By Brian Lafferty

August 8, 2010 (San Diego)—Don’t go into Agora, which was released to theaters on July 30, expecting something along the lines of 300. It is more intellectual and philosophical than that. I like to think of it as a smart person’s epic. There is bloodshed but not as soaked and certainly not as fake. There is love and lust but there is no sex. Alejandro Amenabar has shied away from the obligatory scenes associated with these movies and replaced them with scenes that contain intelligence, relying on the solid writing and great performances.