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. full review

Although the movie's history is spotty, its dialogue is sometimes clunky, and time frames are telescoped, its overall impact packs a powerful punch. full review

Manages to mix philosophy, history, hysteria and a love triangle and still be something of a bore. full review

Some may consider "Agora" sound history, others may label it heresy, but I call it thumping good drama. full review

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. full review

Agora is entertaining, and even at times illuminating. full review

It's still more than watchable thanks to the ministrations of a talented director, Spain's Alejandro Amenábar, but the togas seem to have brought out the stiff, declamatory earnestness in everyone. full review

I went to see Agora expecting an epic with swords, sandals and sex. I found swords and sandals, some unexpected opinions about sex, and a great deal more. full review

The human story of Agora is not only smaller in scale than the sweep of geohistory but considerably less interesting. full review

With fire in her eyes and the riddle of the solar system in her brain, Weisz struggles in fleshing out a historical character well worth a movie, though frustratingly sketchy as written here. full review

I wish the movie kind of caught fire for me. full review

This lavish Spanish production begins to plod after a brisk, lively first half. full review

The biggest problem is that Gil and Amenábar haven't been able to make the script hold together and there are times, especially with the love triangle, when things veer into the cheesy. full review

The skeptical and the secular also need stories of martyrdom and rousing acts of cinematic preaching.

There 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. full review

To its credit, the film calls out Christianity's ignominious imperialism and locates a valid historical analogue to the religious extremism of today. Yet good intentions shan't save Amenbar from his own ham-fisted methods. full review

Given all the weighty colloquia, Agora has remarkably few bad laughs, and the CGI re-creations of ancient Alexandria are so detailed I wanted to freeze the frame and linger on the city's layout. full review

A great example of bravura filmmaking by a gifted young international filmmaker. full review

The mother of all secular humanists fights a losing battle against freshly minted religious zealots in "Agora," a visually imposing, high-minded epic. full review