400 years after most of the human race was wiped out by a virus, the last people on earth live in Bregna, an utopian city ruled by scientist Trevor Goodchild (Marton Csokas). Although everything is beautiful, people are depressed for unknown reasons, and citizens disappear without explanation, so rebels (known as Monicans) send their finest agent, Aeon Flux (Charlize Theron), to kill Trevor. But no one is who they seem to be: Trevor’s may be the savior of mankind, Trevor’s brother (Jonny Lee Miller) may be a traitor, the Monican leader may be a fool, and Aeon may be a completely different person than she thinks, with ties to Trevor. She must figure out what her strange memories mean, and what is actually going on, before she can finish her mission.
The avant-garde cartoon Aeon Flux is an unlikely source for a Hollywood feature. It followed an intensely violent, spindly assassin, and her love-hate feud with the dictator of a nearby city. Motivations were rarely spelled out, stories contradicted each other, and in the early short-shorts, she died in each episode. It was one-half brilliant artistry, and one-half drug-induced randomness. But someone decided there was a live-action shoot’em-up hidden in there, and with a cast of award-winners, they turned the strange, edgy, and wondrous incoherence of the animated series into mediocre entertainment for the masses. Considering the low box office, they miscalculated.
With so many problems inherent in the project, it’s shocking how much works. The art design for Bregna is fabulous—a mix of the 1930’s view of the city-of-tomorrow and organic technology. They avoided the two urban clichés common in sci-fi: the sterile, white, nearly empty space, and the dark, rainy, dirty, decayed inner-city. Instead, the streets are bright and airy, and hedges and flowers are everywhere. Waterfalls act as view screens, coconut-like plants fire needles as part of a security system, and grass can become spikes.
Equally satisfying is the array of gadgets, which would have fit into the cartoon (and a few did). There are telepathic messages passed through pills, a squid-like belt that can change the “phase vibration” of the wearer so he can enter rooms that are out of phase, and smart balls that come when called and can combine to blow apart walls.
With the setting in good shape, we are given a mystery worth our time. Why are all the people depressed? And so the adventure begins, with Oscar-winner Theron set to take on an army to accomplish her goal. It’s great fun for about a half hour. Then it begins to falter.
But a word first for fans of the cartoon. Simply due to prudishness, Aeon’s sexy and revealing (but not that revealing) costume has been changed to a reasonably pleasant jumpsuit. It’s interesting to hear the filmmakers explain that this had to be done, and never come up with a single reason why. Is it important? Well, that depends. Would you be bothered if in a Batman movie, the caped crusader had no cape, choosing a yellow sweater and a fluffy hat with a bat logo for his crime-fighting jaunts? Would you be annoyed if Superman replaced his outfit with a U.S. Navy uniform? Or would you find it distracting if James Bond turned up in overalls and a straw hat? If you’d be pleased with these options, then no, Aeon’s new clothing is not important. But to me, it is a constant reminder that the people who made this film had little respect for the material.
Even with a less-than-perfect wardrobe (not that Theron doesn’t look good in what she wears), we’ve got an exciting pop-corn type flick. What goes wrong? In the words of the filmmakers, they turned the film into an “old-time love story.” There’s none of that love-hate strain here. Nothing new, or pushing at the walls of acceptability. Nope, just the same-old same-old. Showing an amazing lack of imagination, the writers, director, producer, and lead actors are proud that they managed to dumb the movie down, making it as conventional as possible. And even at that lowest-common-denominator level, things don’t look good, as Marton Csokas plays Trevor as if they just increased his dosage of Prozac. I was waiting for him to nod off during the gun fights.
Worse, the great reveal of the mystery behind the rash of mental illness, which ties into the founding of the city, is information you’ll wish you’d never heard. It is obviously coming from people who have little connection to science fiction or science, and have some ridiculous notions on how memories work. The writer’s admit to never having worked in the field before, and it shows. I suppose their concept of how the city’s population has survived all these years could wow people who have never read, and have no interest in intelligently speculating on the future, but are such people going to go to this movie? At least it does have the virtue of being surprising. I did not expect their solution, having ruled it out as ludicrous. I guess they put one over on me.
Thematically, Aeon Flux is a strong proponent of ignorance. All technology (more than just technology, science and thought) are evil and cause us to lose our humanity. We should live our lives on instinct. To illustrate this, Aeon has a literal leap of faith, which is also metaphorical, bringing back a time of ignorant bliss. Luckily, this isn’t a film that’s going to convince anyone of anything. Engaging your cognitive processes while watching will only cause them to sputter and stall—there’s no fuel.
But all is not lost. Yes, Aeon Flux has little to say and none of it is interesting. It defiles the original cartoon, and is an embarrassment to its creator, Peter Chung, who says:
“The movie Trevor is so emasculated that I can’t see Aeon giving him two minutes. That’s fine, since the character in the movie … is someone named Catherine Goodchild—who only thinks she is Aeon. Ms. Flux does not actually appear in the movie.”
But, for purely mindless entertainment, it won’t ruin your evening. It is very pretty and the fights are filled with plenty of B-movie mayhem. Ms Theron’s physical attributes make many of the scenes watchable (for those of you who enjoy a beautiful woman), and her balletic moves don’t hurt. If you ask very little of Aeon Flux, it will deliver. Just try to ignore that it is trying to be anything more than a pretty dance.
Charlize Theron has appeared in the other genre films: Children of the Corn III (1995), 2 Days in the Valley (1996), The Devil’s Advocate (1997), Mighty Joe Young (1998), and The Astronaut’s Wife (1999).
Jonny Lee Miller starred in the cyberpunk, teen flick, Hackers (1995) and the tame updating of Dracula, Dracula 2000 (2000).