Movie / Aeon Flux

This is a perfectly decent, cartoon like, science fiction adventure film, set 400 years in the future. I can't fathom why the producers pushed it out without critical previews. Nor can I fathom why the reviewers trashed it. The advance reviews on "Cool News" (which never hesitates to call Turkey!) were respectful, as were the initial viewer comments on IMDB.

The show was well attended, in a large hall. Sure I could think of a dozen things that could have been better, and sure all the bad guys were bad shots, but that's no worse than 1000s of other films. It was a good bit more novel and mind teasing than any of the recent Star Wars films.

The film is based on an animated series that appeared on MTV, which I had never heard of, but its plot has been "reimagined," and frankly I found the whole thing fun and refreshing. Any film that tries to project out 400 years is well advised to keep it light, and not get too complex on the technology, because it's too risky. Better to stick with eternal tried and true themes, like love that lasts forever.

The 90 minute film briskly tracks its "120 page script," but the plot is quite complex and would require several long sentences to summarize. Each major character experiences a number of reversals as the story unfolds. The ending is definitely not obvious, contra some critics.

Charlize Theron occupies the screen much of the time, wearing a spandex and leather body suit, what else? It's not difficult to imagine her getting injured and delaying filming for a month, in view of the large number of acrobatic jumping and climbing scenes. Her opposite number probably has a nice career ahead of him, since he looks (to me) like a younger James Garner. There is one tasteful sex scene, and ample cartoon violence, but no personalized suffering.

Originally posted 12-4-2005.