Aeon Flux [DVD] [2006] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

I had no idea I would love this move as much simply because I heard it got some bad reviews, I'm not a Chalize Theron fan and I have never watched the original cartoon. Man I was wrong, to heck with all the negative rubbish, I love it!

The film itself is pure fantasy captured on the screen. I felt transported to another world for the time it took me to absorb the story and on a minor vain note I ended up loving Aeon's hairdo- do, it was awesome!

Aeon is the equivalent of a bounty hunter in this movie, as she is a part of rebel group called the Monicans. She has a secret mission to kill Goodchild, the chairman who oversees the last surviving place called Bregna as he rules with other scientists. Since 99% of the population was killed by a virus, he is in charge and Aeon with her rebellion are about to change that.

What I loved, other than the fantastic costumes and surreal landscapes was the twists and turns in the story! This reminded me of those books I read and loved, when you didn't really know who the bad guy was and that was really going on. You must pay attention as a lot goes! Aeon and Goodchild are caught in a game of cat and mouse and it was enticing to see how they were connected and what the truth would do.

The twist start when Aeon if faced with fleeting memories of a previous life that keep her from fulfilling her mission and as the truth is revealed to her, she changes the future of Bregna with the equivalent of taking the bottom block of the foundation out. She lets all the skeletons loose as she jumps, shots, cartwheels, slinks through the night, paralyzes and disarms army men and fights for the truth of her and her people.

As I said, I'm not a die hard fan, I've never even seen the series and I absolutely let the movie swallow my brain and possess my interest till the end credit. I loved it, cant wait to own the DVD so I can pop it in when I have a sweet tooth for some sweet , eccentric and off-the-wall action.

OK, so this is not a masterpiece, but this is not nearly as bad as I would have expected given the horrid reviews by both critics and moviegoers when it first came out. The real question, I believe, is not why people think this is so good, but why anyone imagines that the graphic novel and the MTV animated series based upon it were so great. In all three cases the basic story had plot holes you could drive an armada of eighteen-wheelers through, all three were based vastly more on style than substance, and all three were more about how it parsed visually rather than logically. No version of Aeon Flux could be honestly considered any kind of classic and I really can't privilege either of the previous versions over this one.

Once one gets past the fact that this doesn't have the tightest plot in the history of cinema and just concentrates on the visuals that was really all the previous two versions had going for it, this is actually a fairly pleasant film. Yeah, there were moments when I would flinch at the silliness of things, but, again, the same silliness afflicted the novel and animated series.

If there is a chameleon in the movies today, it is Charlize Theron. I find it nothing should of stunning the various physical types that she can play and I think she did a more than creditable job in this one. Her presence here is remarkable of only because she truly is a first rate actress, capable of a wide variety of roles. She can do action films, dramas, Sci-fi, and comedy, and could probably do other kinds of films as well if called upon to do so. She looks good as Aeon, nothing like the previous two versions, but then Aeon in those incarnations looked, in my opinion, rather ridiculous. Since no actresses who are 6'2 and have measurements of 32-16-30 were available, one has to settle for someone like the lovely Ms. Theron. The greatest testament to her abilities comes from the fact that in the same period of time this film came out, NORTH COUNTRY was released for which she received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and she appeared in ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT in an extraordinary role for which she could very well be nominated and win an Emmy (you heard it here first) as the "special" British female Rita. As many will know, Theron, who is a very good athlete, did as many of her stunts as possible.

I thought the basic story, as long as one doesn't try to poke too many holes in the plot (an easy thing to do), was fun. I put no spoiler warnings here so I won't go into the plot, but the basic premise has a kind of Philip K. Dick quality twist on things, where reality isn't as real as it seems. Nonetheless it is impossible to completely ignore the essential silliness of so many things in the novel/series/movie. The superfluous athleticism is only one of these. Why the endless back flips, not only when they are nonfunctional but when they would be actual distractions? For instance, when Aeon jumps to grab one of the things dangling from the ship that hovers the city she does a full somersault on her way down. How in the world could that help things? And why do fifty feet of somersaults instead of simply sprinting? A one legged person could out hop someone doing back flips or somersaulting. You can contrast this with the action sequences in another fairly recent film, THE BOURNE SUPREMACY. What makes Matt Damon's action sequences so refreshing is that in every instance he does the absolute minimum number of moves to be effective. It makes Bourne come across as the effective killing machine that he is supposed to be. Here, as in the novel and series, Aeon comes across as an extravagant wind up toy. And one of my pet peeves: breaking necks. I took quite a bit of martial arts and in grappling classes actually was trained in the ways that one can break a neck, mainly so that you can be on the defensive of it happening to you. On a host of shows and in movies there has developed an intensely dumb way of doing this, which apparently consists of pushing the chin off to one side. Trust me, you can't break a neck this way. (My beloved series BUFFY and ANGEL were two of the worse at perpetuating this method of neck breaking.) OK, this is nitpicking, but I state it as an example of the way the film starts falling apart if you pick at it. But, again, the same was true of the novel and series. It's not like the silliness suddenly started with the movie.

So, I recommend this, especially to fans of Sci-fi, as long as you don't expect a tautly thought out story. What you get is a host of gorgeous images, a compelling main character portrayed by the lovely Charlize Theron, and a pretty interesting visual representation of the future. I've seen worse and I've definitely seen better but I think a tolerant fan will find more than a little to enjoy in it.

Once again I find myself in the minority. The Tomatometer's gauge at rottentomatoes.com levels off at an extremely cool 10% approval rating; meaning 90% of the critics DIDN'T like it.

Most of the bashing comes via comparisons to CATWOMAN (another bomb) or the fact that the original Aeon Flux was an animated feature on MTV and the translation to live-action cinema didn't work. Not having seen these animated versions - or CATWOMAN for that matter - I can't make any comparisons. But what I can do is tell you how the movie flowed, how well it was acted, and its entertainment value.

Charlize Theron (NORTH COUNTRY) stars as Aeon Flux, a rebel in the 25th century. A terrible disease has decimated humanity and its surviving members hide behind an enclosure, cut-off from the possible devastating effects of what lay beyond (think LOGAN'S RUN and you'll be close). Within the confines of their home live the remaining five million members of society thanks to the medical efforts of the Goodchild Regime, named after Trevor Goodchild (Martin Csokas). Aeon Flux belongs to an elite group of resistance fighters known as the Monicans who's goal is to topple the Goodchild Regime. People have been vanishing. Police actions are resulting in deaths. And Aeon Flux is going to find out why.

As we move through the stronghold of humanity (the city is known as Bregna), we learn and see much about this futuristic yet completely alien-like society. Pills can heighten awareness and even send coded messages to ones brain. Computers look like musical instruments or a type of String Theory. Everyone feels that something is wrong with their world ...and there is. Cloning and its effects on the power-base of the Goodchild Regime are holding humanity back at a terrible price.

CATWOMAN comparisons aside (yes, Charlize looks fantastic in her skin-tight leather outfit), this is a thinking person's film. There are lots of little tidbits thrown into the film that give it a futuristic look without trying too hard (the computers were a nice touch, as were filming many external shots in Berlin, Germany where new construction is the rage).

The pacing of the film was excellent. Never once did it get bogged down in the minutia of the times or the science. If you can't keep up, oh well. Leaping from action sequence to fight scene to action sequence made the 93 minutes fly by. The acting was okay. Nothing special but nothing horrible either. Charlize was the shining star, of course, and gave a relatively fine performance.

For my time, this was extremely entertaining and sexy, and full of great sci-fi scenery.

Only one question remains: What's up with the critics?!

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 214 reviews  3.2 out of 5 stars