I actually liked this. It's certainly different, both visually and in terms of action and story telling... but not in a bad way. Very colorful, nice ideas, good actors... every now and then I do enjoy watching a movie that is a bit out of the ordinary.
Surprisingly good sci-fi flick... Not great but not horrible either. If you like action based sci-fi than you can give it a try. Theron really does a good job and the production looks pretty neat (CGI is OK for a film from 2005).
Note: I haven't seen (not much anyway) the original series.
The people involved with Æon Flux, including Peter Chang who created it as an animated series, are all convinced of the project's viability and throw someone else under the bus (up to and including the studio that butchered the edit) for the film's failures. I'm gonna go ahead and say it was probably never viable. There are things you can do in a comic book or a short animated show that just won't translate to a live action feature unless you adapt it forcefully. While the screenplay redrew the world and the characters in an attempt to make the story more compact and the characters more human (I'm guessing), those were probably the wrong thing to change. The end result is in a way too slavish to the original with an action-before-character approach that feels entirely cartoonish, and an episodic structure that shows us Charlize Theron's action heroine doing all sorts of things and using all sorts of gadgets against various threats ad infinitum, with small breaks to do plot-necessary exposition. SF ideas strung together, but who are these people beyond the archetypes they represent? There's just no getting properly invested. I don't think the story really understands its central premise either because, and I'm being vague in case you do decide to watch it, are motivated by what they've been told to be motivated about. I guess the characterlessness has been built into the setting, but that just gets us back to its lack of viability. Let's be thankful it wasn't successful enough to spawn a series of Underworld or Resident Evil-type sequels. Charlize has some much better action films in her future.
It works surprisingly well for a popcorn movie. The visuals are decent and the action isn't half bad. For some odd reason I always thought it similar to Ultraviolet but this movie is vastly superior in nearly every way.
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Comments 1 - 10 of 10
IreneAdler
I actually liked this. It's certainly different, both visually and in terms of action and story telling... but not in a bad way. Very colorful, nice ideas, good actors... every now and then I do enjoy watching a movie that is a bit out of the ordinary.DanielTovar
Bad movie; only multiplied by the fact that it butchered the show.SilverB33
Terrible film, didn't do the character/animated show any justice.dpanter
Kate Beckinsale, lol. She isn't even in this movie, lead actress is Charlize Theron. The movie is horrible crap anyway.Darth Loki
Surprisingly good sci-fi flick... Not great but not horrible either. If you like action based sci-fi than you can give it a try. Theron really does a good job and the production looks pretty neat (CGI is OK for a film from 2005).Note: I haven't seen (not much anyway) the original series.
Siskoid
The people involved with Æon Flux, including Peter Chang who created it as an animated series, are all convinced of the project's viability and throw someone else under the bus (up to and including the studio that butchered the edit) for the film's failures. I'm gonna go ahead and say it was probably never viable. There are things you can do in a comic book or a short animated show that just won't translate to a live action feature unless you adapt it forcefully. While the screenplay redrew the world and the characters in an attempt to make the story more compact and the characters more human (I'm guessing), those were probably the wrong thing to change. The end result is in a way too slavish to the original with an action-before-character approach that feels entirely cartoonish, and an episodic structure that shows us Charlize Theron's action heroine doing all sorts of things and using all sorts of gadgets against various threats ad infinitum, with small breaks to do plot-necessary exposition. SF ideas strung together, but who are these people beyond the archetypes they represent? There's just no getting properly invested. I don't think the story really understands its central premise either because, and I'm being vague in case you do decide to watch it, are motivated by what they've been told to be motivated about. I guess the characterlessness has been built into the setting, but that just gets us back to its lack of viability. Let's be thankful it wasn't successful enough to spawn a series of Underworld or Resident Evil-type sequels. Charlize has some much better action films in her future.Maxahlia
Well that was bad. Possibly one of worst films I've ever bothered to watch.DisneyStitch
It works surprisingly well for a popcorn movie. The visuals are decent and the action isn't half bad. For some odd reason I always thought it similar to Ultraviolet but this movie is vastly superior in nearly every way.aliasmrx
Icefilms favourite.daisymay
This made my husband fall in love with kate Beckinsale! She looks amazing in it!