Movie & Video reviews

Travis Lavan

2/15/2007 - Aeon Flux

When a television show is made in to a motion picture there are always those who will wonder whether or not it happened because the material deserved it or because the material was simply there.

  It isn’t that – as some claim – there’s a dearth of creativity in Hollywood. There isn’t, it is just that there will always be those in the movie business who feel that building on an existing foundation makes the job easier.

  In the case of Aeon Flux it’s hard to say whether the job was made easier or more difficult by the television version. Originally part of MTV’s Liquid Television lineup in the mid 1990’s, Flux was an avant-garde cult phenomenon that appealed primarily to the Generation-X subculture.

  The show chronicled the exploits of the eponymous secret agent Aeon Flux and her hyper-violent, sexually charged struggle to destroy her personal nemesis, a man called Trevor Goodchild. For the most part the show left the character’s backgrounds and motivations unclear and the creative emphasis was primarily focused on unconventionality for its own sake.

  Eventually, like music videos in general and Liquid Television in particular, MTV eventually moved on and the show was short lived. Equal parts provocative and pointless, the show maintains a healthy cult following to this day and would not have seemed a natural choice for a movie adaptation.

  As I’ve mentioned before the two main problems with adapting a television show or comic book for the screen is that a certain portion of your audience will tune it out for that reason alone. Another segment will expect your version to remain faithful to the original material even though the requirements of film often warrant change.

  It’s already an uphill battle, made worse by the fact that Aeon Flux the television show never really was about anything. The film makers were required to construct background and foundation that had not before been present, and then build a story around it.

  In the end few were pleased.

  Similar to the film adaptation of Doom (which I covered a few weeks ago) Aeon Flux is the type of film it pays to see without expectations. The film’s back story is rather simple – ravaged by plague, the human race is reduced to a settlement of five million inhabitants.

  Ruled by the benevolent Trevor Goodchild (Marton Csokas) and his hand picked council, humanity survives by adhering to a strict code of moral and social conduct that some might call oppressive.

  Enter Aeon Flux (Charlize Theron, in perhaps her most questionable post Oscar choice of material to date) and her shadowy group of assassins. Motivated by the desire for more personal freedom the Monicans, as they are called, wage a terror was against the establishment, seeking to bring the government down. Given that the city’s inhabitants seem entirely free from need or want it is hard to take sides with the terrorists, but we soon come to discover that things are not as they seem.

  We are quickly told that Trevor Goodchild himself created the vaccine that saved humanity and out of gratitude, few people question his authority – even when people begin to disappear. The government is soon suspected and in a coincidental twist, among the missing is Aeon’s sister, Una. 

  Motivated by orders as well as personal revenge, Aeon sets out to assassinate Trevor and bring down the government only to discover that she, Trevor and all of humanity share a chilling secret, based on an unthinkable lie.

  Somewhat faithful to the animated series’ progressive sense of style and atmosphere, Aeon Flux manages to maintain a steady pulse of tension and paranoia from beginning to end. There is more to this film than you’ve been told and more to it than you had any right to expect.

  I’ll admit I avoided it. For a movie that grossed less than a third of its production costs I wasn’t expecting much – that usually says enough. Having seen the television series in its entirety I fully expected to enjoy it on some level and then walk away scratching my head, if not wanting my money back.

  I am glad to report the opposite – without realizing it I became immersed in Aeon Flux almost immediately and found the story to be far more compelling than I’d have expected.

  I’m not entirely sure Aeon Flux delivers the type of story that required a 60 million dollar theatrical production but if you’re a fan of science fiction at all, I’d recommend giving it a try. Keep an open mind and a short list of expectations and your time will be well spent.