Drew M

Beautiful, dark, quasi-religious, technically brilliant. But I don't think Netflix was the place for this. We're so used to passive, lazy viewing of movies on streaming services that I worry a gem like this will be met with confusion and eyerolls. If Athena got some critical buzz, select cinema showings, and lauded by some indie movie festivals, people would be drooling over it and lavishing it with praise. I don't think everyone is going to understand this one, because it's a unique beast that doesn't spoon-feed, and tackles some incredibly sensitive topics with actual nuance. In short, a recipe for disaster in an online landscape where people appear to be allergic to differential perspectives and acknowledging complexity. I loved how all perspectives were viewed with realism and honesty in this movie - I found myself huffing in disappointment halfway through that I didn't feel able to 100% "root" for any one character, but I think that was the intended point. Everyone in this movie does wrong in varying degrees, and I think that's something that audiences aren't used to. It's emotionally easier to watch a flick about a perfect good guy and an evil, moustache-twirling bad guy going head to head because you are being told who to root for. But reality, especially the reality of something as complex as civil war, is not so simple. I've seen some people say there wasn't enough character development, but I honestly do not believe it would have fit with the movie at all - it is intended to be moment-to-moment and in survival mode, and so it runs as such. To have a character pause to give exposition, a flashback or a monologue would completely ruin the realism and pace of the movie. Athena really convincingly pulls off the feeling of being in survival mode and meeting strangers along the way, and it perfectly captures the weird feeling of instant closeness you feel with a total stranger when you encounter a terror attack, natural disaster, or a wartime scenario. You are stripped down to "can I trust you?" and "can you help me survive?" I genuinely feel like people who have had the luxury of not living through a horrific experience like this may not understand what Athena gets down so accurately. I think a lot of people won't understand this movie, but that only speaks to its credit, and its effectiveness at translating the harrowing, endless cycle of revenge and violence. It's an amazing Greek tragedy.