55
Metascore
21 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 70The Hollywood ReporterThe Hollywood ReporterIt is a pleasure to see Weisz's scenes of scientific inquiry, which capture the passion of research and discovery without artifice or pretension. That the scientist is a woman makes it all the more engaging.
- 70VarietyTodd McCarthyVarietyTodd McCarthyThe mother of all secular humanists fights a losing battle against freshly minted religious zealots in Agora, a visually imposing, high-minded epic that ambitiously puts one of the pivotal moments in Western history onscreen for the first time.
- 70New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNew York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinWeisz is an excellent Hypatia. For all her intelligence, there's something childish, off-kilter, vaguely otherworldly in her aura. She's just the type to be gazing into the heavens while around her all hell breaks loose.
- 70The New York TimesA.O. ScottThe New York TimesA.O. ScottA bit of a puzzle. This is a good thing, since most movies plop down in easily recognizable categories and stay there, troubling neither their own intellectual inertia nor that of the audience.
- 70SlateDana StevensSlateDana StevensLike "Spartacus," this movie is engaging because it's actually about something: the love of learning, the clash between science and religious faith, and the grim fact that political change often proceeds on the foundation of mob violence and genocide. Agora engages more effectively with this kind of big historical idea than it does with human drama.
- Best enjoyed as a rousing period piece.
- 60EmpireEmpireAlways intelligent and thought-provoking, it's a welcome return from Amenábar.
- 50Village VoiceVillage VoiceWhat's missing is a satisfying, plausible middle ground where heady ideas and metaphors coalesce into compelling drama.
- 40Time OutNick SchagerTime OutNick SchagerMerely a paint-by-numbers condemnation of social intolerance. It's a slog of a sermon.
- 25New York PostV.A. MusettoNew York PostV.A. MusettoThere are a few exciting battle sequences and the sets are lavish, but mostly the film meanders aimlessly for more than two hours. No wonder new sword-and-sandal movies are in short supply.