Æon Flux

I'll spare you the standard review and assume that you've already accepted that Aeon Flux is bloody awesome. What follows is a guide to getting the full bloody awesomeness out of this experience.

If at all possible, take it in chronological order since the first 6 shorts are what set the stage. Essentially all rules are bent, broken, defecated upon and then handed back to us with a hint of Snuggle fabric softener. This is no mere cartoon; this is a revolution in storytelling.

The best way to describe the shorts is to say they are visual puzzles for us to solve. It ain't easy, either. I highly recommend watching the short, feeling like an idiot, and then watching it again with Peter's commentary. He doesn't always spell out the solution, but he gives some good hints that allow you to appreciate it on its intended philosophical level.

I'll give you just one example without really ruining anything. In the episode "War", we see a bunch of people killing people, getting killed, and more of the same. But there's much more to it than that. What Chung does is play on our fickle sympathies to make us change loyalties over & over. Without noticing, we start out rooting for the black team, then the white team, back to black, white, black, etc. You can surmise what sort of statement he's making about the act of war & society's attitudes. I can't help but wonder if Peter Chung was a fan of the 19th century French writer Maupassant ("Tell the people to vote for the Emperor and they'll vote for the Emperor. Tell the people to vote for the Republic and they'll vote for the Republic.")

Bloody awesome.

Other episodes are more abstract but just as deliberate & defined. In "Tide" we're presented with some seemingly arbitrary, repeating scenes. But actually it's a very carefully orchestrated show. The scenes, each exactly 2 sec long, repeat in a scripted sequence that can only be described as mathematical (or as Peter says in the commentary, "musical").

Bloody bloody awesome.

OK, I'm probably losing some of you, and that's to be expected. After all, what's interesting about political, mathematical & metaphysical themes? The answer: a hot assassin chick in a vinyl bikini with boobs that defy Newton's Laws of Physics, that's what.

What's the word I'm looking for? Oh right: bloody freaking whacktastic awesome.

After the initial 6 shorts comes the Pilot which is also without dialogue and highly expressionistic as well as philosophically jam packed. However when the actual series followed, MTV took more of an active role making changes that weren't always for the best. The biggest change is that the characters speak. Another big change is that Aeon develops more of a consistent personality and morality (unlike in the shorts where she was an Existentialist to the max). Some of the episodes are still very good--the ones written by Peter Chung--but others were given to different writers who didn't have a clear grasp on the artistic concept. The result was more plot driven, linear, humorous at times & random at times. At the same time, some of it became more poetic in a literal sense. In all, a very different flavour but still very enjoyable, even if the episodes aren't the brain-teasers we had seen at first.

That's about all I have to say, so I'll close by saying we need more women dressing up as Aeon Flux at halloween parties. Ladies, if you do that you win hands down. Well except for maybe the green star trek chick.

I remember watching this series late at night about 5 years ago on MuchMusic (Canada's MTV equivalent). It was (and probably still is) the most innovative animated series I've had the chance to lay my eyes on (and wrap my brain around). Definitely not for kids, definitely not straightforward, this series fluctuates between abstract narratives, warped motives, and unconventional characters to tell us the stories of a futuristic communist society ruled by Trevor Goodchild and clashed with by the ever-present iconoclast known as Aeon Flux, a society that is both a distortion and a reflection of our own. Nothing in this series is clear-cut and the writing definitely lets you think your way through instead of being spoon-fed. Thank you, mister Chung, for the great work.

First of all I have read the other reviews...these were done by tired no brain idiots who fail to appreciate the HOST of creative subtleties that made this show entirely unique. There is no material-biting , or boring skeletal sketches; everything in the series is done for a reason: these characters are drawn to make you think on a symbolic level, they act to make to you think on a symbolic level, their complicated idiosyncrasies are complicated, and repellent and sensuous at once...you HAVE to watch them more than once, that's why I LOVE them..Peter Chung worked extremely hard to fit so much meaning into so short a time frame. I have never seen anything like this series and likely never will again. One of the best things ever shown on MTV!

Aeon Flux is one of the sexiest animated characters I've ever seen. "Aeon Flux" is one of the most bizarre, intense, reality-bending animated series I've ever seen. It aired as part of MTV's "Liquid Television" in 1995, and won over a devoted following. 10 years later and one feature-length film starring Charlize Theron later, "Aeon Flux" remains a milestone in animation.

Created by visionary Peter Chung, its style is reminiscent of Anime', yet to a trained eye it isn't. It's distinctly American, and the animated series itself is unique because the star of the title died at the end of nearly every episode, with the next entry redrawing the lines of reality and continuity.

Hundreds of years into the future, Trevor Goodchild is the charismatic dictator running a utopian society and is locked in a costly battle of wills with Aeon Flux, an amoral, sexy-as-hell mercenary who seeks to bring him down at all costs. Her motives are unknown, yet we get the sense she is the rebel hero though her amorality makes it truly unclear about why she has it in for Goodchild.

I don't know what inspired Chung to give rise to this, but given if he creates more stuff like "Aeon Flux," you can bet I'm going to buy the next DVD set of whatever he envisions. "Aeon Flux" walks a fine line between intense sci-fi battles and borderline pornography, but I have to hand it that this is some really amazing stuff here.

It's tripping the rift, "Aeon Flux," but the recent DVD made my jaw drop and its style is unmatched. This is "Aeon Flux."

If I were to make a list of the top ten television shows ever made, I would put Aeon Flux at #1. If I were to make a list of the top ten television shows and movies combined, it would end up at #2 (if you read my other comments, you'll notice that I often exalt films that I've seen in a similar top ten list format and that I have said that many films are this high on the list, but that was usually right after seeing it without any retrospect; I have seen every episode of Aeon Flux at least 10 times, so I have the proper retrospect here). It only falls behind Stanley Kubrick's 2001.

Like 2001, Aeon Flux is a mind-bending series that pushed the limits of narrative. As Trevor Goodchild says in the final episode of this series (so far; they've said that they might come back), "End Sinister": "A person from a thousand years ago could never comprehend the world today." Well, Aeon Flux is about 800 years in the future, because one has to see all the episodes several times before they begin to make sense. I like this, because the first few times you can appreciate the art. After you have seen each episode multiple times, you notice how amazingly and originally the narrative is constructed. So don't get angry at the series if you don't understand it initially.

Begin with the more conventional (though that word can hardly describe this television series) episodes. Rent or buy (it is certainly good enough to buy without having seen it before; look at my other comments to see if you agree with my tastes, then go for it if you do) the red cassette (which is also on DVD), and watch the first two episodes, "Thanatophobia" and "A Last Time for Everything." Then on the Blue Tape, watch "Reraizure," the first episode. Next, go to intermediate episodes, "Isthmus Crypticus," "Ether Drift Theory," "The Demiurge," "Utopia or Deuteronopia," and "End Sinister" (though you may want to save that for the end). Then, for the advanced class, go to the silent episodes on the red and yellow tapes, then see the hardest-to-get episodes "The Purge" and, by far the most mindbending and 2001-like, "Chronophasia." Personally, I like the simple beauty of "Thanatophobia" and "A Last Time for Everything" best, but "The Purge" and "Chronophasia" will warp your mind for sure. And like I said, don't dismiss them if you don't understand them. Think about each episode as an individual structure and then as a part of the whole. And if you're truly impressed, good luck finding the Aeon Flux book they published, _The Herodotus File_. It will help in your understanding if you have the good luck to find it. Also, another miraculously-produced MTV animated series marvel that you might like if you like this is The Maxx. It can usually be found on the shelf with Anime films, but if not, it can be purchased just as Aeon Flux can. It, if I were to list it along with the greatest television series and films, would be #3.

So please, go get your mind warped today by Aeon Flux and The Maxx!