Alienoid: Return to the Future - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Alienoid: Return to the Future



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



AV NIRVANA is member and reader-supported. When you purchase an item using our links, we might earn an affiliate commission.
​

Movie
Alienoid (which I reviewed HERE) was probably one of the biggest surprise hits of 2022 for myself. I’m used to Asian sci-fi being a bit sub par compared to their dramas and action flicks, but was blown away that the 2022 flick was so much fun. It was a puzzle box mystery of intertwined timelines, each telling a piece of the story, leading up to a thrilling conclusion that left you hanging for the completion of it all. I still remember having this huge grin over my face back in December of 2022, only to sit up and yell at the screen when I realized that this was simply the first half of the story. Well, luckily for us this didn’t go by the wayside, or suffer a set back, as Director Dong-hoon Choi is back against to finish his story less than 1.5 years later.

I’m going to have to be REALLY careful here, being that to explain what happens in Alienoid: Return to the Future, I would have to spoil a ton of Alienoid. Especially when you consider the fact that Alienoid and Return to the Future are simply two halves of a single tale and each one reveals secrets about the other. But I’ll do my best to keep things surface level in terms of spoiling the previous film.
Luckily for the viewer, if you haven’t seen Alienoid since it came out 19 months ago, the film spends a good 5 minutes or so catching you up on what happened. If you remember, Alienoid told the story of an alien race who are advanced enough to capture the “essence” of beings into a tiny crystal, and used that technology to dump their prisoners into the bodies of human beings throughout time itself, where they would inevitably live out their lives trapped behind the consciousness of their human host until it dies. Basically, humanity was host to a gigantic alien penal colony. It seems a civil war of some sorts had happened on the home world of these aliens, and the worst of the prisoners, including their leader known as “the controller”, have been trapped and implanted into human beings. Said aliens have also left a couple of wardens to guard over the prisoners in the form of a robot known as Guard (Kim Woo-bin) and his shape shifting helper program Thunder. Guard and Thunder end up adopting a young girl named Lee Ahn (somehow spelled out as Ean in the subtitles) in order to fit in and appear like “normal” humans. However, when the evil controller hatches a plan to have his cohorts break him out of confinement, it means an all out war between Guard, Lee Ahn, Thunder vs. an entire race of beings who are doing their darndest to get out of their human host prisons.

What made Alienoid so fascinating was not just the alien story line. It was dang good sci-fi as it was, but it did an incredible job as it blended in multiple time lines besides the narration. The first one is back in 2022 where Guard and Thunder have to deal with the attempted breakout of the Controller, but also one hundreds of years prior back in history as well. Since the aliens deposited the souls of their prisoners throughout time itself, the two time lines seem to share a similar story. The past focuses on a mysterious blade that Guard lost ages ago, one that supposedly can kill the Controller in the present, but in the past is just this mysteriously powerful item that of course attracts miscreants and treasure hunters. Don’t forget that the Controllers minions also have zeroed in on the blade during that past time line, and also seem to exist in BOTH time lines at once.

SPOILER MOMENT. If you haven’t watched the first film, PLEASE jump down to the next paragraph, otherwise proceed at your own risk of spoilage. Anyways, the ending of Alienoid clued us in to the biggest mystery of them all. Both the past and the present time lines were actually interconnected. The end of the film has Guard, Thunder and Lee Ahn jumping backwards in time to escape the freed controller and his minions, only to trap Lee Ahn hundreds of years in the past with the remaining Aliens who had followed them through. The film picks up right after the massive reveal at the end of the first film, dealing with Lee Ahn finding the alien blade that everyone was looking for, only for the controller to find her at the last moment and inhabit HER body, forcing her and all of her acquaintances in the past right back in the future for a giant confrontation before the Controller can terraform the rest of Earth and set up his reign as ruler of this world.

Ok, we can go back to no spoilers now. This film is very much the second half of the first one, and as such, I personally recommend watching the two back to back. Each story (both past and present) are intricately intertwined, and you get a much better viewing experience watching them as a single film. Anyways, While I LOVED Alienoid back when I watched it, I had a slightly less enjoyable time with the sequel. And it’s not because too much time had passed. The script was bad. OR due to the acting. It’s hard to explain, but while the two films are extremely similar, they also deviate in one major way. The first film was extremely serious for the most part, but used slapstick humor (usually with Thunder being a smart alec, or the characters in the past time line adding some much needed levity) as a way to tone down some of the obvious silliness of the sci-fi portion. Personally I feel that it struck that perfect balance of straight forward action sci-fi and humor that kept you from rolling your eyes at it being TOO serious. Now, fast forward to 2024 and the sequel feels soooooooooooo similar to what came before, but the comedy is now being used as front and center, with the more serious sci-fi elements standing in as second chair. Kind of reversing the tone of the first film. It also plays out a bit longer than necessary, as the nuts and bolts of the film were already explained in Alienoid, and the actual meat and potatoes of the follow up really could have been told in 90 minutes vs. the 122 (including credits) that it turned out to be. So they padded some of the run time with silly bit and slapstick humor instead of using the humor as complimentary to the main story.

That being said, it’s still a VERY solid bit of sci-fi and there is a lot going for it. Probably the most impressive feat that Director/writer Dong-hoon Choi pulled off is being able to wrap up every convoluted bit of story for us in a believable fashion. Usually time travel movies are an infinite loop of convoluted plot points, and not every one of them gets answered by the time the credits roll. Especially when you consider that the entire first film basically was a giant J.J. Abrams puzzle box mystery that has a history of asking more questions than it answers. However, both films do an amazing job bringing everything back full circle, and actually explains each and every one of the giant mysterious questions that in asks. That is something that doesn’t happen very often, and many before have really tried. The film’s action is spot on beautiful, and even though the Korean CGI isn’t up to say a Hollywood blockbuster level, it still looks amazing. This was a blast to watch, and despite having some tonal issues like I mentioned above, is a very solid finale to what was my favorite non Holllywood film of 2022. I was actually worried that it would be like The Witch 2: The Other One, but all in all, this is a great completion (with some caveats).




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

Again, I haven’t been able to find out a whole bunch on the cameras used or the resolution of the master, but from what I can ascertain both films were shot using a variation of Arri Alexa cameras at an unknown mastered resolution (most likely 2K, but it could have been 4K, as there is a German 4K release of this film). With that being said, the two films looks almost identical being that they were filmed almost back to back. The same incredible picture quality of Alienoid comes home to roost here, with stunning visuals, amazing visual clarity and details, as well as a nice stark contrast between the period piece past and the 2022 “apple I-pod glossy” future. As mentioned in the main portion of the review, the CGI looks really good for the most part, but still can’t hold a candle to top notch high budget blockbusters from Hollywood. But all in all, this is a near perfect image with only brief moments of banding to shake things up.









Audio:

Alienoid sports 5.1 DTS-HD MA tracks in both Korean and English, with my deference being given to the native Korean as the English track feels a bit “cheap” with the dialog. That being said, both mixes are very dynamic mixes, with an incredible sense of immersion from all of the chaotic action going on. Surround channels are full of discrete sounds, whether they’re the whirring of a ship overhead, or the whistling sound of a blade being thrown throughout the air. There’s some really nifty panning effects that happen in the more action oriented scenes, and bass is quite the punchy experience. Personally I feel that the first track was a TAD more dynamic, but that may simply be me nitpicking just a tad.












Extras: :

• Making Of
• Theatrical Trailer
• Well Go USA Previews

Final Score:
​

It’s not as perfect as 2022’s Alienoid, but Return to the Future is a worthy successor to the Korean smash hit. Personally I feel that if you’re going to watch this one, watch it WITH the predecessor in a single viewing rather than just picking up where you left off and going by memory. Things are so intertwined between both films that even the slightest bit of memory lapse will cause a rift. I watched the first 40 minutes and got so frustrated trying to remember every little character that I just simply hit the stop button, tossed in Alienoid and watched the two films back to back. Now the Blu-ray itself looks and sounds killer, but like usual, don’t expect much in the way of extras. At the end of the day (I say that a lot, don’t I?) this was a fun second half to the Alienoid story and well worth it as a fun watch. I had a hard time choosing rating the movie a 3.5/5 or 4/5, but since we don't have a 3.75/5 rating on the site, I'm erring on the side of my enjoyment and putting it at 4/5.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Yoon Byung-Hee, Lee Dong-Hee, Kim Eui-sung
Directed by: Dong-hoon Choi
Written by: Dong-hoon Choi
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: Korean: DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DTS-HD MA 5.1, English, Korean DD 2.0
Subtitles: English
Studio: Well Go USA
Rated: NR
Runtime: 122 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: July 30th, 2024

Recommendation: Fun Watch