To say that the films Hollywood releases today are without originality is an understatement. According to a search o­n IMDB, there have been 33 remakes released in 2005. To go along with the countless sequels, there have been the film versions of old TV shows like The Dukes of Hazzard, or Bewitched. The latest submission into this lazy and uninspired genre is Aeon Flux, and this film isn’t the o­ne to break the trend.

In the future, most of the world’s population has been wiped out due to disease. There is o­ne last walled-in city named Bregna. The government of the society is a monarchy, led by the Goodchild’s, the scientists who cured the disease and saved humanity.

Their rule is shady however, and innocent people either disappear or are killed off by the government each day. Aeon Flux (Charlize Theron) is an assassin, and a member of a rebel force who is in a war with the Goodchilds. She is given an assignment to kill off Trevor Goodchild (Marton Csokas) who is the current leader.

This simple plot has been recycled many times and seems to be the standard plot for dystopian film. That’s not to say that Aeon Flux is boring, or a bad movie, at least not bad because of the plot. There’s a movie called Equilibrium which came out at the end of 2002 which combined this plot along with aspects from Fahrenheit 451, 1984, and Brave New World and still managed to be an entertaining movie.

Equilibrium was a good film because it was backed by a good, albeit rehashed story, and excellent visuals. The film was more of a spectacle than a story, and it succeeded brilliantly at being eye-candy. Aeon Flux has a story which is not as strong as Equilibrium’s, but nothing that would keep the movie from sinking. The futuristic landscapes are certainly fun to look at, same with Charlize Theron in her Aeon Flux costume.

The biggest problem with the film is the action sequences. Director Karyn Kusama never is able to effectively convey what is happening in a fight scene. Everything is shot way too quickly with too many cuts. Some cuts are not even necessary as all they are doing is repeating the action in the previous shot.

Thankfully the o­nly real bad spot is the action scenes. They’re like a tough stain that will not come out of a really expensive shirt. Sadly that shirt is a really expensive plain white T-shirt, there’s nothing special about it. The story has been done before, the sets and costumes are fun to look at but nothing spectacular. Charlize Theron gives a serviceable performance along with the rest of the cast. Everything in Aeon Flux is downright painfully average, except the action scenes, they’re bad.