“I had a family once. I had alife. Now all I have is a mission.” Why is it the future is filled with bad hair styles? Call me superficial but the least the world of the future could do would be to insure that humanity looks decentIn the 25th century humanity lives in a walled city of 5 million people while nature has taken back the world outside the city. The rest of the world died in a massive viral plaque. The Goodchild family has ruled the city for 400 years and Aeon (Charlize Theron) a member of a secret rebel faction within the city kicks butt to help end the dictatorship of the Goodchild family. When Aeon gets orders to take out Trevor Goodchild (Marton Csokas) from her mentor (Frances McDormand with extremely bad hair) things get messy for Aeon. ***

Based on the popular MTV anime series “Aeon Flux” looks gorgeous with an imaginative production design and unique look. Critically reveled “Aeon Flux” is largely a fun entertaining film although you’d best leave your brain at the door. Like “V for Vendetta” “Aeon Flux” takes a dark, complex story and manages to make it more and less. Like the original cartoon the film works best when viewing the stunning action sequences but it’s much like the Scarecrow from the “Wizard of Oz” without much brain power.

Image & Sound:

"Aeon Flux" looks beautiful in this nearly pristine transfer that has all the rich color of the original theatrical presentation. There's little in the way of digital artifacts to mar the terrific picture here. Overall a stunning looking movie that receives a stunning looking transfer, "Aeon Flux" also sounds terrific which an active 5.1 mix and great use of directional sound as well as detailed sound effects spread across the sound field.

We get two audio commentary tracks one featuring writers Matt Manfredi & Phil Hay and the other featuring actress Charlize Theron and producer Gale Anne Hurd. Interestingly the director isn’t part of the commentary package here. The writers focus much more on creating the background world for Aeon Flux, the relationships of the characters and how they implied back stories for the main characters. We also get a discussion of some ideas that didn’t survive into the final shooting script. Producer Hurd and Theron focus on the prac tical shooting of the film covering everything from the training and wirework necessary for the film to reshoots to clarify plot points. “Creating a World: Aeon Flux”, “The Locations of Aeon Flux”, “The Stunts of Aeon Flux”, “The Costumes of Aeon Flux”, “The Craft on the Set: Phographer on Aeon Flux” are the featurettes included. We also get the original theatrical trailer as well as previews. ***

The best of the featurettes “Creating a World” gives us clips from the original MTV cartoons in discussing how they adapted it from a series of short cartoons where the heroine dies at the end of each episode done by Peter Chung. Chung’s experimental wasn’t taken up for the film but the spirit of those short remained in tact. Chung, the director, the screenwriters and Robin Richesson who did the storyboards for the film all discuss the challenge of translating this popular film to the big screen. Gale Anne Hurd and director Karyn Kusama discuss how they tried to pay homage to the show’s unusual approach. “The Locations” shows the capital of Brazil which was used for the film’s signature look of the city of the future. Build in the 50’s “Brazilia” has a seamless look to it in terms of the design that makes it work as the futuristic city from the film. “The Stunts” shows both rehearsal footage and final sequences from the movie. “Costumes” reveals that the inspiration for the film’s elegant look was Bertolucci’s “The Conformist”. “The Photographer” featurette has an interview with the set photographer along with images from the film. To me the least interesting of the films featurettes were “The Photographer” and “The Stunts”. Those who purchase the film at Best Buy will ge t a sec ond disc for a limited time with additional production featurettes. ---

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