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Aeon Flux semi-review and rant

Posted 09 Dec 2005 in personal

aeonflux.jpg

This week has sucked balls.

Getting sick and staying home from work wasn’t nearly as fun as I hoped it’d be. I wound up working from home almost as much as I would have if I’d gone into the office and shared my strep throat with everyone else.

And I didn’t clean up the place and get tons of housework done.

And I didn’t blog as much as I’d hoped.

And I sure as hell didn’t get my ass into the gym.

And I didn’t even take the time to do some new drawings.

And then yesterday, when I was finally feeling better after taking my medicine like a good boy, we had a minor ice storm and my office was closed for the day.

Can you say “cabin fever?”

So since traci had already scheduled to be off from work, we went to see Aeon Flux together.

I’ve been looking forward to Aeon Flux for over a year now. I was a little disappointed when they picked Charlize Theron for the lead role. Yeah, she’s hot and all. And I heard she did a bangup job with “Monster” (which I still haven’t seen). But she just didn’t seem right to play Aeon. I don’t know who would’ve been better. But I was thinking someone undiscovered, like a younger Sigourney Weaver. Hell, just go with Sigourney. Nobody said Aeon has to be young. She just needs to look good while kicking ass in a leather bodysuit & tall boots.

I’ve been a fan of Aeon Flux since the first time I saw her on MTV’s Liquid Television show. Of course, back then, each animated short ended with Aeon dying in some obscure and ironic way. And she didn’t talk. That’s key.

For those of you unfamiliar with the character, you can read a good overview and guide here. And a bit more here, too.

Then they made a regular series out of her. Made her talk a lot more. But it was still quirky and bizarre and twisted. She was still wearing the teeny leather BDSM-looking outfits. She still had the outrageously cool hair. And the ongoing villain, Trevor Goodchild, was a f*cked-up egomaniac with whom she had some sort of freaky love/hate relationship. Wikipedia has a pretty good description of the series.

Æon Flux is set in a surreal, futuristic universe of mutant creatures, clones, and robots. The title character is a tall, sexy, scantily-clad secret agent from the society of Monica, skilled in assassination and acrobatics. Her mission is to infiltrate the strongholds of the neighboring country of Bregna, which is led by her sworn enemy, and sometimes lover, Trevor Goodchild. Monica represents a dynamic anarchist society while Bregna embodies a centralized scientific planned state. The names of their respective characters reflect this: Flux as the self-directed agent from Monica and Goodchild as the technocratic leader of Bregna. This juxtaposition also maps accordingly to the characterizations of Eris and Greyface in the Discordian mythos. Further mythic parallels can be drawn in likening Goodchild to Apollo and Flux to Artemis.

But almost none of that made it into this movie. (warning, semi-spoilers ahead)

They took the villain and watered him down to nothing. Hell, even his brother – supposedly the true villain – was a pansy.

The plot wasn’t about some evil plan that had to be stopped. It was a boring coverup of a problem which seemed to me to be irritating at best. And the story’s resolution turned into something entirely too lofty and philosophical.

Then they picked Frances McDormand to be the Monican leader? WTF? Not only was that a huge casting miss (the part was far too small and wooden for someone of McDormand’s ability), but she was b’fugly! They did do a good job on the way Aeon and the other Monican agents reported to her, however.

Sithandra was cool. It’s hard to go wrong with a chick who’s got hands for feet. They did a good job on her.

And Trevor’s “hidden” lab. Vibrating out of phase was a cool thing they did in the series that I was glad to see made it into the screenplay.

But they screwed the pooch on Aeon’s acrobatics. And her outfit. And especially her hair.

traci liked the movie. Well, she liked it well enough for a science fiction flick. But for me, it was too much of a letdown.

(sigh)

Peter Chung, did you even read this screenplay before they made the movie? It didn’t even come close to the creativity you showed with the Liquid Television shorts. And the plot resolution doesn’t lend itself to any kind of sequel.

Oh well. Maybe it’ll get popular and they’ll make some new animation.

Without the dialogue.

Posted by FullMetalPatriot
12th gen. American, Constitutionalist, Harley-riding Texan, gun owner & NRA member, blogger, illustrator, Florida Gator alumnus. #TCOT

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