Picked up the DVD series at the library, because I heard about it being a 90's cult series. Watched a few episodes, didn't like it, couldn't get myself to watch more of it. I feel this series sacrifices substance for style. Once you get beyond the pseudo-intellectual quotes, the strange futuristic setting and the obvious sexual tension, you are left with an incoherent mess. Perhaps it's just not my thing and I'm being too harsh, but be warned: this is not for everyone.Maybe back in the day Aeon Flux was groundbreaking for what it did. This was made during the pre-mainstream era of MTV, when they were still willing and able to do things outside of the box. I'm all for that, but that doesn't mean the results will automatically be good.

***Minimal Spoilers- but spoilers nonetheless***Aeon Flux is definitely a a bit of a head trip, there's no doubt about it. It presents a tried and tested Sci-Fi Scenario - The futuristic "Dystopia and Rebels versus Oppessors" set up - and then proceeds to misbehave gloriously with it. There is no great amount of exposition, no carefully adhered to continuity and some positively trippy imagery. It's definitely not a kids cartoon. There is plenty of philosophical allusion and a lot of wordplay (one particularly self serving character is named "Onan") not to mention a goodly chunk of shameless fetish references. It also presents the marvellous conceit that Aeon herself is having an affair with her own arch enemy, Dr Goodchild. It does not spoon feed the plot to the viewer and as a result, you really have to watch it closely. This is not one to watch while you are doing the ironing! The animation quality is superb, toe-to-toe with with the Japanese produced animation of the time. Like "Sapphire and Steel", "The Prisoner" and "Twin Peaks" Aeon Flux remains a great example of "Something that no-one else was doing at the time". It's a wonderfully deep, quite intelligent - and sometimes downright kinky little series.

Seriously, I challenge the writer to come up with a plot that goes from point A to point B without making pretentious pseudo-philosophical nonsense or portraying a cartoon woman's feet in a fetishistic manner. He can't seem to do it. In a world with anatomically challenged mutant aliens that somehow manage to become humanity's next great leap in evolution, I wouldn't think it's all that difficult. In all earnestness, the aliens turning into humanity's next stage of evolution doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Humanity has had a torso for the whole of it's myriad of forms, from Chimp to Homo Erectus, it's torsos for all. I don't see how we can evolve without them. Also the episode where Aeon Flux kept on going back to the sticky table with the grey mystery ooze made no sense. How did that kid know who that baby mutated into? I couldn't identify my own kid in a photo line up up you showed me several other pictures of babies, so how does a prepubescent kid know just by a single glance? Another example, the episode where Aeon seduces an amputee for no apparent reason. Why does this amputee trust this woman? Wasn't he looking for someone else? Did he just see Aeon Flux and just decide "Oh well, good enough. Never mind the fact that my lover is trapped in prison and probably dead, I better help this stranger escape from a high security facility," Yet another of my complaints, don't worry, I'm not just gonna harp on the myriad of plot holes, is the horrendous art. The art looks like something I would have fever dreamed and the malformed, hideous, and uncanny valley residing characters emote and move roughly on the same level as a Chucky Cheese animatronics. The main complaint I have is that it talks a big, smart game, yet has all the wit and subtlety of a shovel to the knees. Simply put, if you remove the pseudo philosophy, the foot obsession, and the skimpy outfits that Aeon wears (by the way, the way she is drawn makes me want to swear off women altogether) you are left with an unintelligible and incomprehensible mess. I've had hallucinogenic benders that have made better sense.Don't watch Aeon Flux, unless you want to make fun of it mercilessly or you like reading the Marquis De Sade way too much.

Aeon Flux is worth watching - even repeatedly for one good reason: it is very original, unlike the multitude of films out there that are simply copies of tired genres. It DOES NOT explain everything, and a lot of it you are left to guess or imagine for yourself - but this is part of it's appeal. The cartoon series are far more intriguing and absorbing than the insipid movie that was made. Having said that, it still leaves room for many areas that could have been developed, and they certainly could make a lot more than the eleven episodes that have been made so far. It also looks at a lot of relevant issues, and philosophy that is interwoven into each storyline. There is also plenty of action.