film - Aeon Flux

1/5

Æon Flux debuted on MTV in 1991 as a six-part animated series created by Peter Chung.

In the film, set 400 years in the future, we have a small population living in the walled city of Bregna, created by Dr. Goodchild after 99% of the population was killed off by a virus. Since then, Goodchild's family have been running the city as benevolent dictators.



There exists, however, a highly trained, small underground movement, determined to kill off their ruling masters, who they see as their oppressors. Once in a while, citizens become abducted, never to seen or heard from again, all the more reason for the rebellion to topple the city state's leadership, who they believe are responsible for the adductions. The citizens also suffer from a mysterious condition in which they have vivid but false memories, as if they recalling past lives...

Aeon Flux is sent on a mission to kill of the head of the Goodchild family, the leader of the city, but stops but an overwhelming sense that they are familiar with one another.



My problem with this film, apart from the enourmous leaps of logic that need to be realized, is the sterile, cold feeling from the characters and the story as a whole. There's little intrigue, despite unravelling the story at a realistic pace. Like in the Matrix series, there's an overreliance of special effects and implausible story lines. How many times do we have to see the outnumbered and out-gunned good guys jump their way like acrobats through a wall of machine gun fire only to take out all the bad guys?



I haven't seen the animated series so I can't comment on how close Charlize Theron's performance is to the Aeon Flux character, but the one-dimensional character is seemingly lifeless, save for her fighting skills. There's little humanity in her...or perhaps that really was the point.

I won't see this again and I can't recommend it.