Arès

Amazing. Dystopian vision encapsulated in fairly short, yet well served story. It's barebone, it's told consequently, characters are credible (even though stereotypes are used heavily) and the makers managed not only to fit into the story large, unpleasant vision of broken society but also how it influences ordinary people relationships, way of thinking and how burdensome simple decency might be. And the level of world-building details, all of them placed well and presented naturally - oh, it's really great.

Sci-fi was always about warning and exploring possible futures of mankind and cyberpunk sub-genre dwells on particularly disillusioned assessment of human nature. Make no mistake, this is not William Gibson copy, it is original piece and has unique touch to it (Eiffel tower burdened with giant commercial displays is really a view to remember). Yet given how the western society looks like nowadays it continues to underline and repeat the vision of very pessimistic consequences down that path. We can get a glimpse on that terrifying future walking along with Ares, ex professional boxer, riot cop hired for hours whos dream of decent, peaceful life is a corner kiosk. Ares is forced to get back on the ring and well, things go south at some point.

The crates and secured doors. The groceries bought through small slipping hole (so the shop robbery isn't that easy). The shop-keeper speaking through mic and pushing away regular customer, a total negative of still existing cozy small-shop topos with keeper knowing his regulars and chatting with them about their lives. Such details, small touches, consequently presented throughout the movie make this world terrifyingly alive and... possible.

Must see for cyberpunk fans, should see for anyone who likes condensed, yet complete story with good visuals.

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.

Amazingly well done. An excellent example of what genuine quality writing and story telling can do, without having to rely on big budget CGI and cliché' gimmicks.

The premise of the film is not at all implausible, and much of the precursor elements that are the core criteria of this story are readily observable in current times.

If anything, this darkish glimpse into a foreboding near future realm may be a bit too realistic for some, who are already keenly aware of these precursor elements in their current form.

Stylistically, it does have some hints of the original Blade Runner tone to it, though not nearly as far into the future realm that BR portrays. The premise of Ares is much more gritty, down to earth, immersed into the frailties and challenges of the human condition, extruded through the mandrill of a dystopian near future world of crushing economic disparity mapped against corporate intrigues and corruption with a particularly ironic twist, the relevancy of which becomes immediately apparent within the first few minutes of the film.

This is one of those productions which could have turned out very badly, if mishandled with clumsy direction or cheesy cardboard characters, which has become all too common in typical Hollywood productions.

Thankfully, however, this is not one of those examples, but rather a refreshingly rare example to the contrary.

Aside from a couple of minor plot holes, which the viewer can discover for themselves, I give this production a very solid 9 out of 10 stars.

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.

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.