Æon Flux (1991)

the audience applauded

How sad is this?

Absolutely the worst movie.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Picked up the DVD series at the library, because I heard about it being a 90's cult series. Watched a few episodes, didn't like it, couldn't get myself to watch more of it. I feel this series sacrifices substance for style. Once you get beyond the pseudo-intellectual quotes, the strange futuristic setting and the obvious sexual tension, you are left with an incoherent mess. Perhaps it's just not my thing and I'm being too harsh, but be warned: this is not for everyone.Maybe back in the day Aeon Flux was groundbreaking for what it did. This was made during the pre-mainstream era of MTV, when they were still willing and able to do things outside of the box. I'm all for that, but that doesn't mean the results will automatically be good.

I loved MTV's Liquid Television and MTV's Oddities. It was watching Oddities where I first saw two brilliant series, The Maxx and Aeon Flux. I love Peter Chung's sci-fi series. It was so completely different from anything I had seen before. Aeon Flux started as a series of shorts on Liquid Television and became a longer series with dialogue a little later after that. The characters are quirky to say the least and even though the story lines can be disjointed and a little hard to follow, the sheer brilliance of the artwork and animation more than makes up for it. The series is rife with smoldering sexual tension between the Monican Aeon Flux and her enemy/lover Trevor Goodchild the benign Dictator of Bregna. Their love/hate relationship is a complicated one and contains some very interesting facets indeed. Nothing is ever straight forward in this series and each episode often contains an unexpected twist or a surprise ending. This is western animation at it's best. I have to say on an end not that I was disappointed with the movie as it seemed to miss every point of the series. In an interview with Peter Chung, he did not like the movie either. Aeon Flux is available on DVD

Aeon Flux is worth watching - even repeatedly for one good reason: it is very original, unlike the multitude of films out there that are simply copies of tired genres. It DOES NOT explain everything, and a lot of it you are left to guess or imagine for yourself - but this is part of it's appeal. The cartoon series are far more intriguing and absorbing than the insipid movie that was made. Having said that, it still leaves room for many areas that could have been developed, and they certainly could make a lot more than the eleven episodes that have been made so far. It also looks at a lot of relevant issues, and philosophy that is interwoven into each storyline. There is also plenty of action.

I watched about half of the Aeon Flux TV series in preparation for the live action movie starring Charlize Theron (still unreleased as of this writing). It was not what I expected. I thought it was some kind of anime, but it's an edgy, ugly and frankly freakish show set in a future where cloning and other technologies have transformed people into cyber-freaks.While I don't care much for the somewhat kinky style in which it is drawn, and while there isn't much in the way of a coherent story (the thing about Aeon dying at the end of every episode is just silly), the show does contain many really good ideas and many visually exciting elements. I am definitely looking forward to seeing what they do with this in the live action movie. If they carry over some of the freakish transhuman content, the movie could be pretty intense. I do hope they couple it all with a good story that ties it all together.My rating: 5 out of 10.