Aeon FluxMovie Reviews

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Avg. Critic Score: 36 out of 100 Generally unfavorable reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
13 Iffy for 13+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 50
    Washington Post | Desson Thomson

    With the exception of a few enjoyable action scenes, such as when Aeon and fellow operative Sithandra (Sophie Okonedo) flip and backflip their way across a lethal garden of bullet-spewing trees and spikes disguised as blades of grass, Aeon Flux is surprisingly draggy. Read full review

  • 50
    Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

    Theron is an arresting image, but, like everything else in Aeon Flux, she's stranded in a trashy and derivative glum zone of fashion-runway fascism. Read full review

  • 40
    Austin Chronicle | Marc Savlov

    While its heart is in the right place, Aeon Flux's head is just a little too high to make much sense. Read full review

  • 40
    Variety | Justin Chang

    The future looks alternately grim and hysterical in Aeon Flux, a spectacularly silly sci-fier that plays like "The Matrix" crossed with "The Island" and reinterpreted as a long-lost Michael Jackson video. Read full review

  • 40
    The New York Times | Dana Stevens

    It's a movie best appreciated for the costumes, the sets and Ms. Theron's haughty athleticism. Read full review

  • 38
    New York Daily News | Jami Bernard

    The wordless six-minute anim shorts - at the end of which our double-jointed heroine would always die - don't lend themselves to a 95-minute action movie where viewers might rightfully expect something to make sense. Read full review

  • 30
    The Hollywood Reporter | Michael Rechtshaffen

    Smultaneously silly, ostentatious and terribly boring. Read full review

  • 25
    Boston Globe | Wesley Morris

    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. Read full review

  • 25
    San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle

    It's hard to sit all the way through Aeon Flux while fully awake. Read full review

  • 20
    Los Angeles Times | John Anderson

    If Aeon Flux is what Charlize Theron does to pay the bills while otherwise being engaged in "Monster" and "North Country," it's probably a reasonable price to pay. For her. For us? No, no, no. Read full review

View more reviews for Aeon Flux on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 13+ Violent -- not for younger kids.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that the film, as it follows an assassin on her mission, includes violent, bloody scenes, in particular, repeated martial arts fights (with sounds of bones breaking), stabbings and shootings (with automatic weapons as well as sniper-style guns), a woman's murder by government agents (she opens the door, expecting someone else, and the film cuts from her surprised face to the next scene), explosions (of buildings and a floating blimp-like lab), and several on-screen deaths of recognizable characters (villains and seeming heroes). Characters wear form-fitting futuristic clothing, some resembling bondage gear (one character makes a brief, joking reference to bondage as sexual practice, a great reduction from the source anime). Aeon appears nude, rising from bed, her back to the camera, a couple kisses then has (implied) sex. Music is loud and pounding during chase and fight scenes. The film also includes some semi-complex conversations concerning the ethics of cloning humans.
  • Families can talk about Aeon's decision to go off mission when she "feels" something is wrong. How does her questioning of authority show her independence, as well as her stubbornness? How do Aeon's memories (technically, a previous life) compel her present actions? How does the film weigh family (specifically, sisterly) loyalty against romance?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: Aeon learns to trust her instincts rather than her orders; the evil governing system is toppled.
What to watch for
  • violence false5 Violence: Shootings, fights, explosions, stabbings: Aeon is an assassin and her enemies range from sleek and athletic to thuggish.
  • sex false3 Sex: Women characters wear skimpy, stylized clothing; Aeon appears undressed (back to camera); one implied sex scene.
  • language false0 Language: Not an issue
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Not an issue
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false0 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Not an issue
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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Dave White

2.5

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… spaced-out seriousness. Read full review See Dave White's on MOVIENAME on Movies.com

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