Aeon Flux

Aeon Flux (2005)

Runtime: 93 minutes

Directed by: Karyn Kusama

Starring: Charlize Theron, Marton Csokas, Jonny Lee Miller, Francis McDormand

From: Paramount

This is a movie that I accidentally watched. Really. I explain it in the Letterboxd review below. As I'll be watching something for Letterboxd that I've already reviewed here, I'll return Sunday night to this site.

I'll be honest here, me watching this late last night on a Showtime station was in error. I saw that this was on and I decided to watch it, as I had remembered long ago seeing a really wacky mid aughts sci-fi film that played in a nightclub-of all places-and without the sound on it just looked bugf*** insane and really colorful. I don't know why I thought it was this movie, and while watching it I realized I was a dumbass and I was of course thinking of Ultraviolet, which I definitely will watch one of these days to see if it's as nonsensical when you can hear the movie too. As I had started this already I figured I should stick it out to the end.

Also, I have never watched the 90's MTV cartoon this is based on, although I understand that is OK as it's only loosely based on that original property. I just wanted to make clear I won't be comparing the two. This story involves a dystopian future, a secret underground society wishing to eradicate the rule of the family that has controlled the one remaining city of Earth for the past 400 years, cloning, DNA... and yada yada yada. The plot wasn't the most engaging to me, to be honest. I was disappointed in that the action scenes were edited to be too disjointed far too often. What an unfortunate trend

I can't say I hated it, though; I never wanted to turn it off, even when it became rather dull at times. At least I was able to look at the sometimes wacky sets (looking at Charlize Theron wasn't bad either!), chuckle at all the silly moments (what a goofy minor role for Pete Postlethwaite), hope that Francis McDormand received a nice paycheck for wearing that orange wig, and at least see some action setpieces that were unique, if not necessarily great. The cast at least being a little diverse was nice too.

Overall, though, there's no real reason to watch this unless you are a huge fan of Ms. Theron. It's just too generic and flavorless (an unfortunate trend in too much big studio sci-fi in this century) and not that interesting for most people. From what I hear not even the show's fans care for this, so it's probably best if you skip this one.