Sux is more like it in this live-action version of MTV’s 1990s animated sci-fi series; some amazing visuals don’t compensate for incoherent storytelling.
This was a film that made me think. I thought, what is it that makes Oscar-winning actresses decide that a poorly received action film is the way to cement a reputation as a serious actress? (See Berry, Halle, to say nothing of Frances McDormand’s disembodied cameo here.) The actress here is Charlize Theron. She’s an assassin of 400 years’ hence whose original incarnation was in 1991 segments on MTV’s animated Liquid TV. That led to a ten-episode series in 1995. (See mtv.com for a sample episode.) The film’s (sole) strength is some amazing visuals: lithe ninja moves, curvilinear production designs, and so on. It splits the difference between the dialogue-free shorts and the talkier series.
Theron was quoted as saying “I really like telling stories with my body.” The story her body tells here is that a nearly six-foot, rail-thin woman who crops her hair, walks stiffly, and wears a black costume resembling a wet suit will look surprisingly like a stick figure. To be fair, she’d have needed the mother of all boob jobs to resemble her cartoon counterpart. The grotesque bodies and kinky eroticism are toned down from the TV show. The violence remains, but the action scenes aren’t special, and the dialogue is pedestrian and delivered woodenly. At least until the second half, there’s hardly any plot or character development, and no moral complexity that characterizes good sci-fi. Watching the series would have provided details missing here, like, what was the “industrial disease” that preceded the events in the movie, and what is the “resistance” that Aeon Flux is part of? However, I doubt most of the people who see the movie will have seen the series, and they’re apt to get impatient with the story and annoyed at all the whispery flashbacks that hint that there is one, buried somewhere.
viewed 12/3/05 at Moorestown and reviewed 12/05/05
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