Aeon Flux

Who's in It:

The Basics: Aeon Flux is on a mission to assassinate the leader of her corrupt utopian society, but the more she uncovers, the more confused she — and the audience — becomes. She fights a lot of people along the way.

What's the Deal? You have to wonder why Paramount decided not to show this movie to critics. It's no worse than a lot of other silly sci-fi movies. That doesn't mean it's good. It's mostly a lot of Charlize Theron deadpan-murmuring her theories about what's really going on underneath the surface of her ultramodern world and then pulling gadgets out of her stacked high heels to help her fight off the bad guys. But it's got a consistent tone of spaced-out seriousness. That's something, at least.

What Sucks About It: If you aren't familiar with the animated version that came first, you'll have to just sort of guess what's going on most of the time. They should have maybe thought about that before making sure all the sets looked rad.

What's Cool About It: The sets. They're the kind of sleek, modern, outer-spacey Danger Diabolik surroundings that make you think, "What's she got to complain about? Look at how everyone gets to live!" Even the dead people get to be carried away on glowing stretchers.

Costume Clause in Charlize's Contract: Someone made the executive decision to costume our heroine in full-body unitards and hoods. Of course, if she wore what the 'toon Aeon wore, it would be rated NC-17. Having said that, there's one scene in which you learn that she sleeps in something that resembles a chain-mail bikini. That's gotta hurt.

Nepotism Is One of the Perks of Winning an Oscar: Charlize's main squeeze, Stuart Townsend, has a cameo as a dude who French-kisses a secret message to her. Twenty-foot-tall tongues get all entangled right before your eyes. They're very wet-looking.