstances, three siblings have their lives thrown into chaos.

  • Released: 2022-09-09
  • Runtime: 97 minutes
  • Genre: Action, Drama, Thrillers
  • Stars: Dali Benssalah, Anthony Bajon, Alexis Manenti, Ouassini Embarek, Sami Slimane, Radostina Rogliano, Karim Lasmi, Mehdi Abdelhakmi, Tarek Haddaji, Guy Donald Koukissa, Birane Ba, Sophie-Marie Larrouy
  • Director: Romain Gavras
 Comments
  • jimisinnige - 5 November 2023
    Just empty noise over and over again
    Fireworks, shouting and melodramatic music. The end. Classic worthless action movie with a melodramatic twist, which makes it even worse in this case. Don't even remember one name from the entire cast. That's how closely I felt related to any of them. Barely any dialogue or chance to familiarize with the cast. Therefore I could not give a damn about what happened to any of them. Reason for the riots is apparently some kid. No good context provided up front.

    Unrealistic as well. Not at all how a real riot would go down. Apparently infinite stock of fireworks? Film work also pretty bad if you ask me. Just one long escalation craze. No actual thrill or truly exciting moment dripping from anxiety or a true display of the situation. Couldn't get a clear picture of vibe, environment, surroundings at all, because majority of the time just zoomed in on a face or flashing between running and shouting people or fireworks.

    Just.. really bad. Dont watch it.
  • edlaxton - 8 April 2023
    All the fireworks in France
    Lots of fireworks, balletically launched at faceless cops (who are given no character whatsoever) by raging youth. Sadly, with little in the way of character development, it's left to the viewer to guess what motivates whom.

    More like an extended music video than a serious drama, stick to La Haine or some of the episodes from Engrenage/ Spiral season 4.

    As for the cops, who knows what they think and what their plan is. France is depicted on the brink of social collapse with the army standing by.

    Most wasted of all is Abdel, who is painted in simplistic terms, from angry bereaved brother to moments away from murdering a cop.
  • griffithxjohnson - 30 December 2022
    Powerful yet overwhelming
    Every aspect is high quality. Put any scene in a vacuum & it's incredible. The issue is that it's the same thing every scene. Minimal plot & character development. Powerful performance & messages but it feels numbingly repetitive.

    . .

    . Every aspect is high quality. Put any scene in a vacuum & it's incredible. The issue is that it's the same thing every scene. Minimal plot & character development. Powerful performance & messages but it feels numbingly repetitive.

    . .

    . Every aspect is high quality. Put any scene in a vacuum & it's incredible. The issue is that it's the same thing every scene. Minimal plot & character development. Powerful performance & messages but it feels numbingly repetitive.
  • reredanang - 28 November 2022
    Need next athena
    Has an interesting storyline and lots of surprises given so you don't feel bored, but it's lacking in film shooting.has an interesting storyline and lots of surprises given so you don't feel bored, but it's lacking in film shooting, and it still doesn't show the core of the story in the shooting process so it's like in a hurry.

    Has an interesting storyline and lots of surprises given so you don't feel bored, but it's lacking in film shooting, and it still doesn't show the core of the story in the shooting process so it's like in a hurry Has an interesting storyline and lots of surprises given so you don't feel bored, but it's lacking in film shooting.
  • pieralexrousseau - 27 October 2022
    This is a pure cinematographic skills flex.
    Let's be honest, there isn't much realistic in Athena. I understand that police brutality can cause tension, but to the point where an entire hood is taken as a fort so police has to attack it as a medieval fort might be a little extreme. But... if you but realism aside, this movie is actually quite good.

    The best part of the movie is definitively the cinematography. The movie is simply beautiful, and the number of long sequence shots is really high, and they are done to perfection. The introduction to a movie hasn't got me as excited as Athena's intro, it cut the blabla and goes straight in with a crazy sequence shot, probably the best in the whole movie.

    In terms of scenario, it's fine. Nothing revolutionary, just back and forth from the hood and the police, both using tactics seen often in cinema. Actors are fine too; they get the job done, but no impressive performance.

    Yeah, this movie is a cinematographic skills flex, and tbh I found it enough to carry the whole movie. Would recommend, especially if you speak french.
  • david-meldrum - 10 October 2022
    Immersive, Exciting But Lacks Broader Context
    It seems a little unfair to say that the one-take tracking shot can be he refuge of a lazy film-maker trying to show off a box of tricks; executing these well requires rigorous work and commitment. Sometimes it is true that these moments do more to pull you out of the film than to immerse you in it. No such problem here - the dazzling opening (apparently an 11-minute shot that may be 3 or 4 well stitched together) is nothing if not immersive. The sequence moves from the intimate to the large-scale brilliantly; it's audacious, thrilling and brilliantly executed.

    The whole film is well-executed, and immersive throughout. We are plunged into an urban war zone, and there's no way out. Like the characters, we're here whether we like it or not; action sequences are brutal and visually striking. What it lacks is context and true emotional engagement; it may play into the sense of immersion to reduce our orientation with the rest of the world to overheard television and radio reports, but it means that if the film has any broader social-political concerns then they're lost in the whirlpool of action.

    It reminds me of several other films, none of which it matches in quality - '71, Girlhood, 1917 are three that come to mind. It threatens style over substance; appropriately there are strong echoes of the director's video for the Jay-Z & Kanye West track 'No Church In The Wild', a video which like the film loves the visual power of a Molotov cocktail. It would be unfair to suggest that this film has all the depth of a music video; it's better than that, and that particular video is for a really good, clever song. It's not a bad film; there's a lot here to suggest some really significant achievements lie in the director's future. This is good, promising better to come; just don't expect the political or social commentary the film things it's giving, which is drowned out by a yearning for an epic, operatic scale (nods to the tiresome music) that it can't quite achieve without the emotional or thematic depth it needs.