Æon Flux (2005)

Directed by: Karyn Kusama
Starring:  Charlize Theron; Marton Csokas

Æon Flux is a scifi dystopian action film starring Charlize Theron and a bunch of That Guys that is loosely based on the 90s MTV show of the same name.  It is set some 400 years in the future where mankind has been reduced to a husk of its former glory due to some badass virus hitting the reset button on human evolution.  Life is pretty swell for most of the inhabitants of this pastoral metropolis, some minor exceptions notwithstanding. People tend to disappear, suddenly die, or suffer from severely mysterious nightmares on the regular.  And all the local leadership cares about is consolidating its total power even though life is pretty good for everyone when you think about it.  Still, people are suffering or something.  Guess we should do something about that.  Hey, here’s Charlize Theron in a slinky slip.  You’re welcome.

This movie is nothing special, being the typical smorgasbord of mid-aughts kung fu neck chopping, gun-blazing extravaganza that it is.  I am intrigued by its use of color–Æon Flux has a wonderful palette and the cinematographers take full advantage of Charlize’s kung-fu-emo look in terms of scene composition and set design.  It is clearly *her* movie because of this; the attention to detail is immaculate and polished, like a modeling reel.

I also like the warm, accessible look of everything.  Usually when I think of post-apocalyptic post-human Earth I think of drab grays and gross clothes.  And yet beauty is all over Æon Flux.  The [very very minor] problem I find with all Charlize all the time is that her presence holds the other actors (and a script that doesn’t take any chances) to some pretty lofty standards.  She’s so hot it’s distracting; it’s also a hypothetical reason why the film isn’t very faithful to its subject matter.  This is not me saying that Æon Flux is a terrible movie.  It shows us how capable Ms. Theron can be as an Action Girl and I appreciate that.

B-

 

The Matrix (1999)

Image credit: themoviedb.org

The Matrix is a film about a guy who works for some software development agency who plays part time as a Red Hat hacker (could be Black Hat, but it’s not really touched upon). He spends his days doing whatever programmers like to do for their day jobs under the thumb of some asshole boss that’s big into punctuality. He spends his nights doing hacky things, particularly searching for an elusive hacker named Morpheus. Things get interesting when he follows a cryptic message to a night club where he begins to learn the truth about the REAL life, universe, and everything. Turns out that everyone lives in a giant computer program called The Matrix and the reality he knows isn’t so real after all, that he along with the rest of humanity is a slave to sentient machines that mine humans for raw energy. More simply put: HUMANITY IS FUCKED.

So The Matrix is one of those ‘capstone’ movies that kind of dawned a new era in filmmaking.  Its message was incredibly profound for the time, arguably the first time the high-level concept of being ‘trapped in a computer simulation’ extended beyond the Kingdom of Nerds and into the realm of popular consciousness.  It also ushered in a new age of visual razzamataz.  I don’t want to sit here and go on and on about its message; that’s probably been done to death already and book reviews are where I generally flex my thinking-hard brain muscles anyway.   My question is rather basic: is this movie still good?

Yep. Still good.  Look, we’ve all grown a little bit older and a little bit wiser since The Matrix arrived on the scene (especially after those, uh, interesting sequels that I will no doubt encounter sometime later). To say that we are all puppets to some kind of higher regime, while thought-provoking, is a pretty self-defeating way to live.  But if you look at this film for what it is: an explosive, action-packed, experimentally fun sci-fi romp with cool as hell special effects and a reasonably light-hearted yet serious tone, hopefully you will find a very thrilling movie that is quite fun to watch.  One riddled with little references, allusions, and nods to films of many many genres that came before.  My personal favorite nod was during the scene where  Neo and Agent Smith prepare to face off in the subway: some trash blows across the battlefield like a tumbleweed.  Little things like this add so much character to the movie to make it more than just a pretentious commentary about the system.  That’s why the film succeeds where perhaps others have failed.  You can connect with it in more than one way, and because of this The Matrix still holds up to this day.

A

Beyond the Black Rainbow (2011)

Beyond the Black Rainbow is an indie mystery sci-fi thriller about a guy running a mysterious sci-fi facility in the 80s who is crazy for some mysterious reason. The facility is staffed by approximately 3 people who watch over a mysterious girl day and night because of some mysterious connection the guy has with her. As the movie progresses, the purpose of the guy and the facility are revealed in addition to why the girl is there… but not much else.

This film is incredibly challenging. It holds its mystery cards very close to its proverbial movie vest and when it decides to reveal anything about what the fuck is going on or tell us why we should give two shits, it does so very begrudgingly. It reminds me of someone attempting to reconstruct themselves from sunburnt skin peelings, to be honest; and while “true” sci-fi fans might gravitate toward its abstract ideas of mind control through machinery and otherworldly perverse utopian symbolisms, casual viewers might be turned off by its incredibly dull pace and pretentiously bizarre art direction.

I cannot recommend Beyond the Black Rainbow. The biggest problem I have with this film is that while its tense psychological moments are really well done, these moments aren’t clearly connected to what is happening anywhere else in the film very intuitively. It is too protective with the secrets it holds, opting instead to dazzle the audience with bizarre camera tricks and angles to suggest that things aren’t what they seem, or even that its story has a purpose. Why is Elana in the facility? What is her connection to the facility and its researcher(s)? Why is she so frustratingly weak and powerless even during certain times where adrenaline would be coursing through her veins, helping her resolve her terrible situation? What does she have that crazy madman scientist guy wants? What’s the deal with the scrapbook full of pictures of penises and vaginas? Why is crazy madman scientist crazy? What is the point of this movie? All these questions are answered in there somewhere, with each answer being more abstract and confounding than the last.

Give it a try if you feel up to the challenge. Then, you can come back here and tell me what the fuck just happened.

D