It seemed like it would never happen. The beloved cult television series favorite Aeon Flux turned into a movie, but in 2005 MTV Films in association with Paramount Pictures did just that. Charlize Theron plays Aeon Flux in all her science fiction glory; skin tight suits, acrobatics, strange weapons and all. The action sequences are typical martial arts style cut shots with camera angles to emphasize the choreography. There are some great special effects within the film in the form of little ball bearing bombs, the literal blades' of grass, and the idea that pills and liquids could have messages hidden inside them, and only if you consume them will you be able to retrieve the message.
The plot for the film surrounds a small band of rebels out to stop the existing government from controlling the population of the lat sanctuary on earth. When Aeon's sister Una Flux (Amelia Warner) is killed Aeon goes into action to find out why her sister was killed, leading to the conspiracy that has controlled the population for generations under the Goodchilds. The sub-plot conspiracy about cloning is more interesting and significant to me and became the most interesting part of the story; it is where the story redeemed itself for me and is what makes this movie worth watching. The cultural significance of cloning in this film is an important focus; with the rise in heated discussions on the real life topic of cloning people, this film focuses on idea that we may need clone ourselves one day in order to help our species survive. This idea is one that causes great arguments among science and religion, and divides us in the world today.
Marton Csokas is brilliant in his role as Trevor Goodchild, another reason that this movie is worth seeing at all is his performance. Charlize Theron on the other hand is not at her best in this role, but she is easily acceptable in the part. Director Karyn Kusama, who previously wrote and directed Girl Fight, does a stellar job directing and makes Peter Chung's original vision for the characters come to life literally with live-action.
There are changes to some of the characters and the original story had to become more coherent for it to become a movie, so overall fans of the series might be disappointed, but the meat of what Aeon Flux represented in the series is still there. Great performances by Jonny Lee Miller as Oren Goodchild, Trevor's brother, and Sophie Oknedo as Sithandra a favorite character from the original series, make Aeon Flux a great film for the sci-fi fan that might not be familiar with this heroine, but the film may not be what fans of the series expected.