ALIENOID: RETURN TO THE FUTURE - Mark Reviews Movies

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Review by Mark Dujsik | January 25, 2024

The conclusion to writer/director Choi Dong-hoon's two-part time-jumping epic, Alienoid: Return to the Future does little to convince that this story couldn't have been told in just a single movie. As with the later sections of the first installment from two years ago, Choi gets to have some fun with his plot concoction blending science-fiction and fantasy, since almost all of the elaborate setup is out of the way at this point. However, the sequel spends a lot of time reminding us what happened in the previous entry, before arriving a climactic showdown that feels as if it could have been tagged on to the 2022 predecessor.

A plot summary is, almost thankfully, useless here, because one either knows the story until now—and, because time travel is involved, then—or doesn't. For those in the know, most of the tale takes place in the past, more specifically Korea in the early 15th century, as Lee Ahn (Kim Tae-ri) attempts to find a way back to 2022 with the mystical Eternal Blade in order to stop an invasion by escaped alien prisoners. It makes a little more sense if you've seen the first movie, obviously, even if it's still—and intentionally—silly.

Returning and reconnecting with the time traveler are Mureuk (Ryu Jun-Yeol), a "hack" mage who is convinced he is possessed by the alien villain, and a pair of sorcerers, Heug-seol (Yum Jung-ah) and Cheong-woon (Jo Woo-jin), who are also searching for Lee Ahn and the dagger. A blind swordsman named Neung-pa (Jin Seon-kyu), who was attacked by the aliens, believes the blade can restore his sight, and in 2022, a customs agent named Min Gae-in (Lee Hanee) witnesses the events leading up to the alien invasion from a perspective that allows Choi to recap everything we might have forgotten from the last movie.

Apparently, there was a lot to forget, because most of the plot, both in the past and the present, directly or indirectly circles around what has already been established in this story. To be sure, the cop eventually figures into the final showdown in a way that doesn't make her as extraneous as she might appear, although it does turn her into little more than a convenient plot device. As for the story in the 1400s, it comes across as a lot of delaying, since nothing new is revealed about the characters until the last possible moment.

In between the many and repetitive plot beats, Choi does provide some over-the-top action, involving magic and monsters with tentacles and old-fashioned swordplay. It's broadly entertaining, but like the majority of the story, it's nothing we haven't already seen before from this material. Alienoid: Return to the Future is technically necessary as a resolution to this tale, but it doesn't do enough to expand the characters or the wacky ideas to make it seem as if dividing this story in two was necessary in the first place.

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