Fading Away Rather Than Burning Out - A Review of Alienoid: The Return to the Future

Alienoid: The Return to the Future, originally published as Oegye+in 2bu, is the second and hopefully final part of the duology that started with Alienoid, originally known as Oegye+in 1bu. In order to understand this film, you must be familiar with the first movie as just reading a summary about it won't be sufficient to fully understand this new film. If you watched the first part two years ago, do yourself a favour and watch it again before giving the sequel a shot. These two movies are best enjoyed together in rapid succession.

In order to give you a general idea of the content, the first film explored how alien prisoners were attempting to destroy Planet Earth. The villains were thus transported back into the past by a group of courageous heroes. The second film explores how these characters meet again in the past and travel back to the future. This new movie thus culminates with the climactic confrontation between antagonists and protagonists.

Let's start on a few positive notes. The visual special effects of this movie are on the same level as Hollywood's contemporary science-fiction epics such as Alien: Romulus and Dune. The beautiful costumes used in this film are on the same level as recent Hollywood productions such as Gladiator II and Megalopolis. The excellent sound effects also deserve to be praised. The combination of historic settings and futuristic vibes makes for an intriguing mixture. Regarding the acting performances, Kim Tae-ri deserves much praise for her dedicated, emotional and youthful performance.

However, this film suffers from multiple flaws. The story is complicated and confusing, especially if you can't remember all the details of the first film or if you haven't watched it at all. The plot is nonetheless paper thin and fails to leave a mark in the long run. The acting performances are often restrained and superficial as the characters are exchangeable and stereotypical. The film also feels much longer than it actually is as especially the middle section is challenging to sit through. Make sure to be fully awake and eager to watch this movie or else you risk to fall asleep or miss bits and pieces here and there.

While the first film of the duology showed much promise, the second part peters out unspectacularly. It would have been much better to either make one short, focused and coherent movie of two and a half hours out of this material or to take some time and develop a profound television series of about eight to twelve episodes of forty-five minutes each. The final result however is too complicated for cineasts preferring one film and too superficial for fans watching television series. This second part is boring, confusing and shallow despite a few decent scenes every now and then. Describing this movie as barely acceptable and awarding it six out of ten points is actually still quite generous. If I had the chance to watch it again, I simply wouldn't do it. The Alienoid franchise is only recommended to dedicated fans of futuristic fantasy franchises in the key of Blade Runner but anyone expecting anything daring, exciting and inspiring can truly skip this franchise without any regrets.