While it flopped at the box office and was almost instantly labeled as a bad movie, Aeon Flux is more intelligent and more interesting than most people were lead to believe by the action oriented trailers and bad press it received during its theatrical release. The movie is no classic, and at times it definitely takes the dumb way out emphasizing action over intelligence, but it gets enough right that it's at least an entertaining movie, even if it doesn't come as close at it should have to the potential that the concept could have allowed.

Over four hundred years from now , a plague will break out and destroy almost all of mankind save for a few survivors who whole themselves up in a walled city named Bregna. Outside the walls, mother nature has reclaimed the planet Earth and the citizens of Bregna, a utopia of sorts, have a healthy fear of what lies outside the protective boundaries in which they carry on their day to day lives. The main man in charge of Bregna is Trevor Goodchild (Marton Coskas), a direct descendant of the man who created the antidote to the plague which saved the survivors who have kept the human race alive to this day. He's looked up to by most of the citizens of Bregna, but there are a few who have clued in to the fact that something is amiss in the seemingly perfect city he and his family have created.

One of these people is Aeon Flux (Charlize Theron), who is part of a gang of rebels known as the Monicans, a group of people who know that the government in power is responsible for a few unusual kidnappings in which their subjects are quickly scurried away and never seen or heard from again. The Monicans are smart and savvy enough to have figured out a way into the government headquarters and that's where Aeon comes into play. Her sister, recently a victim of one of these kidnappings, is gone and seeing as she was the only thing that Aeon really cared about, she shows now fear when she's assigned with breaking into the seemingly impenetrable fortress and assassinating Trevor Goodchild, for the greater good of the people who remain ignorant as to their oppression. Aeon teams up with Sithandra (Sophie Okonedo), and the two start their mission but once Flux makes it inside, she quickly learns that what she thought to be the truth might just be one more elaborate lie and that the reality she thought she knew is in fact not reality at all…

Based on the strange animated series from Peter Chung that used to air on MTV of all places, Aeon Flux does an interesting, if not entirely successful, job of blending the 'everything is not as perfect as it seems' feature of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World with the action/sci-fi movie clichés we've come to expect from big budgeted Hollywood productions and as such, it's a little conflicted. The film wants to be intelligent, it wants to have something to say and it tries really hard at times to prove some sort of point but it gets lost in and amongst the bullets and stunts and explosions and special effects. Now, granted, telling a story about a futuristic assassin requires a certain amount of gun play and a certain amount of action to pull in its audience but this is a rare exception where a quieter film might have been a more interesting one. The premise itself is completely ridiculous so be prepared to throw realism to the wind before you even press the play button but if you're willing to accept the fact that this is a complete and utter comic book movie you can have a lot of fun with it but the fact remains, the story gets lost in spots. Aeon Flux is obviously getting in tune with her maternal side, she wants love and the possibility of motherhood but she goes about getting this by popping caps in everyone's asses and leaping through the air with guns a'blazing. This creates a character that is almost too complex for the movie in which she stars and the film can't quite make up its mind if it wants us to take it seriously or not.

That being said, Theron looks great in the lead. The costume designers have done a very good job on her for the movie and while she isn't as fetishy looking or as nearly naked as her cartoon counterpart, she's still instantly recognizable as Aeon Flux. The wire work and action scenes are impressive, even if they feel a bit too much like they've been yanked out of The Matrix at times – while there isn't a lot of slow-motion 'bullet time' in the movie, these set pieces are similar on almost every other note. The set design and location work is also excellent and Aeon Flux is a very good looking movie in every capacity. Director Karyn Kusama, best known for Girlfight, brings a uniquely female perspective to what is normally a male dominated genre but ultimately Aeon Flux buries its high concepts in bullet ballet and flashy visuals that distract from the message and end up burying the intelligence that parts of the film really show. It's not a bad film, it's still very entertaining and plenty easy on the eyes, but one can't help but lament the fact that it could have been so much more.

Video:

The anamorphic 2.35.1 transfer looks very, very nice on this DVD release. Blacks are solid, colors are very well defined and flesh tones look lifelike and natural. Compression artifacts and edge enhancement are almost non-existent and there isn't a whole lot to complain about. There's plenty of both foreground and background detail present in the image from start to finish and color reproduction is drop dead gorgeous in certain scenes. There's a tiny hint of aliasing present in a few scenes but other than that there aren't really any digital transfer issues worth noting aside from some very slight edge enhancement here and there. Print damage is pretty much non-existent and while there is some fine film grain in one or two spots, that's okay as it isn't ever once overpowering or distracting in the least. Aeon Flux looks damn good on this DVD.