 It
was 1991 when MTV debuted their original animated program Liquid Television, a collection of adult-oriented
short films that ran constantly during the lucrative 10 p.m.
to 4 a.m. timeslot. Around the same time, my mother decided
to pick up a cable subscription, and I quickly glued myself
to the television screen. I was at that age where cartoons
were seen as “baby stuff,” but thanks to the wonders
of cable and a growing problem with insomnia that continues
to this day, Liquid Television proved me
wrong. There were two specific shorts that always stuck out
in my mind; one was Mike Judge’s Frog Baseball short starring the soon-to-be-loved Beavis and Butthead, and
Peter Chung’s Aeon Flux.
I think Aeon Flux stuck with me for such
a long period of time because, up until that point, I hadn’t
seen anything like it. A collection of silent five-minute
shorts, each episode full of what seemed to be mindless violence
but which continuously gave way to a bigger picture with each
passing minute, always climaxing in Aeon’s death –
usually brought on by Aeon herself. The shorts went against
the typical superhero archetype, subverting the image of the
immortal do-gooder and replacing it with a fallible character
who was prone to actions that were ultimately for her benefit
(in theory that is; remember that she get killed in every episode)
instead of for the greater good.
 MTV
smelled a spin-off (rightfully so) and launched the 30-minute
series in 1995 – but with a few alterations. The characters
talked. There was plot. There was character development. And
where was the blood? No one’s even shooting guns anymore!
What the hell is this?! I turned the show off five
minutes into the first episode and didn’t pay attention
to the series ever again.
Ten years after its initial airing on television, the complete Aeon Flux is now out on DVD, including the
entire 10-episode run of the full-length show, along with
each short film from Liquid Television. And
damn it, this time I have to watch it. But hey, the
release of the live action Aeon
Flux film starring Charlize Theron is
just around the corner and at this point the full-length animated
series isn’t sounding too bad. I forgive you for making
the characters talk Peter Chung, but I refuse to watch your
movie.
 Originally
conceived as an adult-oriented Spy Vs. Spy, Aeon Flux is, at the most basic, a story
about power struggle. Trevor Goodchild (say it with me now:
an insane madman hellbent on taking over the Earth) has recently
seized power in the nation of Bregna by kidnapping the former
leader, Clavius, and installing a snuggly little apartment
in his bulbous stomach. While he might have the entire nation
in his iron fist, he pines for Aeon Flux and hopes to one
day live with her in Clavius’ stomach. Of course, this
isn’t going to work at all considering that Aeon is
a terrorist whose main goal is to assassinate Trevor.
And that’s only the first episode. But to save my sanity
and hopefully prevent boredom, I’m not going through
a rundown of each episode. While each episode is a fairly
self-contained plot, there are a  few
themes that run through the entire series; Trevor is a bit
of a madman who thinks his plans for world domination are
really plans for bringing about world peace. However, one
man’s utopia is another man’s fascism and Aeon
Flux is always ready to destroy Trevor’s work (or at
least attempt to), kill him or have sex with him. And sex
seems to be a very important part of the show – both
Aeon and Trevor are willing to exploit their sexuality to
get what they want. Trevor will disrobe for a television interviewer
to prove he has nothing to hide; Aeon will hit on a child
if it means she’ll get what she wants. Hell, when the
two unearth an alien that has no orifices on its body, both
of their reactions are “Well… How do we have sex
with it?”
 While
the general plot is easy to wrap your head around, it’s
the interaction between Aeon and Trevor that makes the series
more than just a collection of whacked-out scenes of extreme
violence and disfigured sex. Yes, Trevor Goodchild is a psychotic
who wants nothing more than to better his own situation, but
so is Aeon Flux. Both want to make their goals sound world
changing, but in the end they’re simply trying to manipulate
the other into submission. It’s a schoolyard dick-measuring
contest on a global scale.
So, do the full-length episodes of Aeon Flux hold up after my initial shunning of the series? Surprisingly,
they do. While I’m still in favor of the original silent
shorts, the full-length episodes managed to draw me into each
episode’s story, culminating in the excellent final
episode End Sinister, which doesn’t
tie up any loose plotline and doesn’t come with a resolution,
but wraps up the series with an appropriate amount of satisfying
ambiguity.
However, I do have a few complaints, but they’re mostly
personal bias. The episodes are altered. A little slip of
paper comes in the set that reads, “In every episode,
enhancements such as highlights, shadows, blurs or glows were
added to  achieve
a range of moods and atmospheres not seen in the earlier editions.”
I’m not a fan of CG-type enhancements to cell animation,
and the effects are quite noticeable – even jarring
in some places. In addition to the video alterations, a few
episodes have had selected dialogue rewritten, even far as
recasting and re-recording the character of Clavius. Since
I didn’t pay attention to the series in its initial
run, these things went unnoticed by me. These little changes
were approved by Peter Chung, so at least be happy that it
was the creator’s choice for throwing in shoddy effects
that don’t really match the original material.
Also, the episodes aren’t presented on the disc in
either running or production order; they’re split up
by director. Disc 1 contains the episodes directed by Peter
Chung, while Disc 2 contains the episodes directed by Howard
Baker. Thankfully the backs of the slipcases come with air
dates, so if you want to watch them in sequence you can, but
you’ll be going from disc-to-disc to do so. But like
I mention, most of the episodes are self-contained, and there
is little continuity that runs throughout the episodes.
Presentation
The original negatives for
each episode were cleaned and remastered and, despite having
a few new sparkly effects slapped onto them, the image is
very clean, with a surprising sharpness and very nice color
throughout the series. Well, as nice a color palette as a
dystopian future could have. The 5.1 remix fares just as well;
the frequent battle scenes obviously sound great, but the
best part is the constant droning of the moody electronic
soundtrack that surrounds you during the more quiet scenes.
 Extras
Considering Aeon Flux only ran for 10 episodes, this three-disc box set holds a
decent, though sometimes frustrating, amount of extras. Over
the span of the first two discs (which are dedicated to the
episodes, five to a disc) there are seven commentary tracks,
all featuring creator Peter Chung and a collection of writers
and producers. While I probably shouldn’t have expected
long-winded explanations, it was still a bit irritating to
hear Peter Chung talk lightly about the process of creating
the series rather than the ideas behind it. There are a few
instances during the show where something particularly abnormal
will flash onscreen, and Peter Chung will simply reply with,
“I don’t want to talk about this.” Keeping
your own secrets is fine, but damn it, I want to know why
Heaven is a blue alien licking your feet with its French-tickler
tongue!
Disc
three contains the bulk of the extras, starting off with the Aeon Flux Pilot and subsequent shorts that aired
on Liquid Television. The shorts have also
been remastered and contain 5.1 soundtracks on par with the
full-length episodes, but also include the enhancements. Each
of these also features commentary tracks which are
also light on the plot explanation.
Under Featurettes you’ll find Investigation:
The History of Aeon Flux, a brisk 17-minute collection
of interviews with the cast and crew, along with examples
of how the episodes were enhanced. After that is the surprisingly
detailed The Deviant Devices of Aeon Flux, which
is narrated by Aeon herself as she not only explains her stock
of artillery, but goes on to expand on the plot and mythos
of the show. Outside of the Liquid Television shorts, this short featurette is possibly the best extra in
the disc due to the brief but welcome exposition.
 Production
Art features sketches, model sheets, storyboards, color
stills and pencil tests for two episodes. The stills are fairly
extensive, especially the model sheets, but don’t provide
any close-up photographs to show off the detail. The pencil
tests are exactly what to expect: quite rough, but interesting
enough to watch at least once.
Under Other Works By Peter Chung there are three little
promotional advertisements, one for MTV, (watched MTV throughout
the early ‘90s? You’ve seen this a million times)
an Aeon Flux CD-Rom and the Honda Coupe.
For
a nice feeling of nostalgia, there are 12 minutes of footage
from Liquid Television which will probably
leave you going “Hey, I remember that!” if you
caught the series originally. The material is pretty hit-and-miss
(The Art School Girls of Doom is so steeped
in the early ‘90s it hurts, while Psycho Gram is quite possibly the best thing on the show other than the Aeon Flux shorts), but if you’re familiar
with the material, you’ll smile.
Finally
under previews, there’s a collection of commercials
for the Jackass guys hitting each other in
the nuts repeatedly. It’s still funny to someone, I’m
sure.
Overall
After 10 years of ignoring the series, Aeon Flux turned out to be quite decent, like a combination of The
Prisoner, The Twilight Zone and
bondage porno. I’m not big on the tweaking done on this
“director’s cut” release, but your enjoyment
won’t necessarily be determined by the changes. If you’re
a fan of the series and would just like a copy in any form, pick it up as soon as possible. The set features a solid
transfer and an excellent audio mix, though if you’re
a diehard nerd who has been collecting bootleg tapes of each
episode, you might want to hold on to them because of the
changes made in this DVD edition.
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