Athena: Goddess of War is a Korean action melodrama show that was spun off from the hugely successful "Iris" series. This show basically ramps up the same action and intrigue found in "Iris", but, it does so at the expense of providing the central dramatic themes that made "Iris" the more interesting and addictive of the 2 shows.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
I did not like this show as near as much as its predecessor, but I did still enjoy watching it. It only very loosely follows the events that occurred in the "Iris" series, and you don't really need to watch that show first in order to watch this one. Although, there are a couple of crossover characters involved that might make you scratch your head for a couple of episodes as to who they are if you did not watch "Iris" first. These "Iris" characters just got in the way here for the most part, and they did not need to be incorporated (somewhat clumsily, I might add) into this show.
Frankly, this show would have been better off it if had distanced itself from being an "Iris" spin off in my opinion. It's not a bad stand alone action show on its own, that would have likely been much better thought of without all the inherent direct comparisons to some other show.
This show gets off to a blazing start action wise, and it doesn't waste any time letting you know what you're in for. In the intro, 2 teams of secret agents are pitted against each other as they battle over a nuclear scientist who defected. Once that's wrapped up, they flash forward a bit, where various new crises are implemented by the baddies over time, while the good guys try to stop them. That's basically it!
As with "Iris", there are a number of organizations and persons involved that are good, bad, gray, or undecided. They add a few more organizational & personal angles in this show though (which were mostly redundant); this is not confusing per se, but it only serves to unnecessarily try to complicate the plot with very little benefit to the overall story.
This show is by no means bad, particularly so if you're looking for an action series. There are a number of action scenes (several of which are quite impressive), and, the acting, production values, etc, are all above average. However, it lacks an underlying story with enough purpose to bring the entire production together to deem it a must watch show.; it ultimately just follows a continuing pattern of: intrigue plot scene, action set piece scene, romance plot scene, then repeat.
It's decent enough to recommend as it does more than enough quite well. The first 8 episodes or so were, indeed, highly entertaining. This show gets bogged down quite a bit once the primary plot kicks in though. There's plenty enough talent and money involved to make it all work, and there are only a very few episodes that are poorly written, directed, or produced. I think where it fails a bit is a result of what seems to have been rush to capitalize on "Iris". This show would have been much better served if the writers and story tellers were given some more time to think things through in advance, but that's the way it goes sometimes!
Bottom Line: Somewhere in the 6-8 star range. It's mostly watchable (even more so if you're just looking for some KTV action). I'm giving it 7 stars!
