hidarimaki

If the movie title sounds familiar, 'Aeon Flux' was also a TV series (created by Peter Chung) which was made for MTV around a decade ago. It was designed to be weird, and the production was reportedly heavily influenced by anime (Japanese animation). I say "reportedly" because I have never had the chance to see the MTV series, but this movie seems to be its own story, and a major movie release should be able to stand on its own. So how does the Aeon Flux movie stand?

The main character (Aeon) is played by Charlize Theron, who is an athletic and attractive woman that is currently making movies. So the producers decided to take the same approach with this film as they did with Halle Berry in Catwoman; they had her do a lot of fight scenes involving acrobat-fu while wearing tight and revealing leather costumes.

The plot looks like it was originally cooked up by people under the influence of hallucinogens, before being taken over by competent people who were limited in the changes they were allowed to make. Meanwhile, the fight scenes director was allowed to stay under the influence. The result is a storyline where fights break out frequently, sometimes at random, and people can change rooms and teleport at will. There is also the threat of attack plants, such as grass that might stab you to death or blossoms which may fatally shoot at you. In short, the weirdness from the original series seems to be intact, and the plot changes direction frequently and with little warning.

The acting is competent enough, although the characters are a bit flat, due partially to the actors but more so to the script. Still, if you're looking for an action movie where you can put your brain in neutral while ogling the scenery, this movie should fit the bill. But if you go in expecting something at the level of 'Batman Begins', you'll likely be disappointed.

Some movies try to follow a strict formula, while other movies make due. This story is an action space movie while in the cockpit, except for some parts of space where it's a monster movie. And when the ship lands on a planet, it's suddenly a Western. But this is oversimplifying things somewhat.

The ship which normally takes the heroes on their journey is often either state of the art (like the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars), or standard fare for space travel. The Serenity, which is the heroes' ship, is literally falling apart. The crew have the same devotion to each other as a dysfunctional family would (such as the Bundys in 'Married with Children'), except that not even blood ties this batch together. Their mission isn't to get rich, or to get famous, or to get even, but to get by. And the captain often has little idea what the next step is once he steps in, since basically they devise their plan as they go along.

If this sounds familiar, the movie is a big screen adaptation of 'Firefly', the series which had almost as many quiet reschedulings as it had episodes, before being canceled with less than a full season behind it. So of course, they made the story ready for a theater release.

But what's the oddest thing about 'Serenity'? Surprisingly, it's that it all works. This is a science fiction space action movie that doesn't take the space opera approach of the 'Star Wars' prequels, but of the original 1977 production which started the franchise. Despite the odd combination of elements, there's no point where you notice something and ask yourself "what the heck is THAT doing in here?"

In short, you don't have to be a fan of the original TV series to see this movie. What's presented here is a more complete and cohesive story than any episode of 'Firefly' was, and it's also self-contained. If you're a fan of the genre, this should be a safe bet.