A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Aeon Flux

Date Viewed: 12/26/05

Details:

Charlize Theron

Marton Csokas

Sophie Okonedo

Frances McDormand

Director: Karyn Kusama

Score: 0

The Review: Another movie in contention for "most transformed from original concept": science fiction dystopia (or should it be a deuteranopia?) evolved from Western "anime."

In the distant future, city-state Bregna contains the remnants of humanity in an Edenic setting with zero population growth ruled by the benevolent dictator Trevor Goodchild (Csokas). Aeon Flux (Theron) is part of an internal Monican rebellion tasked with the assassination of Goodchild simply because "something's wrong." (Weak motivation; strong costuming.) But of course things do not proceed as planned; there is an odd entanglement between Flux and Goodchild that complicates matters considerably and adds to the confusion.

The original Aeon Flux was created in the early 1990's by Peter Chung as an ever-expanding series of experimental, cutting edge animated shorts and features for MTV's Liquid Television spots. Starting with a few two-minute shorts in 1991 or 1992 (where the character seemed destined to die in every episode), it became a feature series in 1995 with ten full episodes, directed half-and-half by either Chung or Howard Baker. The transformation from the shorts to the features were notable: from dialog-less score-oriented action (after all, this was MTV) and totally opaque plotting, to character voices with background, context and plots that were just marginally comprehensible, with a slightly detectible whiff of humor. Character design bore some continuity, and ignoring the cutaway skin-tight leather cat-suit -- "an artifice to simplify animation, avoiding all those troublesome clothing folds," cited by Chung: and if you believe that, I have a bridge for sale! -- the most distinctive feature was Aeon's bizarre hairstyle.

But the transformation to a full-length live action movie on the silver screen is even more dramatic -- Aeon Flux via Hollywood has a different outfit, hairstyle, motivation, background, history and context. Her weaponry and toolkit looks much the same -- Batman meets MacGiver deep in the nanotech realm -- and Trevor Goodchild still figures prominently in the flow of Flux, but Bregna is no longer a city-state adjacent to Monica across a disputed border, and Aeon is no longer an independent standalone agent, but both part of an internal rebellious conspiracy and part of a family unit. There are techno nuances that reveal themselves along the way, some of which actually attempt to contribute to the plot, but some character flaws persist: she still likes to gain access to tall buildings through obscure basement tunnels. All in all, Charlize Theron's new hairstyle is much more attractive than Chung's original version, even at the sacrifice of some extreme acrobatic abilities.

What's surprising is how awful it is not. Mildly entertaining, but not high art.

(26-Dec-05)

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