But the film's ambitious gravitas – including some deadly serious line readings from Theron and co. That said, the movie by necessity does indeed have more narrative and emotional weight, creating new characters or expanding largely unnecessary old ones (including Aeon and Trevor's respective siblings) and discarding the ambiguous, 'spy-versus-spy' throughline for a more streamlined, self-contained story. As agents from both sides close in upon the couple, Aeon must face a difficult decision: destroy this man she used to love, hopefully restoring the balance of power between the government and her band of subversives, or save his life, leaving the future of the human race hanging in the balance? To say that this film makes marginally more sense than the original series is not a compliment – one of the things I enjoyed about Aeon's animated travails was the fact that impermanence, if anything, was the connective tissue between each installment (after all, she did die at the end of almost every episode). But before she can complete this task, she discovers that she and Trevor share an impossible, forgotten past conflicted by the possibility she might sacrifice yet another person whom she loved, even one she no longer remembers, she hesitates, sending her colleagues, including the ambidextrous (the best word to describe a person with four hands and no feet) Sithandra (Sophie Okonedo), into the fray to finish the job. Following the death of her sister Una (Amelia Warner), Aeon receives her greatest assignment: kill the murderer, a politician named Trevor Goodchild (Martin Csokas) who holds the future of the human race in his family's scientific lineage. Charlize Theron, fresh from her Oscar win in the acclaimed independent drama Monster, plays Aeon, a secret agent whose affiliations and aims I won't attempt to decipher, but who perhaps needless to say is very good at her job, which mostly includes acrobatic feats that could scarcely be executed, much less attempted, outside, oh, say, a cartoon (this is not a criticism, but an observation). But what comes as a surprise in this film is not its awfulness, which would elevate it at least to Catwoman-style martyrdom, but the fact that it suffers the opposite problem of most live-action interpretations of popular cult icons – namely, that it takes itself too seriously instead of not enough. Graeme Revell's smart score never overwhelms the action, which involves a lot of automatic weapons, and Oscar winner Frances McDormand and Oscar nominee Pete Postlethwaite feature in small roles.So when time came to review the big screen adaptation of Chung's creation, which he recently admitted was essentially an independent story (read IGN's interview with Chung here), I was first in line to sacrifice – er, volunteer – myself on the altar of potentially mind-altering (or at least time-stealing) action. The taut script, by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi (who previously teamed up on CRAZY/BEAUTIFUL), delves deep into the relationships of siblings that often border between love and hate. The film alternates between stark gray-and-white sets and brilliant splashes of red, green, and yellow, adding a vibrancy that befits a cartoon adaptation. Theron, who performed most of her own stunts, glides through the film in barely-there outfits, while also jumping, running, slinking, diving, and cartwheeling her way through dangerous situations, recalling the gorgeous movements made by the animated version. At the centre of it all is a secret that threatens to tear everything apart. As Trevor battles his brother, Oren (Jonny Lee Miller), for control of Bregna, Aeon seeks revenge for the murder of her sister (Amelia Warner) while also being hunted down by her former partner, Sithandra (Sophie Okonedo). But a long-buried memory prevents her from killing him, ultimately making both of them targets. Aeon Flux is a Monican who has been ordered to assassinate Trevor Goodchild (Martin Csokas), the leader of Bregna a futuristic walled city that is the last vestige of humanity on 25th-Century earth. Based on a series of animated shorts that aired on MTV, the live-action feature film version stars Charlize Theron, in jet black hair, as the secret agent of the title. Karyn Kusama, the writer-director of GIRLFIGHT, the story of a tough female boxer, turns her attentions to a tough female superhero in AEON FLUX.
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