Verdict
Summary
Slick looking, but inherently flawed and sloppy, Altered resembles plenty of other post-nuke dystopian “renegade hero” movies (think Alita: Battle Angel or Equilibrium), but it just doesn’t work with a clunky script and unfocused direction by Timo Vuorensola who made the equally grandiose, but woefully wonky Iron Sky movies. There’s a lot going on here, but none of it really gels into a cohesive entity.
Plot:
In a dystopian society, a hero with bionic upgrades tries to “alter” the system.
Review:
Nuclear war changes the landscape of the world, and in one fledgling utopian / dystopian society, there are two factions of survivors: The Genetics (people with bionic or genetic upgrades that make them superior humans) and the Specials, who are the lower class normal folks who struggle with just being plain human (some of which are considered “mutants”) in this new and improved landscape. This shared society has a very clear divide, and yet despite leaning towards a dystopia with a police state surveillance “serve the overlords” sort of system, there are elections, which seems wild considering that in this sort of world elections and democracy would obviously be a thing of the past. One senator (played by Richard Brake in a bit of casting that should clue you in to the film’s glaring flaws) implores that citizens vote for him because he wants to use nuclear elements to continue to improve humanity, which would edge out the poor, mutated Specials in the long run. There is a fledgling resistance group who live and dwell in the slums, and one guy – Leon (Tom Felton from the Harry Potters) – is confined to a wheelchair, but he’s a scrappy black market dynamo, having just pulled off a heist of nuclear crystals (or something) that give him the ability to make bionic upgrades, selling them for credits on the streets, but he also uses them to create a Genetic super suit that turns him into a superhero / vigilante. His mission is to expose the senator (who is – surprise! – his father) for being a fraud and an evil despot, but when Leon’s secret identity is revealed, he has to rely on his scrappy friends in the resistance (who include a Genetic celebrity who is a famous pop singer) to help him win the day.
Slick looking, but inherently flawed and sloppy, Altered resembles plenty of other post-nuke dystopian “renegade hero” movies (think Alita: Battle Angel or Equilibrium), but it just doesn’t work with a clunky script and unfocused direction by Timo Vuorensola who made the equally grandiose, but woefully wonky Iron Sky movies. There’s a lot going on here, but none of it really gels into a cohesive entity. It also doesn’t help, that while you’ve got two recognizable actors in central roles, the movie really does either need better casting or more obscure casting for those parts. Tom Felton doesn’t work as a lead here, and neither does Brake fit properly as the guy who is obviously sinister. It would’ve been prudent to cast a more innocuous actor in that role so that we don’t already immediately hate and distrust him. Shot in Kazakhstan.
Well Go USA’s new Blu-ray of Altered is out now, and comes with bonus trailers. The image and sound quality is up to their usual ultra high standards.
