Fierce People
Charlize Theron is a sexy, lethal rebel battling for freedom in an oppressive future society. Sci-fi action thrills adapted from the cult MTV animation series
What is it about the Best (Supporting) Actress Oscar that makes the women who win it immediately want to don a revealing costume and beat people up in a daft, female-oriented action movie? Charlize Theron follows in the footsteps of Angelina Jolie (Tomb Raider) and Halle Berry (Catwoman) with Aeon Flux. While the ballet-trained actress exhibits her physical talents in the stunt sequences, this is a stodgy and listless futuristic thriller that only ever echoes other cinematic sci-fi tomorrows. Based on the cult animation series originally shown on MTV, the film is set in the year 2415, where most of the world's population has been wiped out by the "Industrial Disease", and the remainder now live in the walled and seemingly perfect city of Bregna. All is not well in this utopian society, however, and a group of rebels known as the Monicans have banded together in order to fight back against the dictatorial government of Trevor Goodchild (Csokas) and the mysterious disappearances that are blighting the population. The most powerful fighter among the Monicans is Aeon Flux (Theron), a fierce warrior whose resolve to defeat the Bregnan government is only increased further when her sister is brutally murdered by them. Ordered to assassinate Trevor Goodchild and bring an end to the conflict, Aeon works her way inside the heavily guarded Citadel with the help of fellow Monican Sithandra (Okonedo) - but on the verge of completing her assignment, she's suddenly unable to pull the trigger. For reasons she doesn't understand, she feels a strange connection to Goodchild, and while not carrying out her mission results in her being targeted by the Monicans as a potential traitor, it also leads her to discover the truth that's lurking behind Bregna's perfect facade. Despite this central revelation being based around a couple of potentially challenging sci-fi concepts, Aeon Flux is essentially yet another tale of rebels taking on an evil establishment, spiced up with brutal kung-fu action sequences and plenty of chances for Theron to dress up in eye-catching fetishistic outfits. These occasionally verge on the ridiculous, from a bizarre, mask-like contraption seen in the opening sequence, to Aeon's decision to mount a dangerous raid on a high-security complex while dressed in an all-white catsuit. Such stylisations may be in keeping with the kinky, manga-influenced style of the original animation series, but they can't draw attention away from the script's derivative nature. From the portentous council meetings to the bone-cracking fights and the general atmosphere of po-faced seriousness, it's obvious that virtually every member of the production was staring at The Matrix trilogy and taking copious notes, although the end result is resembles old-fashioned 1990s action blockbusters like Judge Dredd and Demolition Man. Featuring a future that looks more like an over-designed Chinese restaurant than a sinister, soulless Utopia, the film suffers from a number of conceptual holes and a desperate tendency to overplay the supposedly moving love story at the centre of the script. More often than not, the ideas and concepts are simply hiding the story's threadbare nature, and as a fusion of sci-fi and action it's actually even less successful than Michael Bay's flawed blockbuster The Island (with which the story shares some uncanny similarities). What we're left with in the end is a succession of mildly effective and surprisingly bloody action sequences, which largely consist of Theron tumbling through the air in slow-motion or screaming aggressively as she snaps someone's neck, as well as the sight of a fantastic cast being given very little to do. Like Angelina Jolie before her, Theron mistakes statuesque cool for genuinely engaging heroism, cranking the sex appeal up but failing to inject much life or humanity into Aeon's quest. Elsewhere, Sophie Okonedo hardly gets a chance to impress in a thankless role as a four-handed warrior, and Jonny Lee Miller fails to be convincingly villainous as Csokas' jealous brother. Most embarrassing of all is Frances McDormand, who's stranded with daft dialogue and an improbable hairstyle in a semi-cameo that's even more out of place than Judi Dench's bizarre appearance in The Chronicles Of Riddick. Verdict No matter how hard they try, action movies and Oscar-winning actresses just don't seem to work together, and Aeon Flux is no exception. |
