A Couple Reactions
Last night, I realized that I should pay attention to Illinois and Chicago news because of the 2006 elections.
Until I move, though, I should still contact John Kerry, Edward Kennedy, Barney Frank et. al. for political activistism.
Not a huge deal. I just never thought of it before.
Aeon Flux
Saw Aeon Flux last night after a little holiday shopping, instead of wasting time with Magic or computer Texas Hold'em (and in fact, playing real Texas Hold'em at a friends) or doing some productive pro bono freelance copywriting work.
I'd call it just above a B movie, a B+ movie, if you will.
Off the wall action scenes, but at the same time, realistic within the world created.
No plot holes really existed. The only ones I saw came from the characters, their motivations, history and so forth not getting fleshed out.
Also, the characters didn't really show too much chemistry with each other, nor did they show much emotion and when characters did show much of it, many came off as over acting. A couple of actors pulled off some good restrained emotion, though. Overall, though, the minimalist emotions go with the mood of the cartoon that inspired the movie along with the genre of the movie.
I guess I would have also taken out a bit of the verbal and beginning textual narrative clips. After that, I would have cut and pasted some of the scenes to add little mystery and confusing mystery. The cutting and pasting would have also helped make the movie a little more arty and stronger.
For those who know the 10-minute clips that they showed on MTVs Liquid Television or the TV show they broadcasted briefly, I guess they keep the characters and the names of political institutions. Instead of action sequences without any necessary plot or even simply selfish anti-heroes and villains, the movie makers raised the bar to create a dystopian world reminiscent of Yevgeny Zamyatin's We interlaced with a more realistic Matrix and one similar theme from the old '80s animated and later novelized series, Robotech.
In general, though, I would say go without huge expectations. Go for the kicks. If you know the Robotech references, I think you'll figure out the major idea of the movie pretty quickly and predict a good amount of it. From what I've heard from reviewers, though, those not familiar with the Robotech series may not totally get into the overarching theme and may find the overall plot full of loose ends. If the latter people keep an open mind, though, they could still have fun watching Aeon Flux
Oh well, to each their own, I guess.
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4 comments:
How "twisty" is the plot? What I like best about the cartoon is how it takes multiple viewings of some episodes to really feel like you understand it all. Very sharp, fast, subtle plot development, without much reliance on character.
Any similarities, or has it been straightforwardified for the movie-going muggles of america?
Not nearly so "twisty" as the cartoon. I guess you could say it has been made a lot more straightforward than the cartoon. I think any reasonably intelligent person will get the movie the first time.
I think geeks will find it too simple while non-geeks would find it too scattered, mainly because of the speculation about genetic memory.
Admittedly, I haven't seen the episodes, but from what I gathered, the movie simplified the characters, and I believe they simplified the characters too much. Didn't the cartoon episodes pretty much have the characters as very manipulative and very amoral?
A lot of German names in the credits.
If I luv the cartoons would I hate the movie?
I can't really say because I only saw the Liquid Television clips of Aeon Flux, never the episodes.
It's a different story with the same names and bits of the same themes, I would say.
If you're looking for something to blow you away, though, this movie won't do it for you. It has some interesting ideas, though.
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