Aeon Flux

Hi Folks,
I know that I said there wouldn't be any more entries this year, but I came down with a nasty cold the day I got home, and it still has me in its clutches, so we didn't go to my brother's house to celebrate the New Year as planned. So, to help dampen our disappointment we went to the movies. We saw Aeon Flux.

First of all let me say that I was/am a big fan of the cartoon series, and was a big fan of the animated shorts that gave birth to the series. If you have never seen either, you might not enjoy the movie. If, however, you did enjoy the previous incarnations you should have a good time with this one. I did.

One of the most alluring, and frustrating aspects of the cartoon versions was that they never worried about continuity, or even about making sense. The shorts had no dialogue, and each episode of the series was self-contained, so it was not unusual for our heroine to die and then be back the next week. The movie, on the other hand, suffers from that annoying need for a beginning, middle, and end. But, it does manage to maintain enough of the surreality of its predecessors to still be pretty cool. Imagine A Clockwork Orange + Logan's Run + James Bond and you begin to get an idea. I won't attempt to summarize the plot but Charlize Theron, as I predicted a few months ago, personifies the eponymous assasin beautifully(she has now made it onto my list, by the way). The world she lives in is both beatific and sinister, and you know just below the surface of paradise is a raging serpent waiting to strike. The chairman of this world, Trevor Goodchild, played by Kingdom of Heaven's Marton Csonkas, maintains the 'is he evil or not' quality of the cartoons until the end, but I shan't spoil the surprise. The rest of the cast play their roles well, and Pete Postlethwait puts in a nice cameo, which is the cinematic equivalent of getting the really cool prize in your Cracker Jacks.

Overall this film is a gift to the fans of Aeon Flux, but I doubt it will bring in many new converts to the cause. I would love to see at least one sequel, but I'm not holding my breath.

See y'all next year.

Marius