Aeon Flux


Synopsis
Aeon Flux is a sci-fi movie adaptation of an MTV animated series from the mid-nineties. The movie follows the basic sci-fi plot -- disease kills people, government takes over, a small group of rebels forms, high-tech gadgets, running in sexy outfits, hijinks and treachery ensue.


Observations
I knew this movie was going to be horrible. It had gotten horrible reviews; it had Charlize Theron in it; I saw that stupid clip of the killer grass a hundred times. This movie was going to suck. But it didn't. Director Karyn Kusama's vision of the future is sleek and white, sexy and exotic, fast and twisty. The visuals of this movie were stellar – the city was beautiful and the costuming was sex-illent. (That's sexy and intelligent at the same time.) I read that in the cartoon Aeon wore basically pasties and a thong. I was glad that they went a different direction with the costuming in the movie. Theron looks like the future. A future where asymmetrical women's hair is stylish and unitards have cool lace-up backs. The story's twists kept it from being too formulaic and some kind of magic kept it from being too self-important. Sure, this isn't the best sci-fi movie ever, but it was entertaining. And sometimes that's good enough.

I wonder why this movie didn't get better reviews when it came out. It can't be because it strayed too much from the original vision of the cartoon because -- let's be serious -- no one watched the cartoon. So was it Charlize Theron? I wouldn't think so, she's shown herself to be a woman who can carry a movie. Although not one of my favorite actresses, she does
have commercial appeal to a broad audience. I don't really know why this movie flopped, but I'm glad I gave it a chance.

Rating:

Amazon's entry for Aeon Flux