Eric, your post has anticipated and answered a lot of questions I had about the film, especially about how it might relate to the original animated series and the comic book ... er, I mean, graphic ... novel.

Having been a fan of that original series, it sound to me as though the filmmakers have made an all-too-common mistake made when adapting a 15-minute cartoon to a feature-length film ... trying to stretch the 15 minutes worth of story, setting, character, etc. into 90 minutes, or whatever the film is.

Jeff, I didn't have a frame of reference or any preconceived notions about the movie going in, since I never consumed any of the preceding material you mention. But I think there's a solid 45 minutes worth of compelling sci-fi action and plot. Unfortunately, the movie is twice that long.

Then, too, I'm probably in the minority of people who aren't mesmerized by Charlize Theron. There are a very few actresses whose on-screen presence transcends lame dialog; for me, she's not one of them.

I've not been able to understand the Charlize hoopla either. So that makes two of us I guess.

I wasn't planning on seeing Flux, but I don't plan on seeing much these days. I certainly won't waste my time now, having read your review.

Jim, I'm mulling over a post devoted to the proposition that sci-fi movies have jumped the shark (if I may be permitted to use a term that has also jumped the shark).

I don't mind Sci Fi movies, but boring movies are just... boring.

And I wonder if the Jump the Shark website has a page about how Jump the Shark has jumped the shark. A brief search did not reveal the existence of such a page. Your results may vary.

Sci Fi movies will never jump the shark, because there are still new ones coming out that are great (Serenity, for example).

It's just that Sci Fi is so easy to do so badly...maybe writers and directors figure that since it's Sci Fi they can junk the idea of a good story along with all the other stuff, like reality, that they get to toss on the side of the road.

Like you said, Kong and Narnia. Is there any other movie coming out this month? No. Not as far as I'm concerned.

Julie, I have something more specific in mind as far as my comment about sci-fi movies. I agree that there is a near-infinite number of possibilities for good sci-fi, but I'm disappointed at how many movies are taking the easy way out and trying to adapt someone else's material to the big screen. The conversion of "graphic novels" or animated TV shorts to movies has proven to be a disappointing strategy in my mind, and even though "Serenity" was a pretty decent effort, the fact that it's the best offering of its kind thus far seems to underscore that point.

As someone else who really enjoyed the MTV shorts, I had no doubt that this movie would be teh scuk after watching the trailer. Hell, Charlize is too pretty to carry off Aeon. She's supposed to be a little worn out. Once I saw that she had been cast, it told me where the production was going. (Down.)

What really cheeses me off is that I saw the commercial for the video game, and they modeled the game world after the movie and no the visually unique animations/comics. Yech.