Crimes:
• Weighting down a slick-looking action movie with too much exposition and a weighty, pretentious tone
• Saddling Oscar-winner Frances McDormand with a fright wig, a costume that looks like a repurposed rag rug, and a role with no inflection or expression
• Taking itself far too seriously
Defenders: Producer Gale Anne Hurd, star Charlize Theron
Tone of commentary: Bipolar. Hurd talks slowly and portentously about the film's subcontexts, juxtapositions, and organic symbolism. Theron chats cheerfully about which scenes were fun, scary, or "really, really hard." Getting drawn into each other's modes, they bounce between insider-y production stories and eye-rolling lines like "[Aeon Flux's society] has so much to offer its citizens, but at what price?"
What went wrong: Theron suffered a herniated disc while doing a handspring, but after a lengthy break, she returned to doing her own gymnastics, which Hurd calls "so brave… one of the most astonishing things I've encountered in my 20-some-odd years of producing."
Comments on the cast: All the stars are generically cited as "terrific" or "great," but Hurd is rapturously detailed about her admiration of Theron, whom she refers to by name, as if she weren't present. After one particularly gushy compliment, Theron stage-whispers, "That's very nice. Thank you."
Inevitable dash of pretension: Hurd and Theron blather extensively about their glossy fantasy's current political relevance as "a touchstone for the concerns of audiences and for us as filmmakers," and an incisive metaphor about how "freedom really isn't free." But Hurd tops herself when discussing the shooting they did on a German studio stage Hitler used for Third Reich propaganda, in "a legacy which also informed the film."
Commentary in a nutshell: Hurd: "This is, I think, another interesting scene that's relevant to the world we live in. Do you take orders that come over the Internet?"