InsidePulse Review – Aeon Flux

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Image courtesy of www.impawards.com

Director :

Karyn Kusama

Cast :

Charlize Theron……….Aeon Flux
Marton Csokas……….Trevor Goodchild
Jonny Lee Miller……….Oren Goodchild
Sophie Okonedo……….Sithandra
Frances McDormand……….Handler
Pete Postlethwaite……….Keeper
Amelia Warner……….Una Flux
Caroline Chikezie……….Freya
Nikolai Kinski……….Claudius
Paterson Joseph……….Giroux
Yangzom Brauen……….Inari

Science fiction and action are two genres that tend to have their lines blurred on a frequent basis. In years past they’ve produced some stellar movie combinations like The Matrix, Total Recall and Minority Report, amongst others. But most times what happens is there’s an intriguing sci-fi concept that gets flushed away for a big clunky action movie. It’s happened twice in 2005 with The Island and Stealth providing intriguing concepts muddled with the plot styling of action movies. This sad statement rears its head again with Aeon Flux.

Aeon Flux stars Charlize Theron as the title character from a series of animated shorts that ran on MTV’s Liquid Television, the same place that Beavis & Butt-Head debuted. It is 400 years since a plague wiped out 99% of humanity, and the five million members remaining are in the last remaining city, run by Trevor Goodchild (Marton Csokas). Flux is a member of the Monicans, a group of people rebelling against the Goodchild regime; she is their most skilled assassin and is sent on a mission against Goodchild, intent on eliminating him and thus freeing the remnants of humanity from the ever-escalating oppression orchestrated by Goodchild’s brother Oren (Jonny Lee Miller). When she is able to bypass security and get her chance to strike the ruler down, Flux finds herself in a much different world than the one she fancies herself in.

And on the surface it’s an intriguing concept, as the ideas behind the film are quite strong. And Aeon Flux doesn’t pay lip service to them, as there are several intriguing moments and conversations about some of the big picture concepts that populate the film’s basis & world. The technologies and world of the film are also fascinating to look at as well, as some of the initial facets of the world Aeon Flux uses are great to look at or think about. This is a fully-rendered world of the future, for sure, but it’s also one that has reason for how things have come to be how they are. There’s a lot of thought and creativity invested into many aspects of the film. However it’s all a prelude to what turns into a shoot ’em up action film with few original moments to be had.

There’s quite a bit of acting talent assembled, as Theron and co-star Frances McDormand are both Academy Award winners, but Aeon Flux really doesn’t have any outstanding performances. With four Academy Award nominees to go with the always underrated Csokas and Miller, this is a film that goes more towards the visuals than it does in the human equation. Flux has a lot of reasons to kill Goodchild and it’s an intriguing plot on the surface, but there’s no sense of urgency or connection with the audience from the cast. Karyn Kusama seems to think that it’s more important to show just how good Theron looks than telling a complex story. While from a visual standpoint the sort of tight outfits are pleasing, she isn’t a good character. While we are compelled to root for her and her cause by virtue of the film’s setup, but at the same time there’s nothing about her specifically that makes her any more endearing than any number of poorly-written action hero wannabes over the years.