Customer Reviews

Aeon Flux [VHS]

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This first of the three Aeon Flux tape contains the best episodes of this very unusual animated MTV series. The storylines are the most engaging, the animation is top-notch... all in all, those who enjoy animation and/or the cyberpunk genre should DEFINATELY add this to their collection.

Higher on the strange factor than The Maxx, as well as being less profound about it's humanity, Aeon Flux is nonetheless fascinating, highly original, and down right kick ass. Any fan of adult animation would find this very stylized, sometimes unsettling vison of sex and violence in whatever bizarre, alternate reality it exists in, very cool, indeed.

As a science fiction book this would make it, as a movie this would make it, maybe even as some sort of CD, but the perfect format for these interesting storylines is none of those but rather the animated TV series format that it finds itself in. Its the perfect format to accentuate the hard edged never quite all there feeling that this storyline brings about. Reminiscent to me of so many of the storyline/mythos type TV shows that are out there where they never quite tell you what is going on, Aeon Flux is still better than many of those in that it always gives you just enough to make you think you have some idea of what's going on while never giving you too much. This first tape contains some of my absolute favorite episodes. I plan to buy the rest as well, but this definitely is the best of them. This is truly the closest America has ever come to the same type of anime produced abroad and in some ways I prefer it since the storylines definitely all have an American edge to them. Overall an excellent video with a very postmodern feel to it.

THE FIRST TIME I SAW AEON FLUX WAS FEBUARY OF 97'. THERE WAS A " AEON FLUX-ATHON" ON AND THE MINUTE I TURNED THE TELEVISOIN ON I WAS HOOKED.... I SAT FOR FOUR HOURS WATCHING IN TOTAL AWE! I LOVED IT !!!!!!! AEON FLUX IS RIVITING! SHE HAS A WAY OF CAPTURING HER AUDIENCE AND HOLD THEM IN! EVERYONE OF THE EPISODES IS DIFFERENT AND BRILLIANT IN IT'S OWN WAY. PETER CHUNG HAS AN AMAZING IMAGINATION AND OUTLOOK ON THE WORLD. HE LETS HIS CHARACTERS SEE THE HIGH TECH WORLD THEY LIVE IN IN DIFFERENT WAYS WHICH MAKES IT UNIQUE. I ORDERED THE COMPLETE AEON FLUX AS SOON AS I HEARD ABOUT IT AND WHEN IT ARRIVED I WAS ONCE AGAIN TAKEN TO HER BAZAAR WORLD OF WAR AND LOVE. WATCHING THE VIDEOS MAKES YOU FEEL POWERFUL AND UNSTOPPABLE. YOU, YOURSELF FEEL LIKE AEON, AN ARMORED CLAD SUPER HERO THAT IS UNABLE TO BE STOPPED!

"Aeon Flux" involves a distopian nation known as "Bregna," populated with mentally stifled citizens, and a bordering territory, "Monica," which has no legal representation in the Breen government. Aeon Flux, a strange, intriguing, and quite deadly woman from Monica is often brought into contact with the equally strange and intriguing Trevor Goodchild, the chairman of Bregna. Aeon could be stereotyped as a secret agent for Monica, or a mercenary, (she has acted as both) but all anyone can truly say about her is that she despises control and will always follow her own initiative, not someone else's. Trevor could be equally misunderstood as a power-hungry despot, eager to crush free will and liberty. Instead, he is a radical reformer, one who is dedicated to the peaceful homogenization of the Breen. He craves control, not power, and the control of a single Breen's life is as interesting to him as the command of the masses. Aeon and Trevor oppose each other as much as any two people could, but it is nearly impossible to logically classify either of them as good or evil. Aeon could be good because she fights for freedom (any definition of freedom applies), but she is a callous destroyer, one who will help one man with his petty needs (she passes a fresh roll of toilet paper to a man in a stall) yet ignores the plights of a crippled man trying to save his dog. Trevor is a reformer, a builder, and employs no gestapo to enforce his order. It is this "moral vaccum" that the creator, Peter Chung, intended when he created "Aeon Flux," and it is refreshing to see Trevor and Aeon disagree with each other on such philosophical issues as the flawless duplication of humans (does one person's life become worthless, because they are now "extraneous, and in the end, disposable?"), especially when they both claim to care for people in general, but treat them in contempt on the personal level. Of course, there are also those who merely watch the series for its lesser, baser qualities, such as the fact that Aeon is clad in nearly nothing most of the time, and the pronnounced sexual overtones in most of the episodes. Violence, however, is not a factor (the initial 12-minute, 6-segment short "Aeon Flux" had TONS of people being massacred left and right, but as a satire of the heroic character) yet danger is clearly implied; you KNOW this woman is capable of the most despicable acts of violence. As an added factor, Aeon died in all the first and second-season shorts, each death being significant to the plot: the creator could get away with her doing anything and not have people say she didn't pay for it. The animation itself is a reason to watch the series, if you like animation for its own sake. Chung utilizes bizzare and unlikely camera angles, pans with multiple backgrounds, and a unique charachter design (rather gaunt, yet fully expressive). One of the shorts simply starts in the most unlikely of places: an internal view of two mouths opening in a French kiss, the tongues caressing each other like worms (yuck!) before one opens a tooth-compartment in the other's mouth, and puts a secret message in it. Overall, I appreciate and enjoy this series. You should not miss it if you are a psychologist, or an animation fan, or simply someone who like wierdness or distopian sagas. This video collects four randomly-selected thirty-minute episodes from the MTV series, and contains all the original shorts that spawned it on "Liquid Television." END

Aeon Flux is simply the best thing to come out of MTV. This sexy killer plows her way though countless soldiers of her neighboring country. cirtenly a bloodbath for all ages.

Aeon's cryptic performance is surely for our observation, and yet we lack the key to unlock it's mystery. Every glance, every gesture is part of an arcane language, imparting complex messages to the initiated-yet always, we may hazard, concealing the threat of unreliability.We know neither the meanings nor what the meanings obscure.Lies, secrets, and silence.Is it all an illusion-the cruelest of illusion,because it hides nothing?This intriguing story is nothing short of a masterpeice, original in every way.

This is the kind of action/adventure stuff the way it should be done, fast, furious and aggressive. And yet at the same tim it is layred with all kinds of subtle messages.

"That which does not kill us, makes us stranger" - Dr. Trevor Goodchild, Aeon Flux

My wife was using the computer to talk to her mother in England, and my 3 month old son was crying. I turned on some classical music... didn't help. Turned on the TV to MTV and put him in front of it. La Ley came on... first time I've ever seen the Chilean band, though they were managed by wife's cousins' husband. Cool, I thought. My son stopped crying.

Next thing I know, Aeon Flux was on. My son started crying again, so I took him to his mother and watched what I thought was a crazy-future-spider-woman-cartoon (my father in-law's real name is Peter Parker). Anyway...

As an AI guy working on artificial consciousness, I found myself fascinated. I became fully involved in the show. I think this is the first time that has ever happened without altering my brain chemistry.

Is this what kids are growing up on now? My God, I can forgive Pokemon and Dragon Ball now.

I obviously need to change my audience. Young people today deal with technological issues that many researchers just refuse to consider seriously.

I digress... Suffice it to say, I'm buying every episode. This is the first cartoon that ever caused me to take notes since the very first episode of Ren & Stimpy I saw that caused me to have a heavy flashback.