Review of Aeon Flux...
Ok, first the good news.
It was decent enough eye-candy, some of the casting was good, and there were some nods to visuals from the original series (i.e. the famous fly-in-the-eyelashes, which takes place immediately at the beginning, during the opening credits, Sithandra palming around on the hands she had attached to replace feet. Hell, there was even an amusing but brief display of her demonstrating their usefulness in handling weaponry).
Now, the bad news.
I'm a hardcore fan of the original series. I would liken the experience of watching this movie to this:
Imagine that you're married to a wonderful, sexy, intelligent, insightful, mysterious, exciting person that you're madly in love with.
The marriage comes to an end (as they often do), much to your chagrin. However, you have many fond and bittersweet memories to carry you through, and they remain close to your heart.
Then, awhile later, you're surfing about online and find your worst nightmare. Your former love has taken personal video camera footage shot during the drunken honeymoon you two took together after you first tied the knot. They have edited it tightly, with cool effects for flash value, and ensured that every bit of footage of you is easily taken grossly out of context, and only the most misrepresentative, mortifying, personal, and unflattering bits are included.
Yes, even including that bit with you, a bottle of Goldschlager, the midget drag queen hooker, and the billygoat.
They've set this horrific montage-cum betrayal of trust up online for all to see, with a dry and boring techno soundtrack. (Shame on you, Graeme Revell!! After Danny Elfman and before Howard Shore, you're my favorite film composer!) And they're charging people to watch the spectacle. Also, a copy was burned just for your dear old Mom and Dad and is waiting in their mailbox as you read this.
That's how it felt to watch this botched back-alley abortion of a movie. I walked out of the theater with the beginnings of tears in my eyes.
I don't blame all of this on the actors, or other "talent" involved. I blame the producers, screenwriters, and director. Congrats. You've taken one of the best pieces of pop culture art to come out of the 90's and sodomized it with a red-hot curling iron.
Charlize Theron did an admirable job with the physicality of the role of Aeon, but it was hard to focus even on that, since the editing was brutal and utterly unappreciative of the action on the screen.
Aeon Flux was, for the most part, intended to be a hard-edged mercenary siren. She knew damn well that she was a hot piece of exaggeratedly acrobatic ass, and she used it to every advantage. She was a slightly sociopathic warrior/goddess who had no shame, and that's one reason we loved her. In her own words from the series, "I have no conscience. You know what I mean." When we DID see a bit of mercy or weakness from her, it was powerful and shocking.
Charlize Theron's Aeon was a softer-edged, slight bleeding heart with no real heat or personality. Where our Fluxy was the queen of the sassy (yet subdued) one-liners, this new version is a bit of a victimized cold fish who is too busy being self-righteous and angsty to be as lovable as the Aeon we once knew.
She looks good, though.
And Martin Csokas was a potential great choice for Trevor Goodchild. He has, as I noted when I saw that he got cast, the necessary gravitas to play the role the way it should be. Also, he has the voice down pat and he's the right age. Beside the slight gripe of his hair being the wrong color, you know what?
Trevor Goodchild was NEVER EVER EVER EVER INTENDED TO BE A FUCKING GOOD GUY, YOU FUCKS!!!! He's supposed to be a twisted, self-infatuated, megalomaniac, brilliant, corrupt, evil, power-mad, vain, greedy dictator and a sick little monkey!!!!! NOT this poor, misunderstood, well-intentioned candy-ass do-gooder who's being betrayed by his younger brother, who didn't exist in the cartoon in the first place!!
Despite the bullshit plot-bunny that apparently burrowed into the screenwriters' asses prior to filming, there IS no mysterious deep-dark secret past between Aeon and Trevor. They're supposed to be attracted to each other because they are extraordinary, strong, powerful, and mercenary people, equals who are superior to the drab, conformist, and emotionally desolate society around them. They don't bore each other, because they pose the last great challenge to each other.
Something in both of them is similar enough create an initial attraction, but different enough to create lasting conflict and make them unsure of whether they prefer to fight or fuck each other. Period. One of the most intriguing features of this series was the vague and ever-present sense of moral ambiguity.
Are we so uncomfortable with this kind of complex human relationship that they had to dilute and homogenize it to death, to kill all of the potential explosive chemistry and fiery poetry there? I guess that's what we get for entrusting this to the same guys who wrote "The Tuxedo" and "Crazy/Beautiful".
I can just hear the studio heads now. "Gee, guys, that sounds great and all, but couldn't we...ya know...dumb it down some?" Thanks for that. Assholes.
The sleazy desperate avant garde sexuality of the world of Aeon Flux is gone (PG-13 rating, after all), the violence is inconsequential, and by the way? The only city-state that exists in the movie version is Bregna. The rival city-state of Monica that was separated by the wall from Bregna in the series doesn't even exist in this movie.
Nearly every possible way they could have perverted the brilliance, method, and madness of the series was in fact done. And more than that? I'm not even able to appreciate it as a stand-alone film. It was on par (if not worse) with Catwoman. Seriously.
Catwoman theoretically gives ample material from which to draw cheese and schlock for the movie version. To do that with Aeon Flux however, takes a serious violation of the source material.
I want to beat my $8.00 out of someone. When I get home from work today, I'll be watching the original series to cleanse myself of this experience.
To the sell-out prick teases responsible for this lump of sewage, I give you a famous bit of dialogue from the original (and apparently still only) Aeon Flux:
"You can't give it, can't even buy it, and you just don't get it."