Arès

That's the kind of picture that the Hollywood crap factories will unfortunately never give us, concerning the characters, the scheme and especially the ending. A very very pessimistic but realistic tale about the future of the human kind. This scheme may make the audience think of George Orwell's 1984 or Yves Boisset's LE PRIX DU DANGER. A true depressing portrait of an anti hero, a man who has nothing to lose after his sister death, a desperate man ready at anything to save his nieces against a powerful and gigantic pharmaceutic company which wants to rule the world. That's a gloomy and brutal, bloody story, not for the squeamish. Ole Rapace already played in another anticipation stuff, a mini series, SECTION ZERO, which I have already talked about and where Rapace gave a similar performance. He is an underrated actor, very convincing.

So many crap movies out there get high ratings and movies like this one are down voted and buried. I saw this movie but accident on my cable TV an boy am glad I didn't change channel. Thumbs up to the makers.

I'm always interested in new plot ideas and this one was different. My main gripe was that it was pretty slow. It really didn't pick up until the last 20 minutes and then ended super quick. It was a short movie and there wasn't a lot of dialogue so I didn't mind the subtitles at all.

In France of the future the corporations are all powerful. Despite owning pretty much everything they seem bent on ruining everyone's day for more profit. It is now legal to test chemicals and robotics on people, leading to some great gizmos and some very messed up test subjects.

The title character is a boxer who ekes a living by getting his head kicked-in on cable TV. He is a quiet, moody pragmatist dedicating himself to survival.

His sister and niece have much grander ideas.

What follows is a great character study. It is the realist verses the idealist. If nobody tries to make a change then nothing changes - on the other hand you have to accept the cost that you and those around you are going to pay.

The action is fairly light, there are some fisty-cuffs but nothing to get excited about. The characters are very interesting and well cast. The filming is purposely dark and grungy - don't expect too much of Sci- Fi this is mainly about a clash of ideals.

Definitely worth a Netflix watch.

Ares is not the kind of film I'd normally watch, I've just had a spate of good luck with French cinema lately so hoped for the best.

It tells the story of a struggling futuristic France where 15 million people are unemployed and even more homeless. Prize fighting has become big business and our story follows a washed up fighter reeled back in by big pharma and their legal enhancement supplements.

Despite the subject matter this isn't the brainless macho action feature you'd expect, it's fairly smart and paints a grim dystopian future where people are desperate while the top 1% manipulate them.

I appreciated everything they did here, though it's certainly not my kind of film that made something out of a very played out formula.

Good writing saves it to a degree and I'd say this is a watchable affair for anyone who likes their action films with a hint of intelligence.

The Goood:

Well written

Fairly smart little film

The Bad:

The brainless aspects still exist

Not as polished as it could have been