Aeon Flux
AEON FLUX REVIEW
Oh man, remember when MTV was COOL? I do. I remember in middle school turning on some MTV and seeing videos from Tom Petty and Aerosmith and Weezer and Green Day and Nirvana and Stone Temple Pilots and Metallica. I remember seeing a new type of sketch comedy in THE STATE. And I remember late nights of flipping on MTV just to see what was on, and coming across wierd, subversive, trippy stuff that pretty much blew my mind. Sure, there was Beavis and Butthead - that's a given - a pretty hilarious classic that was underappreciated for its genious in its time. But then there was Liquid TV. There was crazy, intense, underground comic-book and anime inpired fare like The Maxx and The Head and most of all, Aeon Flux. AEON FLUX was pretty much just about the coolest, most freaked-out thing ever. There was a scantily-clad dominatrix chick, before such things were all the rage, doing backflips and kicking ass in an anime distopia, getting into all kinds of suicidal and homicidal adventures. Back when MTV was at the height of its coolness, Aeon Flux was THE coolest thing it had going. It was like a videogame acid trip that made no real sense but still assaulted your senses and undeniably ROCKED. So yeah, basically, there was no way Hollywood could NOT screw this one up. And all signs pointed to this one sucking beyond suck, as it was not even screened for the press, and the few early reviews were godawful. But then I saw a few positive reviews here and there, notablyon Ain't It Cool News, and thought, hmm, may not be so bad afterall? In any case, my curiosity factor for this movie was extremely high, as I have a huge love and nostalgia for the old-school animated Aeon Flux.
And no, it was definitely not terrible. It even had moments of awesomeness. Overall though, this movie had a lot of flaws that kept it from being great scifi. This is definitely no BLADE RUNNER (yeah right, no movie is), no Dark City, and no, not really as good as Gattaca either. It does borrow from all those movies though, cobbling together bits and pieces from a collection of other scifi stuff to assemble a story for Aeon - something that the animated series only hinted at but happily did without, instead reveling in its illogic and randomness. And maybe this movie could have used less story and more of that animated energy. More style and less substance. Yep, you heard me. Because while Charlize Theron as Aeon does a decent job of emulating the stylized cartoon she is based on, the movie often looks like something that a bunch of fanboy friends shot in their high school soccer field rather than a big budget sci fi movie. Sure, some shots and a few sets are pretty cool, but the quality is not at all consistent. This movie just didn't look RIGHT to me. On one hand you have some futuristic, trippy stuff going on. On the other hand you have everything shot in bright light and in mostly very simple, conventional Hollywood action movie ways. I almost think Iwould have preferred if this had been all crazy-acid-trippy like Tony Scott's recent DOMINO. Basically, the full on freakiness of the original Aeon Flux series seemed trapped and struggling to get out of generic Hollywood scifi action move # 5,739. Sure, there were moments. The old man who was the Keeper of everyone's DNA - weird and surreal like something Peter Chung might have thought of back in the day. Aeon's escape from her prison cell and cool shifting between spacial realities ... Coolness. Her knock-down, drag-out fight with a female pursuer, that saw Aeon grab the woman's earring with her tongue and proceed to rip it out of her assailant's ear ... pretty damn kickass. The rest of the movie ... the tired political power-struggle subplot, the non-chemistry between Aeon and Trevor Goodchild, the random action scenes that boiled down to lots and lots of bullets being fired and not much else ...? Not so much. Overall, this movie is in fact worth seeing, especially on a big screen where you can get lost in the futuristic world and just enjoy the ride. You could do a lot worse and its at the least an entertaining film, with some cool visuals, some interesting ideas, and some intriguing concepts to mull over. But does this EVEN HOLD A CANDLE to the animated series it's based on? Hells no. So check out the newly released animated Aeon Flux DVD, and be reminded of what COOL is, of what ARTISTIC VISION is ... and I'll give you a hint, it's NOT always what Hollywood thinks.
My grade: C+
Oh man, remember when MTV was COOL? I do. I remember in middle school turning on some MTV and seeing videos from Tom Petty and Aerosmith and Weezer and Green Day and Nirvana and Stone Temple Pilots and Metallica. I remember seeing a new type of sketch comedy in THE STATE. And I remember late nights of flipping on MTV just to see what was on, and coming across wierd, subversive, trippy stuff that pretty much blew my mind. Sure, there was Beavis and Butthead - that's a given - a pretty hilarious classic that was underappreciated for its genious in its time. But then there was Liquid TV. There was crazy, intense, underground comic-book and anime inpired fare like The Maxx and The Head and most of all, Aeon Flux. AEON FLUX was pretty much just about the coolest, most freaked-out thing ever. There was a scantily-clad dominatrix chick, before such things were all the rage, doing backflips and kicking ass in an anime distopia, getting into all kinds of suicidal and homicidal adventures. Back when MTV was at the height of its coolness, Aeon Flux was THE coolest thing it had going. It was like a videogame acid trip that made no real sense but still assaulted your senses and undeniably ROCKED. So yeah, basically, there was no way Hollywood could NOT screw this one up. And all signs pointed to this one sucking beyond suck, as it was not even screened for the press, and the few early reviews were godawful. But then I saw a few positive reviews here and there, notablyon Ain't It Cool News, and thought, hmm, may not be so bad afterall? In any case, my curiosity factor for this movie was extremely high, as I have a huge love and nostalgia for the old-school animated Aeon Flux.
And no, it was definitely not terrible. It even had moments of awesomeness. Overall though, this movie had a lot of flaws that kept it from being great scifi. This is definitely no BLADE RUNNER (yeah right, no movie is), no Dark City, and no, not really as good as Gattaca either. It does borrow from all those movies though, cobbling together bits and pieces from a collection of other scifi stuff to assemble a story for Aeon - something that the animated series only hinted at but happily did without, instead reveling in its illogic and randomness. And maybe this movie could have used less story and more of that animated energy. More style and less substance. Yep, you heard me. Because while Charlize Theron as Aeon does a decent job of emulating the stylized cartoon she is based on, the movie often looks like something that a bunch of fanboy friends shot in their high school soccer field rather than a big budget sci fi movie. Sure, some shots and a few sets are pretty cool, but the quality is not at all consistent. This movie just didn't look RIGHT to me. On one hand you have some futuristic, trippy stuff going on. On the other hand you have everything shot in bright light and in mostly very simple, conventional Hollywood action movie ways. I almost think Iwould have preferred if this had been all crazy-acid-trippy like Tony Scott's recent DOMINO. Basically, the full on freakiness of the original Aeon Flux series seemed trapped and struggling to get out of generic Hollywood scifi action move # 5,739. Sure, there were moments. The old man who was the Keeper of everyone's DNA - weird and surreal like something Peter Chung might have thought of back in the day. Aeon's escape from her prison cell and cool shifting between spacial realities ... Coolness. Her knock-down, drag-out fight with a female pursuer, that saw Aeon grab the woman's earring with her tongue and proceed to rip it out of her assailant's ear ... pretty damn kickass. The rest of the movie ... the tired political power-struggle subplot, the non-chemistry between Aeon and Trevor Goodchild, the random action scenes that boiled down to lots and lots of bullets being fired and not much else ...? Not so much. Overall, this movie is in fact worth seeing, especially on a big screen where you can get lost in the futuristic world and just enjoy the ride. You could do a lot worse and its at the least an entertaining film, with some cool visuals, some interesting ideas, and some intriguing concepts to mull over. But does this EVEN HOLD A CANDLE to the animated series it's based on? Hells no. So check out the newly released animated Aeon Flux DVD, and be reminded of what COOL is, of what ARTISTIC VISION is ... and I'll give you a hint, it's NOT always what Hollywood thinks.
My grade: C+
posted by Danny B at 11:21 PM
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