Review: Aeon Flux


Set in the year 2415, after 99% of the human race was wiped out by a plague, the population has become static (5 million survivors of the plague, still 5 million alive in 2415), thanks to Trevor Goodchild (Marton Csokas), essentially the big Kahuna in this totalitarian government. Enter Aeon Flux (Charlize Theron), one of a few rebels, given a mission by The Handler (Frances McDormand, with the worst hairdo of 2005), to kill Csokas and/or his second banana brother Jonny Lee Miller (pretty wasted). But once Aeon gets to Csokas, she realises that all is not as it seems. Sophie Okonedo is Aeon’s fellow assassin, who has extra hands where her feet should be (Why? Who cares? It’s cool!). Pete Postlethwaite’s role, meanwhile, is so cheerfully bizarre and totally indescribable that I’m not even going to try and write about it. Amelia Warner plays Aeon’s beloved and ill-fated sister.

I’m not sure what the die-hard fans think, but as someone who occasionally watched the MTV short anime/cartoon (hey, she was practically naked in every episode, and I was about fourteen at the time, OK?), I found this 2005 Karyn Kusama (“Girlfight”) big-screen adaptation quite acceptable. The production design is perhaps a little bright for what was a fairly dark toon, but it’s sure is visually striking anyway, and fantastically weird at times (Postlethwaite and McDormand’s characters are very weird). It’s also about something (an issue very topical in the early part of the 21st Century, which I will not disclose), which is always nice, although it does get a tad confusing at times.

Theron, not the first person I’d have thought of for the role (Famke Janssen or Angelina Jolie would’ve been my choices) is actually very good in the role, her performance is delivered in a deliberate monotone, without ever being boring. Csokas also delivers the least sucky performance I’ve seen from him to date.

Look, it’s pretty silly stuff (and unfortunately quite tame, certainly not as risqué as the original, not that it was exactly Russ Meyer material to begin with, though), perhaps not all that original either (“Blade Runner” meets “Minority Report”), but it’s an awful lot better than I expected it to be, with some of the action scenes quite fun, too. It’s not a whole lot better than average, but I’m in a good mood, so...

Rating: B-

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