Such a frustrating disappointment

The acting in this movie is really good.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The message. And Charlize Theron. A Sci. Fi. And nice story about dictatorship, freedom and love. Fight scenes and great special effects. And the right rythm for a large target.Short, new level of cartoon characters.

It starts off strong and is pretty true to the animated original. Theron is excellent and I loved the casting- though thrown by the non-blond Chairman at first. Also top marks for an super ethnically diverse cast of all genders which was amazing considering it was made in 2005. Visually everything is quite stunning, decors are fantastic, costumes, gadgets... Then, about half way in, things take a turn for the worse. It's really too bad. You can really tell where the producers cut the movie to shreds from Kusama's original edit. You're left with a hollow, almost hokey and mind numbingly simplistic plot reveal. The last 20 minutes of the film is a wash, even the final action sequences are terrible: confusing and even worse, boring. I was left feeling disappointed and wishing for a directors cut.

Aeon Flux (2005): Dir: Karyn Kusama / Cast: Charlize Theron, Jonny Lee Miller, Frances McDormand, Pete Postlethewaite, Sophie Okonedo: Apparently based on a video game and easily one of the stupidest films that a person can punish their intelligence to. It rates right up there with Son of the Mask as one of the worst pieces of crap released in 2005. A disease wipes out 99% of mankind although just enough survived to make this film. A walled city shelters the remaining while scientists clone people. Aeon Flux is sent to kill a government leader only to uncover deep secrets. Special effects are creative despite a screenplay that is about as fetching as a third grade book report. The director showcases the bizarre without reason while Charlize Theron drones through dimwitted dialogue and kicks the living crap out of numerous people every two minutes or so. Jonny Lee Miller plays the targeted government leader who shares a past with Flux. Yes, and they also share the experience of being part of this stupid film. Frances McDormand and Pete Postlethewaite appear in laughable roles. The special effects are the payoff and that is pretty much the only thing that this waste of time has to offer. It is based on a video game, and how many of those are worth the price of admission? Flux sucks and should be used as target practice, but first a little baseball bat action upon it would do it justice. Score: 1 / 10

I am quite surprised, astounded even, that this movie has not received better ratings. It holds a meagre 5.5 at IMDb. Rotten Tomatoe's ratings are, as usual, pure nonsense with a 10% rating and a big rotten icon. Personally I think this is much undeserved. Yes the movie is a bit silly at times and yes it does not take a genius to figure out roughly what is about to happen nor what has happened in the "mysterious" past.Still the movie is visually stunning. I would not say that this is a special effects movie in the traditional sense. There are no insane outbursts of explosions, no car chases, no space fights. However, the scenery is quite good and the martial arts stunts are really really good. Maybe I am biased by the fact that I am a male and the main character happens to be a woman in (very) tight suits but to me many scenes where simply visual poetry. There is an especially noteworthy scene where Aeon and a colleague (who have hands instead of feet by the way) are traversing a "garden of death" in order to get to their target. The whole setup is fairly ludicrous. I mean, in an advanced, highly technological, society who would resort to so bizarre means of protecting their main base of operations? Regardless of that, the sequence is just so cool and visually pleasing.The first two thirds of the movie is probably the best. In the last third it goes a bit overboard with pretty ludicrous gun fights which pretty much defies any logic, science fiction or not. If you have seen old Western movies where the good guy just walks down the street against a hundred "baddies" who all constantly misses him as he, on the other hand, blasts them just by pointing his gun in the general direction…well then you get the picture.Charlize Theron was doing a quite good job of portraying Aeon Flux but my favourite actor was really Marton Csokas as Trevor Goodchild. His mostly calm yet quite imposing appearance was very enjoyable to watch. I had more difficulties with Jonny Lee Miller in the bad guy role. I felt that he was a bit bland but then I am watching Elementary on Netflix right now and there he is a so much more dynamic and impressive character.Anyway, if you are a science fiction fan, do watch this movie. It is much better than the ratings give it credit for as far as I am concerned.