Wow, this was boring. Aeon Flux is a 2005 film that is loosely – very loosely – pulled from the animated television series of the same name as created by Peter Chung. The television series was a very avant garde program, airing as a part of MTV’s Liquid Television and showcasing very different elements of storytelling and a raw sense of animation. The show was bizarre and engaging, the film was not. The show pushed boundaries and was gritty, the film was not. While I have no problem with the idea that Aeon Flux was indeed loosely adapted from the television series, it bothers me when I think of what could have been and, arguably, what should have been.
Aeon Flux is about as formulaic a film as is possible. The film stars Charlize Theron as the title character and she is as bland as can be. There is no emotion or feeling to her portrayal and hints of attitude are given with such lackluster and uninspired delivery that it’s really boring to watch her fumble about. Normally I’m fairly kind to actors, but Theron is simply awful here without a doubt. As Flux, the assassin, she’s hollow and banal. The character deserves more, given the source material, but the writing and performances seem hellbent on turning poor Theron’s Flux into something like a female version of Neo, only somehow even less interesting.
The plot is relatively simple. The film takes place in the future, in a “post-apocalyptic version” of it (is there any other kind in Hollywood sci-fi?), and calls on all of the usual elements of science-fiction storytelling to set up the plot. The government has all the power, it’s a police state, yadda yadda yadda. Basically the world is in this position because a virus took out 99% of the population in 2011 (that’s right, watch out!). So the survivors of this virus head to a city-state called Bregna, which is ruled by a congress of scientists. The scientists, naturally, rule with an iron fist and there are rebel groups fluxing around (sorry) trying to upset the apple cart of corruption. Our hero, Aeon Flux, is a member of one of the rebel groups and she’s trying to take down the government’s leader (Marton Csokas), only to discover that there’s more to the situation than meets the eye.
The screenplay was written by the genius team behind Crazy/Beautiful and The Tuxedo and takes the ideas within the bizarre television series and plops them right smack dab into the middle of a standardized genre piece. What we’re left with is a very generic film that focuses on how good-looking the backgrounds are and how fresh the martial arts fights are. To emphasize this point, the choreography is spiked with about as much incessant flipping and somersaulting as possible and the backgrounds are amped up to make everyone “ooh” and “aah” while drawing attention away from the flimsiness of the material. Is it any surprise that Paramount Pictures chose to not allow critics to review this film until two hours before it opened?
The film was rightfully hosed upon its release and Peter Chung attempted to distance himself from the picture, becoming evasive when asked about it and taking particular issue with the portrayal of the Trevor character (saying he was “emasculated” in the film version) and referring to the movie as a whole as a “travesty.” Chung goes on to describe the film as making him feel “helpless, humiliated, and sad” that his work had been translated to the big screen in such a way. The writers and director of the film have claimed that the studio forced several cuts, but Chung’s critique extends beyond the cuts and into how the characters themselves were portrayed. It really does appear that Aeon Flux is a veritable pillaging of Chung’s work, as nobody from the television series was asked to help write the film.
Aeon Flux is a true disaster. It’s a bland piece of cinema that only has a possible claim in the area of visuals, as some of it looks rather good. Still, the reliance on looks calls for a complete ignorance to other areas of the story and bland portrayals of characters and other elements of the original source material. Aeon Flux is, instead, an attempt at formulating a redux of The Matrix with a bland female heroine and cheesier martial arts.
1/10
