I can't give this movie thumbs up.  Because thumbs up is property of Roger Ebert.  Instead I'll give it three stars out of five.  It makes for entertaining viewing and I look forward to good quality DVD release of this film (partly so I can rewind the drinking-water-in-the-bedroom-scene over and over) the movie sounds good and looks great.  Early in the film there is a scene where Aeon Flux has her hands behind her back, you just see her face being disturbed by a fly.  The surrounds in the theater were used so well I actually thought some annoying kids in the theater were looking for a sound thrashing from yours truly.  Any fan of the animated feature knew what was coming next, I stiffled an impulse to cheer out loud.  It was a good homage to Peter Chung's trippy animation.

The movie was enjoyable as an action flic.  I'm relieved to say it gives a nod to the surreal elements of the animation which was nice.  It does a pretty good job at giving us a lightweight version of the sexual elements of the anime as well.  The tension between Trevor and Aeon was nicely done.  They even borrowed from one of the two minute silent shorts with a deep kiss involving tongues being used as a decoy to exchange a small tablet that has the plans inside.

What can I say about Charlize Theron that isn't apparent from that snapshot above?  The director could have rolled film on her performing a mundane task such as drinking a glass of water and I would be transfixed to the screen.  In fact, that very scene exists.  She rises from her bed wearing a futuristically hot and revealing little number and pours herself an unusual glass of water from some way-out looking beaker.  The sets and props are a joy, but most of all Charlize Theron proves she has that certain quality that makes her interesting to watch no matter what she’s doing.  Similar to other fine actors and I'm not just talking about the fact she's a pretty woman.  I attribute this quality to stars like Clint Eastwood and his pal Morgan Freeman both have it as does Sean Connery and to a lesser degree Tom Cruise but it eludes Ben Affleck.  It’s the ability to do something mundane on camera and make it not only real but interesting.  Somehow in that drinking water scene it was more than just her sexy attire, I felt a brief tinge of guilt, like a voyeur looking at a personal moment through a window.  Now that's natural acting!

On the bad side:  The Achilles heel of this genre is unnecessary exposition.  Aeon Flux opens with a history lesson that could have been left on the cutting room floor.  The annoying part of this movie is how everything that went unexplained in the animated series was tidily explained here.  Everything was wrapped up and they even took a stab at a happy ending with a timely moral message... barf!  What ever happened to leaving anything to the viewer’s imagination?  What ever happened to masterful strokes of Science Fiction filmmaking like Stanley Kubric's 2001 Space Odyssey?  2001 has an ending that still has people debating exactly what it meant.

Oh well.  While this was no 2001, it was an enjoyable ride with a talented cast and a director who uses them adequately.  The sets and props were so imaginative that had the ending been different (for instance if it had ended with one of those cools Aeon Flux death scenes) it would have guaranteed a cult following of Blade Runner proportions.  As it is, we get a film that aspires to be another summer blockbuster.  I read this review of the movie that is so off, the reviewer Nick Schager is just looking for a fight with this film.  It’s one thing to not like a movie but to superimpose your own moral agenda into a movie is a peculiar way to review.  I thought uptight political correctness was a quaint relic from the 90s.  It seems Nick thinks this is a racist, right wing conservative propaganda movie