This film is unattuned to its own strengths. As it is, though, I felt like "Aeon Flux" was willfully pushing me away from a movie I wanted to enjoy. There is a pretty good movie trying to get out of the morass of "Aeon Flux." Put this stuff in the hands of the Wachowski brothers, say, and the results could be quite different. Instead, we get split seconds of flying limbs, breaking glass, and accompanying sound effects. Much of the action occurs in minimalist, open spaces that beg for some unbroken long shots that might convey the grace and athleticism implied by the above. "Aeon Flux"'s aesthetic is one of sleek costume, oddly-angled architecture, and nimble characters. The result is some serious spacial disorientation that takes over the film. To make matters worse, it's edited in a flurry of jump cuts that leave us completely lost. Kusama has made the baffling decision to film nearly all the action so close that we can rarely follow what's going on. The big problems of "Aeon Flux" are technical. There's room for much more examination of which the film doesn't take advantage, but the ideas are there, at least. Though occasionally muddled, the film's central conceit (of which I won't reveal more) contains some neat notions about the nature of human existence and survival. The Goodchilds might not be quite what they seem, and Aeon herself might have an unexpected history with them. Not surprisingly, things get complicated. It falls to Aeon to strap on some form-fitting, futuristic spandex get-ups to carry out the High Carrot's orders, which are of course some version of "destroy the regime." Having years earlier watched her sister get liquidated by the Goodchilds, she needs little convincing. Through some sort of biochemical virtual reality technology, the Monicans receive orders from their dear leader (Frances McDormand), a mystical priestess-type who appears to have been cross-bred with a carrot. The regime is occasionally mean to the citizenry, which is more than Aeon Flux (Charlize Theron) and her pals can stand. The latter are known as the Monicans, and far from being a cult of beret or tennis racket worshipers, they're into attempts to overthrow the former, called the Goodchild regime. There is a dictatorship, and there are rebels. Too bad director Karyn Kusama seems to have little clue how to execute it all. Though ultimately overwhelmed by its flaws, it at least has (sort of) an idea with which to toy around. Consider it an early Christmas gift from Hollywood, then, that "Aeon Flux" isn't nearly the affront to taste and decency one might expect, given the above. That many movies suck is no surprise, but when a studio itself admits as much ahead of time, the process of movie-going becomes a passion play of sorts. It's a bit unnerving when a studio declines to screen a film for the press before it goes into wide release. Trailers for the film show some of alternate scenes which could be from Kusama's director's cut, like Æon in different clothes after she wakes up. Kusama's original cut was about 30 minutes longer and it also had different score, composed by Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil, which was rejected by the producers and replaced with Graeme Revell's score while they were re-editing different versions of the film for test screenings. In the end, they decided to go with PG-13 rating so violence and nude scenes were cut, including an entire sex scene, although you can still see several quick shots of Theron's breasts in post-sex scene. Despite Kusama's objections, alternate scenes were filmed which for example showed more bloodier fights and bullet hits, and more nudity from Charlize Theron in several of her scenes. It's possible that this 71-minute version of the film was an R-rated version which some producers wanted. Huge parts of the plot were left out and even one character's sexuality of being gay was cut out by the studio. According to director Karyn Kusama, after finishing the movie, the studio fired her, re-cut the movie to a 71-minute long version that tested poorly and then asked her to edit the film again, but not back to her original vision.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |