After more than 7 or 8 years, and a 10-minute exposure to the stupid movie, I now have in my hands the DVDs of the complete Aeon Flux animated series, sadly, MINUS the pre-series shorts.
See, after accidentally watching an episode past-midnight one day at home, in my early college days, I couldn’t wait for the next show. Never mind if they were doing constant reruns after a few weeks, they were so much of a visual and aural treat. The more-than-odd plots, the sexual and violent overtones, the philosophically-smart dialogue, and all the other extra elements of the series seems new, fresh, a potent assault to my senses.
I’m done with the first disc, along with the commentaries. Though director Peter Chung, and the rest of the series writers did a somewhat awkard commentary, I highly advise viewers to listen to it, and turn on the subtitles. Oh, if you catch yourself hitting the pause button, and rushing for a dictionary, I don’t blame you: they are one bunch of clever MFers.
Also, from a Peter Chung interview (source):
Q: How do you REALLY feel about the movie Aeon Flux? Considering it couldn’t really ever touch upon how effective the cartoon is.
With apologies to both Phil and Matt– who have publicly been effusive in their praise for the show– the movie is a travesty. I was unhappy when I read the script four years ago; seeing it projected larger than life in a crowded theatre made me feel helpless, humiliated and sad.
Ha! I already said this way back 2004.
Brief reviews of my other weekend films:
The Dreamers (2003)
dir. Bernardo Bertolucci
This felt like the first movie a veteran film director would’ve made, but never got to doing. Did I like it? It seemed like a great movie -lots of cineaste talk, pretty people doing pretty sex, and a good-enough plot re youngsters living the Bohemian life- but it just failed to impress me.
La Double vie de Véronique/The Double Life of Veronique
dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski
If you found the Three Colours Trilogy (Blue, White, Red) wonderful, The Double Life of Veronique follows the same poetic storytelling that Kieslowski usually employs in his work. The film is centered on Veronique, and Veronika, who lead parallel lives, played by the same actress (Irene Jacob, who played the lead in Red/Rouge; for lack of a better definition, she is at her loveliest form here), but are unknown to each other and both feel that they are not alone in their existence.