British Actress Blog

Agora (2009)

Score: Perfect 10/10

Director: Alejandro Amenábar

Stars: Rachel Weisz, Oscar Isaac, Max Minghella.

Agora

Rachel Weisz

Synopsis: A historical drama set in Egypt, concerning a slave who turns to the changing tides of religion while falling in love with his mistress, the famous philosophy and mathematics professor Hypatia of Alexandria.

Review: In the ancient world of Alexandria Egypt, ideas where in there renaissance. It was to be an exciting time full of wonder and hope for the future, but this movie is not a fairytale. In real life we have a philosophy and mathematics professor by the name of Hypatia. A woman born in the wrong age is what some might think. Her way of thinking is more so accepted in today’s world but in ancient times, not really. So many where into their religious ideologies and they where violent as hell and fanatical.

Orestes

Oscar Isaac

Of course Oscar Isaac does a great job in this film as the character ( Orestes ). He is one of the best actors period. Its been great to see him act along side another top notch actor James McAvoy in the X-men: Apocalypse (2016) movie and the work he has done in the movie Ex Machina (2014). Not to mention Star Wars Episode 7 (2015) as Poe Dameron. He really looks like he is from the time period in this film and so does Max Minghella as Davus, who is a slave that is in love with Hypatia and feels the pain of it.

Hypatia

Taking her Stand

The dichotomous war of two ideologies and the barbaric, nonsensical, monkey minded, and hairless ape fighting. The Stanley Kubrick movie 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is what comes to mind. The Bone Apes battle each other for supremacy just like the ideology war is this film Agora (2009). The ‘If they are not like us, destroy them!’ state of mind is the same as the Bone Apes in the Kubrick movie, which is perfectly fitting in explaining what is going on in the mind of the dichotomous charters of the Agora movie. This movie, Agora can make you disgusted with human kind. To think that these ideology wars are still going on today and the fact that so many people are living in this hell is horrible. Humans. A lot of films show aliens and monsters as the big bad but I have to say that sometimes us humans take the cake as the worse of the worse. We are not talking about fiction but a real life event that actually took place on this planet earth.

A professor of

the ancient world

You can’t help but knowing that even though this is a Hollywood film, cutting down the story of a person’s life into two hours of film, framing the film in such a way to make certain people into the bad guys, and the different way of thinking in today’s day and age, that there is a whole lot of truth in the story not just in the life of Hypatia but the mentality of the world that we live in. This film is far more than a story of someone’s life, but also a reflection of the bipedal creature that is on top of the food chain, has domesticated every animal, concord almost every science, and has learned how to eliminate an entire civilization with advanced military weapons. Us humans can be worse than any science fiction monster or any creature in the darkest reaches of hell.

Hypatia

of Alexandria

Top quality movie of the highest kind. Its rare that I give any movie a perfect score but here it is. Egypt looks so authentic. The set dressing, wardrobe, and props are nothing less than perfection. The film is written the way films should be written. Every scene serves the purpose of advancing the plot. The writing technique of ‘set up and pay off’ is very present in this film, which goes to show you how well thought out the screen play is. the characters serve the plot and not the other way around, which is very well done. The movie has no trouble getting you into the story from the first frame. The cinematography is perfect. The film makes you feel as though you are there with the charters as this event takes place. This movie has perfect use of wide screen shots. The musical score is well fitting to the moods of the characters. The pacing and speed of the film is perfect as well. The lighting is flawless. This is one of the best films in media today.

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