All Critics (86)
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Top Critics (20)
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Fresh (44)
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Rotten (42)
This Spanish-produced period drama is pretty dreadful: the drama is torpid, the astronomy lessons pedantic, and the spear-and-sandal production values flat-out cheesy.
Although the movie's history is spotty, its dialogue is sometimes clunky, and time frames are telescoped, its overall impact packs a powerful punch.
Manages to mix philosophy, history, hysteria and a love triangle and still be something of a bore.
Some may consider "Agora" sound history, others may label it heresy, but I call it thumping good drama.
Agora, Alejandro Amenabar's absorbing historical drama, proves that, in an era of movies made for iPhones with artistic ambitions to match, there are still filmmakers willing to swing for the fences.
An interesting but often frustrating effort by the director of The Sea Inside, who proves that ambition and talent aren't enough to ensure a compelling drama.
Filled with literal and metaphysical stone throwing between the religions, Agora is saddled with a muddy narrative and too many blokes who look alike.
Ambitious, sprawling and melodramatic, this sword-and-sandal epic lacks subtlety and struggles to provide much charm - ultimately dissolving into a rather obvious morality tale about the rise of fundamentalism.
Un digno retrato de época - no exento de ciertas simplificaciones - que logra recuperar con interés un período histórico y una figura olvidada como la de Hipatia (buena labor de Rachel Weisz).
Agora could have been a powerfully subversive feminist film, but while it does have its moments it never truly lives up to its ambitious potential.
Somehow sessions of platonic inquiry interleaved with scenes of battle and riots do not make for a very gripping film. This one is sludgy in the extreme.
Earnest but dull, Agora is about the clash of science and religion, but the filmmaking elements never quite create the necessary sparks.
A flat-footed, studious stroll through what most folks would consider a long-forgotten chapter of history.
Alejandro Amenábar creates a palpable sense of place and never strays too far from his duty to stage big, sense-filling set pieces.
Well researched, and anchored by Rachel Weisz's impressive lead performance, this is a fascinating film that avoids the Hollywood epic route.
A contentious piece of history in which we see how the most primitive aspects of fundamental religious beliefs drove public life and generated hatreds ...
How can it be that this powerful, exciting, provocative movie has been all but overlooked this year?
A landscape where heart and head can collide in a great fury, and when the world felt like it could go one way or the other.
Just preaching to the choir - even a secular choir - isn't enough.
Despite noble intentions and bloody nods to religious intolerance, this historic epic can feel like a drippy toga party
Despite the bloodthirstiness of the Christian mob there's a surprising lack of dramatic tension.
All of the ideas and themes it puts forth are fascinating and could be quite enlightening for the modern age, if the film they were attached to was even a tiny bit fun to watch.
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