Verdict
Summary
It’s obviously completely bonkers, but if you’re in the mood for a big budget action movie with aliens, monsters, kung fu, and some comedy relief, you’ve just met your match.
Plot:
Aliens, time-travelers, and shape-shifting creatures battle it out through different eras to claim a sacred blade.
Review:
South Korea seems to be the epicenter of interest for a bunch of warriors – some of whom are from other galaxies, some from other eras, and some of whom are shape-shifters who transform at will into cats and back into human form. Everyone through time and space is looking for a sacred “Divine Blade,” which looks like a dagger with a gnarly golden tip. What does this thing do and why is everyone after it? Well, the best I can surmise is that it can kill just about anything, but it can also heal. There’s a blind warrior who wants it because he thinks it’ll heal and restore his vision. There’s a huge alien spacecraft just hanging out like a skyscraper in South Korea, and it unleashes a mist of red spores or clouds all over the metropolis and it kills or controls everything it touches. A woman who works for a government agency that handles smuggling is one of only a few people who know that there’s something very, very hinky going on in terms of how the aliens are covertly turning people into slaves, and she realizes that her niece has been turned, leading to a subplot where she chases some guys around, putting her smack in the middle of the climax where a bunch of other good guys / bad guys / guys and gals from other dimensions or timelines have all converged to fight the alien threat. One female warrior (a witch, I think, from ancient times) has a cool weapon in a little hand mirror that she can insert her hand or a small weapon into, turning it into a giant, mega hand or weapon, sort of the same concept as the way Ant-Man can turn into a kaiju guy, stomping around like Godzilla. There are dance sequences in the movie, goofy comedy, huge CGI disaster set pieces (a train derails and gets thrown around real good), and lots to try to focus on while the plot careens like a pinball on a course for destiny.
Alienoid: Return to the Future looks great, makes sense in its own crazy way, and is a better movie than the first Alienoid, which I found very confusing and too cumbersome for its own good. This one is a little more focused, spends a lot of time in the ancient era, and really does its best to entertain, and I’ve got to say that I just had to turn off my brain to enjoy it. It’s obviously completely bonkers, but if you’re in the mood for a big budget action movie with aliens, monsters, kung fu, and some comedy relief, you’ve just met your match. From director Choi Dong-Hoon.
Well Go USA’s new Blu-ray release of Alienoid: Return to the Future comes with a bonus making-of feature, trailers, and an English language track, which is helpful.
