Aeon Flux - no reviews, no pullquotes, and certainly no tomatoes

I find this interesting because theatres tend to get their prints on Wednesdays, or at worst Thursdays for movies opening that Friday. Therefore it seems they could have something 11th hour. Unless they are being honest and the theatrical reels will be delivered at the last second, which is a big risk since it won't likely be screened by projectionists/managers before being shown to the public. As anyone having worked in multiplexes as long as I have can tell you, those pre-audience test-runs are quite a necessity. I think I'll have to call my old co-workers to see if they know anything.

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Andrew's Official Unofficial Review of the Aeon Flux Trailer:

Charlize Theron does not look like she could kick anyone's ass. She looks like she'd need help making a cup of tea, much less blowing things up and beating people up. While all sci-fi movies are obviously a very elaborate fakery, the good ones do it convincingly. To be convincing, you need to start with actors that look the part and act the part. She doesn't.

It's like that girl from Firefly/Serenity. Damn, she was terrible.

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From IMDB (so not entirely trustworthy):
"Here's why the film is being treated so bizarrely, in a nutshell. The film was greenlit and made under the previous regime at Paramount. The current regime inherited it in post and has no investment in it. The filmakers have been at war with this new regime over the content of the film the entire time. The studio has an intense antipathy toward science fiction, and that's why every trailer you see sells the movie as a loud, crazy action film, when in fact it is much more ambitious than than. They pulled it from critics seemingly because, good or bad reviews, they didn't want the message out there that it could possibly appeal to adults, thinking that will scare away the kids. Truly a victim of studio politics."

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Meanwhile, if that is the case, they will not get an adult audience. And the younger audiences will think its cheesy and too adult if and when they see it.

Anyway, from speaking to people in the theatre business, there is no word of a delay on their end. If any critics want to see it ahead of time, they can make nice with someone on that end and watch a late night show tomorrow night.

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All you need to do is watch the trailer ...it is so flat and unwatchable. Charlize Theron is so wrong for the part. She acts too delicately for a Aeon.

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I really, really hate it when a studio advertises a movie as something it isn't. It means that if you see a preview, and then see the movie, there is a 100% chance that you will be disappointed. It also means that if you are exactly the kind of person who would most enjoy the movie, and you see a preview, you will no longer want to see the movie.

If comment #3 is right, and Paramount is making sure that literally 0% of the advance word about the movie is accurate, in order to get a large opening-night crowd, then what the hell are they doing? There will be a 90% dropoff from the teens who go to the opening night and then tell their friends it sucked and was too long and confusing, and there will be nobody else willing to see the movie after seeing all the ads that made it look like a cross between Mission Impossible 2 and Charlie's Angels 2.

This reminds me of when "The Core" came out, which so clearly had been an interesting movie until about 99% of the way through the production process when it was rerouted to be the poor man's poor man's poor man's "Armageddon". 99% of people who might have liked it decided not to see it, and the rest went so they could defiantly enjoy the remnants of what it had been.

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Hey, Roger Ebert, you need to post your *WAGGING FINGER OF SHAME* for us!

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They should change the title since this film has nothing in common with the source material which was recently released on DVD.

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And just like I did with the last non-screened flick, The Fog, I'll be there on Friday afternoon so I can get a review out ASAP. :) I sincerely hope I can get behind the movie, if only in a guilty pleasure way, but I'm not exactly holding my breath on it.

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I thought the movie was very enjoyable. It had a lot of action and the story was quite interesting. It certainly didn't look to me like Charlize Theron would need help making a cup of tea. She did her own stunts and all the gymnastics and had to do incredible physical things for that part since that was what it demanded. The people making the movie weren't about to fake everything; that never works. What the heck kind of tea do you make that you think would be too hard for her to make? I mean, give me a break, and don't be naive. She looked far from delicate in that movie. Who in the world could have done it better? I'm familiar with actors and I have seen a lot of movies and Charlize would have been my first and only choice. Regardless of what people say about the movie, and I've heard tons of people ranting about how they didn't like the futuristic costumes (I guess they just forgot that the film takes place 400 years in the future) and people keep whining that they didn't "get" the story, that doesn't change the fact that it was well-written and was pulled off quite well. How hard is it to get? It's an age-old story and it was told in a refreshing way. It's as if no one has any imagination anymore, and as soon as Hollywood -finally- releases a movie that qualifies as a fantasy sci-fi action thriller, people are getting in line to hate it. This film never tried to sell itself as anything other than what it is. I don't agree that it is 100% opposite of the way it was portrayed in the previews. It was shown as something exciting and action packed, and it was. Whether you liked it or not, it never had a dull moment and the fighting scenes were pretty cool. It's just too damn bad that some people can't appreciate it for what it is.

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