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| Director
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Karyn Kusama
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| Starring
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Charlize Theron, Frances
McDormand, Sophie Okonedo |
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| The plot of
Aeon Flux |
400 years in the future, as a disease has wiped
out most of the Earth's population, many of those
who have survived live in Bregna, a walled city-state
ruled by scientists. A mysterious operative (Theron)
aligned with an underground rebellion, is dispatched
by her handler (McDormand) to assassinate a top
government official. |
Aeon Flux
Movie Review
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Review by Kieran
Grant:
With mainstream animated
features bending over backwards to appear more lifelike,
it's a bracing joy to get to see a live action movie
as utterly cartoonish as Aeon Flux — which, incidentally,
concerns a slinky futuristic heroine who cannot only
bend over backwards, but also dodge poison darts, scale
amphitheatre walls, vault over cherry blossom trees
and analyze water molecules at a glance. And that's
just in the first third of the film.From its fluttering
visuals to its spare dialogue to the exquisite out-of-frame
stares of its cast, director Karyn Kusama's sci-fi pocket-thriller
is a waking-dream realization of Peter Chung's cult-y
animated serial — in which the titular assassin
Aeon Flux (Charlize Theron), descended from survivors
of a plague that wiped out 99 per cent of the Earth's
population, struggles to free her walled city from a
seemingly utopian order enforced by morally opaque dictators
Trevor and Oren Goodchild (Marton Csokas and Jonny Lee
Miller).The story is smart, if skimpy, with uncomplicated
remarks on both science's role and nature's rule in
modern life and some pleasing twists to keep intrigue
levels high alongside the relentless action and Theron's
irony-free commitment to Aeon Flux's fantasy world..more..
Review By Rob
Vaux:
Before we begin, a little
insight into the critics' collective mind: we can smell
fear, and frankly we have no problems pouncing on those
who exhibit it. We're callous little weasels that way.
Call it a throwback to our hunter-gatherer instincts.
"Oooh, this one is weak. It must be culled from
the herd!" The best way to trigger an attack is
to try to hide something from us: for example, by refusing
to screen a film before its theatrical release. When
one doesn't allow one's product to be seen, it suggests
that said product is perhaps not up to snuff -- that
the studio has a bomb on its hand and wishes to suck
up a few unsuspecting dollars before the word gets out.
Critics love taking down movies like that... especially
when they feature two Oscar winners, a well-regarded
director, and bona fide status as an event picture.
It's blood in the water to us. It's chuck steak in front
of a wolf. It's a gigantic "Kick Me" sign
planted right on Charlize Theron's tushie, and one needs
a strong will to resist such temptation.I, my friends,
am not that strong.Had Aeon Flux been more than just
a hot mess, it would be easier to play nice with it.
But the final product on display is stinky indeed, and
by bottling it up beforehand, Paramount conceded its
plans to take the opening weekend grosses and run. That
reduces the equation to a cynical money grab of which
even the most undemanding consumer should be warned.
There is nothing in Aeon Flux to justify 90 minutes
of your time. Not even the sight of Theron in stylized
bondage gear (which I suppose makes the film a hot sexy
mess) can atone for the muddled story, hackneyed action,
and dulled-down effects..More..
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