Ever since I saw Peter Chung's creation mow down piles of enemies with her two Uzis, a leather S&M get up, and little else, I fell in love. Aeon Flux was bizarre, action-packed, and short on words (actually, almost none at all when she first debuted on Liquid T.V.). I watched it over and over, I drew Aeon multiple times until I got her right, and the breakneck pace that was established in the film still affects my writing to this day.

So it was with no small trepidation that I approached the Aeon Flux movie. How could they possibly do justice to a bizarre series that was as much a style as it was a cartoon, alternately ugly and sleekly beautiful all at the same time?

Taking place in 2415, Aeon (Charlize Theron sporting a brunette 'do) is an agent of the Monicans. The Monicans wage a secret war against Trevor Goodchild (Martin Csokas), a well-meaning despot who struggles to keep the fragile city of Bregna together. The Earth has long since been devastated by a plague, and there are only five million survivors left in the city. And yet there's something rotten in the city of Bregna, for Trevor's brother Oren (Jonny Lee Miller) is about to stage a coup.

After her sister Una (Amelia Warner) is murdered, Aeon's out for revenge against the supposed despot. Assisting Aeon in her mission of revenge is Sithandra (Sophie Okonedo) who happens to have hands for feet. And yet when she finally faces her target, Aeon discovers there's something very familiar about Trevor that gives her pause.

Aeon Flux was directed by a woman (Karyn Kusama) and her sensibilities bring a refreshing touch to a genre that is all too muscular, boxy, and grim. Like The Fifth Element, Aeon Flux is an entry in a science fiction genre that avoids the standard futuristic tropes and injects new and bizarre technology into it. Body modification, as evidenced by Sithandra, is an accepted part of sciety. Technology is organic, ranging from killer grass to dart guns shaped like beehives, computers made of water to holograms formed of harp-like strings. All the Monican agents are linked by a telepathic connection that lets them visualize each other in a sort of World Wide Web of the mind. Fashion styles are reminiscent of French couture. A zeppelin computer that looms overhead has all the appearance of a monstrous jellyfish. Even the city looks like a giant carnation from above.

Aeon herself is played with deadly seriousness by Theron, who draws on her ballerina training to adopt a dancer's pose. Her martial arts is as much an art form as it is combat style, and the graceful leaps and jumps that the cartoon version effortlessly executed are much in evidence here; an amazing achievement, given that the original character's proportions barely conformed to reality.

So what's the problem? Critics lambasted the film, characterizing it as too complicated. It's difficult for me to agree with them, because fans of the show will know precisely what's going on…and yet the movie wasn't spoiled for me either. In fact, the biggest flaw of the film is the motive for Oren to "recycle" people in the city of Bregna. His "my way or else" proposition isn't really justified in the movie's narrative, such that we just have to trust that there's simply no room for compromise between the two ideologies battling it out on screen. But once you're past that hurdle, the film is as much eye-candy as it is an interesting post-apocalyptic entry into alternative sci-fi.

The backlash on this film is suspicious. Perhaps it was Theron's Oscar win. Perhaps it's simply that many critics don't like science fiction. Or perhaps it's that a truly feminist take on a science fiction world makes male reviewers uncomfortable. Whatever the case, sci-fi fans should definitely give Aeon Flux a chance.