Movie Review: Aeon Flux

We wanted to like Aeon Flux. No, actually ... We wanted to love it. Long before the credits rolled, in fact, long before the movie reached its action-packed machine-gunning climax, we were far from loving Aeon Flux and still quite short of liking it.

Aeon Flux is not that bad -- to be fair, there's a lot to like when you take the flick apart and look at its parts. But on balance the film is a lame, flawed piece of cinema that fails to fully explore the treasure chest of ideas touched upon in the 1990's MTV animation series on which Aeon Flux is based. The flaws are many. Add enough of them up and they seriously undermine a film, which is by almost every technical measure a polished, well-crafted exercise in narrative and filmmaking.

Or, to put it another way, it's the same ol' slick, big-budgeted, major Hollywood studio mediocrity. It's poisoned by the same process that brings total crap like The Dukes of Hazard to theaters every summer. Except this is winter, and unlike the Dukes of Hazard, Aeon Flux was a groundbreaking, and original independently produced animated TV series. It was smart and funny.

Aeon Flux could be classified as sci-fi, but it's really more like cyberpunk. Set in the 25th century, the story follows the spy-versus-spy adventures of Aeon (Charlize Theron), a rebel assassin on a mission to take out Chairman Goodchild (Marton Csokas), the head of futuristic walled city-state called Brendag.

The MTV show (and a short-form version of Aeon Flux that preceded it) were created by Peter Chung, who shares a story credit on the film, but otherwise had nothing substantial to do with the making of the live-action movie.

Aeon Flux -- the movie -- feels like the life force was sucked out of the it in the attempt to make something that studio execs, teenage boys, and licensed product merchandisers would all like or feel stood a chance of turning a profit.

Even when there is actual passion on the screen -- i.e., a certain sexual tension and minor love scene between Aeon and Goodchild -- we're left feeling passionless. And we never really get know the characters or care enough about them to like them, we never we really feel like we should truly give a shit about them or see past their two-dimensional presences.

What's more, the film never stops for those moments of black humor that were a trademark of the cartoon series. Aeon's sense of humor was one of her endearing and humanizing qualities, and it defined her character.

The obvious technical competence with which the film has been made only makes our disappointment greater. The amazing, talented Charlize Theron has never been less engaging in terms of actual acting than in Aeon Flux. And it's a damn shame.

Massive rating: 2.7 stars out of 5

Essential Links

Aeon Flux - Official Movie Site

Posted by at December 5, 2005 02:12 AM