Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Excellent, smart action film.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

A film starring Jane Powell and Debbie Reynolds and featuring songs by those behind the wonderful songs for 'Meet Me in St Louis' Hugh Martin and Ralph Blaine promises much. They certainly do not disappoint, though 'Athena' could have been better than it turned out to be.It is let down by a story that is paper-thin, flimsy is being generous, sometimes contrived and routine in direction in the non-singing and dancing scenes. The script is even sketchier (if shining in the scenes with the grandparents), with little logic and even less attention to characterisation which is all nice and pleasant (with nobody being characters that you hate) but not much else. And as beautifully as Vic Damone sings (and goodness isn't it a wondrous sound he makes), it is not matched by his dull presence and wooden acting.However, Jane Powell is cute as a button and effortlessly charming as well as being on top-form vocally (especially in "Chacun Le Sait" from Donizetti's 'La Fille Du Regiment'). She is matched and partnered wonderfully by the energetic and spirited Debbie Reynolds, who also shows a knack for beautiful singing. Edmund Perdum brings a delicious dry wit to his character, and while the stuffy, pompous and stiff kind of character can easily be an annoyance when poorly executed Perdum does bring enough charm to stop him from being insufferable.Louis Calhern is an absolute joy in his supporting role and it is a shame that he didn't have more scenes. Steve "Mr Universe" Reeves is imposing and commanding, with the body-building scene one of the film's highlights. Evelyn Varden is delightfully eccentric without overdoing it, while Virginia Gibson also has fun with her role.Production values in 'Athena' are above average, with luminous photography and very attractive costumes. The sets are less than lavish but have enough imagination and colour to stop them from looking ugly. The songs, while not classics like the best of the composers' songs for 'Meet Me in St Louis', are better than given credit for. The melodies are easy to remember and very beautiful, the marvellous orchestration helps it, and there is some very clever and sophisticated lyric writing.Standouts are "Love Can Change the Stars", "I Never Felt Better" and the role-reversal version of "The Boy Next Door" (here called "The Girl Next Door"). "Vocalise"/"Harmonise"/"Imagine" are also lovely. "Venezia" is touchingly wistful but holds the least relevance to the story. The dancing is full of dazzling energy and the choreography always avoids being overblown or routinely static.On the whole, unexceptional story and script wise, but when it comes to all but one of the performances, the songs, the choreography, the singing and the dancing 'Athena' is also irresistible. 7/10 Bethany Cox

MGM cast four of its biggest actors in this non-supernatural musical about an odd family living through health food, tons of exercise and visions through the stars. Jane Powell and Debbie Reynolds are two of the six sisters starstruck in love with two outsiders-staid businessman Edmund Purdom and TV singer Vic Damone. Evelyn Varden ("Pinky", "The Bad Seed") and Louis Calhern ("Annie, Get Your Gun", "The Magnificent Yankee") are their eccentric grandparents who run an easy-going but disciplined ship filled with body builders (including Steve Reeves), sunshine and nuts and berries. No sooner have Purdom and Damone become involved with them than strange things begin to happen to their personalities. Grandma warns the lovers that the stars are not in favor of these romances.A delightfully silly musical, "Athena" is probably the only MGM musical to feature practically naked men. They make their entrance into Varden and Calhern's dining room wearing only the briefest of briefs and sing along to a chorus of "Harmonize", making Purdom and Damone look like 90 pound weaklings. The songs are all wonderfully corny, especially a production number about re-decoration ("I Never Felt Better") lead by perky Reynolds. Powell gets the most beautiful song ("Love Can Change the Stars"), and seeing her as Reynolds' sister is a musical lovers dream. In fact, they had played sisters once before, in "Two Weeks With Love", and also appeared together in "Hit the Deck". When Reynolds left the Broadway musical "Irene" 20 years later, she personally chose Powell to replace her.Look for Virginia Gibson, one of the "Seven Brides", as another one of the "Six Sisters". There's even a reference to the same years "The Student Prince" which starred Purdom. I don't think MGM realized when it made this film of the gay overtones of the body builders which would later be seen on Broadway and the big screen with "Li'l Abner".

Unlike MGM's expensive, classic musicals of the 1950s, the modest, light-hearted but equally delicious "Athena" has been all-but-forgotten. A shame, because this lilting, lively melodious lark is not only a wryly amusing satire on an eccentric family of health-food nutritionists/numerologists, but, most importantly, a dazzling showcase for some of the most tuneful musical numbers to grace any film of its era. The score, by Ralph Martin and Hugh Blane (of "Meet Me in St. Louis" fame), offers such treats as Jane Powell singing the poignant, haunting ballad "Love Can Change the Stars" (which should have become a popular hit); Powell, Debbie Reynolds and their 5 sisters performing a breathtakingly energetic, knockout song-and-dance production number "I Never Felt Better"; and Ms. Powell (never more bewitchingly alluring) setting off vocal fireworks with her superb rendition of Donizetti's "Chacun Le Sait" from the operetta "Daughter of the Regiment." The plot, wherein Powell & Ms. Reynolds defie their nutritionist fanatic grandfather's (a delightful Louis Calhern) dictums by falling in love with, respectively, Edmund Purdom and Vic Damone (two carnivores with the wrong "signs") is decades ahead of its time in its wise, gentle and good-humored satire of life-styles and fads (culminating in a body-builder contest where one of Calhern's proteges is Steve Reeves, who would a mere 4 years later attain international screen stardom as "Hercules"). Amusing as it is, the plot rightfully takes second-place to the wondrous cast of MGM's most gifted young musical talents of the day--in their full vocal and dancing glory captured in glistening pasteled Technicolor. (Sadly, they were all soon to be given their walking papers when Television became the new national rage, and the first of the terrified studio's contract players to be dismissed were the stars of its taken-for-granted musicals. Indeed, Powell, Reynolds and Damone would co-star in only one more MGM songfest, "Hit the Deck"--as warm, charming, and tuneful as "Athena"--as well as a boxoffice disappointment.) Meanwhile, tune in "Athena" the next time TCM shows it--and don't be surprised if, weeks later, you find yourself humming, whistling or singing Ms. Powell's glorious delivery of what is perhaps this delectable movie's most rousing, catchy tune--the zesty, jubilant "Vocalize"!

What! burgers, fries, steaks, chops aren't healthy? You must be some kind of freak! After we just kicked Jap ass in WWII, how dare you suggest that Japanese interior design may be superior to good old American--what are you some kind of commie?It's all here: free love, numerology, astrology, organic diets, and most subversive--exercise! Well, the hippies abandoned the exercise and took up with drugs, and the music was a lot better--but these guys were the first.Jane Powell is marvelous as the woman who is way ahead of her time as being all to free with her body with the man she is "destined" to be with.Jane Powell and a young Debbie Reynolds in short shorts are a real delight in this one, although it is all to brief.