Aeon Flux

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Frenetic ‘Flux’ lands with thud

Thanksgiving is over, but those gluttons still hungry for turkey should enjoy picking at the carcass of "Aeon Flux."

An intensely lifeless Charlize Theron backflips through the 25th century in this base goth/sci-fi concoction. Paramount Pictures denied reviewers a chance to see the film before it opened yesterday. Apparently, they were doing us a favor, and I'm pleased to pass the savings along: Spend your money instead on the new DVD box set of the animated Peter Chung series on which the movie is based.

Of course, serious fans of Chung's original version, which ran on MTV in the early 1990s as part of the network's Liquid Television lineup, might not mind that the feature film looks like it was edited by a food processor. They're probably at the megaplex right now, watching Theron and her stunt double attempt to bring the movie's Goodchild Administration to its knees.

As the deadly spy and assassin Aeon Flux, Theron sports a jagged, jet-black bob and lives in Bregna, the last city on Earth. For its inhabitants, the place is a paradise, albeit a controlled, technocratic one. (Keeping with the world order, the movie's electronic score is the stuff you heard at raves and certain hydroponics shops 10 years ago.)

Bregna also has a security problem. Citizens are disappearing without explanation, and Aeon believes that the high commander, Trevor Goodchild (Marton Csokas), and his cabinet are responsible, and swears to take him out. More important: Killing him will set the people of Bregna free. And it all turns personal when her sister disappears.

Aeon receives her search-and-destroy instructions from Frances McDormand, who lives in Aeon's brain (I'm begging you not to ask how or why). McDormand wears an orange fright wig while standing in a white judicial chamber right out of a Eurythmics video. Both she and Theron seemed to have e-mailed in their performances from the set of "North Country," where they appeared to be having a better time under more grueling circumstances.

Since Aeon is very good at her job and the movie must last more (much more) than 20 minutes, assassinating Trevor comes with a wrinkle. And that wrinkle is sex. He and Aeon share a history of some sort. But darn if she can't remember what it is. She collapses into his arms. On instinct.

Rekindling that past imperils them both -- he with his cabinet, including brother and vice-whatever, Oren (Jonny Lee Miller); she with McDormand and her steely pal, Sithandra, who has hands for feet and is played by Sophie Okonedo, who portrayed Don Cheadle's wife in "Hotel Rwanda."

What ensues is a lot of shooting, kicking, and running. The filmmakers offer special effects that I once used as screensavers and the sight of Theron climbing up and down curtains. Her every stunt feels like an audition for Cirque du Soleil.

"Aeon Flux" is the sophomore picture from Karyn Kusama, who's first movie was a modest boxing film called "Girlfight." Here she's in over her head. The movie's sexual and scientific ideas never come through, and the characters would be fun only if they came with a joystick.

At least the technical production is amusing. Many of the sets are like Buck Rogers goes to Ikea, and all the costumes suggest design tasks from "Project Runway." For instance, Pete Postlethwaite, in an inexplicable role, spends the movie dressed in a cylindrical shell that looks like a yogurt-covered condom. He knows he's doing a dirty job, but at least he's brought protection.