2005, United States. Starring Charlize Theron, Marton Csokas, Jonny Lee Miller, Sophie Okonedo, Frances McDormand, Pete Postlethwaite, Amelia Warner, Caroline Chikezie, Nikolai Kinski, Paterson Joseph, Yangzom Brauen. Directed by Karyn Kusama. Written by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi. Purchase from Amazon.com.

Fall 2005/Winter 2006 looked to be a pretty exciting season for fans of bad cinema, with a glut of "femme fatale killing machine" movies parading one after the other onto screens. In very rapid succession, we got Aeon Flux, Bloodrayne (from Uwe Boll, no less), Underworld: Evolution, and Ultraviolet. Why, things hadn't been this good since the night I rented Catwoman and Elektra and watched them back to back (and Aeon Flux is definitely better than either of those, in case you're wondering). I was pretty excited about all of the films, figuring each one would likely be even worse than the last, which is all I ever look for in film trends. As per my usual mode of operation, I never got around to seeing any of these films in the theater. But now they're finally trickling out onto DVD, and Aeon Flux gets to be the first head on the chopping block.

I have an exceptionally large weakness for two-star science fiction fantasy films. I almost always know exactly what I'm going to get, and it's extremely rare that I end up surprised and/or disappointed by a film's content. I don't have any real problem admitting my love of these films, either. I even enjoyed Chronicles of Riddick, which may or may not be the ultimate two-star sci-fi fantasy film.

Aeon Flux is definitely a two-star film. It'ss the perfect type of film for one of these off-the-cuff mini-reviews, because it's pretty hard to come up with very to say about it. There is nothing spectacular about the film except for Charlize Theron's looks, and neither critics nor genre fans really liked the movie. I thought it was OK, but I have notoriously questionable taste and would never think that my slightly enjoying a film is in any way a sign of quality. But then, I'm never as interested in abstract questions of merit and quality as I am in whether or not I enjoyed a film.

Aeon Flux is an easy-to-swallow confection that never comes up with any interesting ideas or unique set-pieces and will be quickly forgotten (I already can't remember how it ends, and I just watched it last night). It executes cliche competently and without passion, and everyone does that monotone style of acting that is supposed to convey deepness and darkness but, frankly, always just sounds like mild boredom to me. Enough with the monotone sci-fi acting style, people.

In Aeon Flux's defense, at least it doesn't tint the whole film green, yellow, or blue. We seem to finally have emerged from that long, dark stylistic tunnel and returned to films that actually contain multiple colors. So as soon as they all stop mumbling, I'll be happy again.

Art design looks like plenty of other sci-fi films, and Karyn Kusama's (Girl Fight) direction is uninspired but competent. Charlize looks good, but that's no big accomplishment for a film. That's like shooting in the African wild and then bragging about your sweeping cinematography. Charlize also has some weight to her, rather than being a rail-thin waif we're supposed to accept as an unstoppable ass-kicker, and I like that.

Graham Revelle wrote a pretty good score, too. Reminds me a lot of the music from the Ghost in the Shell movies and Stand Alone Complex, mixed with his usual sound (he did the music for the first two Terminator films, if you need to remember what his work sounds like).

So, it's not really a good movie. It's serious in a humorless and somewhat dull manner. There's not much reason to care about any of the characters or situations. There's precious little of the off-kilter perversity that made the old cartoon so unique. On the other hand, it has one or two decent action sequences and a hot chick with hands for feet, which does look like something out of the cartoon. Most of the action is pretty tepid, which is a pretty good description of the whole film, but from time to time it manages to make one's ears perk up, if just barely. I mean, we're not talking the sublime thrills of Gymkata here.

And yeah, it definitely falls into the category of films I like even though there's not a whole lot to like about them. I have low standards and bad taste. What do you want from me?