And then on Friday, I saw Aeon Flux, which just goes to show you that it was a big week for movies. In the relatively distant future, all but a percent of the human race has died out, and what is left is kept within a single city by the armies of an evil scientist. Life is perfect, except for when people are disappeared or if you live the life of one of the ultra-violent revolutionaries who want to put a stop to those disappearances. Or if you live the life of one of the ultra-violent enforcer guard types who keep the status quo. I’m not sure which group got ultra-violent first, but they have made a science of stylishly shooting and/or breaking the necks of their respective enemies.

The premise tells most though not all of the story. Our heroine, Aeon Flux, is one of the revolutionaries, and the time has come to stop the evil regime forever. Or it would be, but instead of that, she goes about peeling back layer after layer of the onion, to find out what’s really going on in our idyllic-yet-bloodbathed utopia, who the bad guys really are (perennial tagline: Not Who You Think!), and what happened centuries ago to get us to here.

I never watched the MTV series it was based on, and so I have no idea if that helped or hindered my enjoyment. But it did its key jobs of looking pretty, delivering explosions and mayhem, and containing a reasonable enough sci-fi mystery. It probably should have picked a sparser sci-fi year if it wanted to stand out, though. And since the series debuted ten years ago, one is forced to wonder what made this week so attractive. (Also, if the MTV series was based on a comic first, well, a) that would explain the why now part, but mainly b) I don’t read enough comics. It is known. It need not be pointed out extensively after the fact. (Research is for people who are getting paid, so that it can be used as a tax dedution.))