Aeon Flux

More cartoonish than the MTV animated series (VL-1/06) on which it's based, director Karyn Kusama's Aeon Flux belongs in the dubious company of films such as Lara Croft, Elektra, Catwoman, and The Island. Set in 2415, it's titled after its stern, punkish heroine (Charlize Theron), a svelte, leather-clad resistance fighter assigned by her handler (Frances McDormand) to assassinate the leader of the Big Brother-ish government of a heavily-fortified city founded some four centuries earlier to house the survivors of a plague that carried off the rest of humanity. As she proceeds with the mission, Aeon finds that, as the cliché goes, nothing is as it seems. Visually, Aeon Flux is spiffy in the glossy, sterile style so common in this sort of futuristic claptrap, but otherwise the movie has virtually nothing to offer. Even the big action sequences are poorly staged, and the cast members—including Pete Postlethwaite, who's forced to wear what looks like a giant candy-bar wrapper—suffer acute embarrassment (Theron has ample opportunity to show off her lithe frame but remains tediously impassive throughout). Not recommended. [Note: Available in either widescreen or full screen versions, DVD extras include two audio commentaries (one by star Charlize Theron and producer Gale Anne Hurd; the other by screenwriters Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi), and five production featurettes: “Creating a World” (21 min.), “Locations” (15 min.), “The Costume Design Workshop” (14 min.), “Stunts” (9 min.), “The Craft of the Set Photographer” (4 min.). Bottom line: a decent extras package for a disappointing film.] (F. Swietek)