Pithy Review: Aeon Flux

I'm a sucker for SciFi films... Well, the good ones anyway.

Translating an exceptional bit of animation to living actors is difficult at best, but with Aeon Flux, who relentlessly died at the end of every Liquid Tele short; who was so... Uniquely drawn, its translation to film was the best that it could be in all but one respect.

Being a fan of the original animation, it was the artist's style that made it so very enjoyable, and no matter who wore the black tights in this film adaptation, it was never going to live up to that. So, in order to enjoy the film, I had to set aside some expectations-- which I rarely have trouble doing, so the translation wasn't a problem for me. But BenT, who bitterly disagrees with me politically, who also occasionally joins me at the theater, afterwards hit on the "one respect". He said the film didn't give the feel or sense of a city populated by millions, and he was right. The city felt too empty.

Despite the one objection, I thought the film was very original in concept and story; I couldn't detect any echo from a previous film, aside from plot motivation; i.e., "Man versus Nature", "Man versus Technology", etc. Aeon Flux, for me, further underscored the irrelevance of movie critics. It's nice when critics like what you like, but more often than not I tend to like the films Critics don't. In my own estimation, critics are for people who don't know what they like.

Aeon Flux was worth the price of admission + the price of a medium popcorn and diet drink. But don't take my word for it-- I'm the critic here.