‘Alienoid’ Is a Style-Bending Sci-Fi Martial Arts Romp

There’s no scarcity of issues to look at lately, whether or not it’s new films again in theaters or new sequence accessible on a cornucopia of streaming providers, however right here’s yet one more so as to add to your listing: Alienoid. It’s a wild action-adventure via time and area, from the late 14th century to the current, that includes aliens and robots and magic.

Alienoid debuts on December 6 on digital, DVD, and Blu-Ray from Properly Go USA Leisure, and also will seem on the martial arts streaming channel Hello-YAH! beginning December 23. It was directed by Choi Dong-hoon and has a run time of two hours, 22 minutes; it’s a South Korean movie and doesn’t presently have an MPAA score, although I might in all probability give it a couple of PG-13 based mostly on a number of the violence and creepy spear tentacles. (Uh, extra on that later.) The movie is in Korean, with subtitles, although the DVD/Blu-Ray will embody an English dub, in addition to “making of” bonus options. I used to be supplied with a screener hyperlink to look at the movie and completely loved it.

So, what’s it about? Properly, the film takes place in Korea primarily in two completely different instances, the current day and the yr 1391. Up to now, there are numerous characters trying to find the mysterious Divine Blade, together with a dosa named Muruk who has some outstanding powers in addition to “The Lady Who Shoots Thunder” who, oddly sufficient, is packing a pistol. Within the current, a robotic named Guard (who can tackle a human likeness) is tasked with overseeing aliens who’re imprisoned inside human minds. Often these aliens keep in mind who they’re and get away, although they can not survive for lengthy in Earth’s ambiance. Guard and his robotic companion Thunder have the power to journey via time, which brings these two plot strains crashing collectively.

I wasn’t acquainted with any of those actors earlier than, however they do an excellent job with their roles. The film usually jumps between intense motion scenes with severe drama and goofy, slapstick humor—that could be a bit jarring to Western audiences, however it jogged my memory of watching outdated kung fu movies, which frequently have a heavy dose of silliness combined in with the motion. Kim Tae-ri is mostly fairly severe as Ean and serves as straight man for Ryu Jun-yeol, who performs Muruk. He’s a magician of kinds, although it rapidly turns into clear that he hasn’t actually educated to grasp his skills—he simply form of has them, and bumbles his means via with an outsized confidence.

One other serious-silly pairing is in Guard and Thunder, his droid companion. Guard switches between a CGI robotic type and a human disguise, performed by Kim Woo-bin with excessive seriousness. Thunder normally seems as a small floating droid voiced by Kim Dae-myung, however when he takes on human type he’s performed by… Kim Woo-bin once more. The 2 variations of Woo-bin enjoying towards one another are terrific, as each try and move as people however are clearly not so versed in human interactions.

The story is wild and appears to be going in all places, however the movie does job of ultimately tying collectively a whole lot of the strands and bringing them collectively. Positive, there’s little bit of implausible science and hand-wavy explanations (why did the aliens assume utilizing individuals’s brains as prisons was a extra humane choice?), however you sort of anticipate a little bit of that from a sci-fi film. The mix of sci-fi with wire-fu, individuals who can leap into the air and run alongside rooftops, was an surprising delight, although. You simply by no means actually knew what to anticipate subsequent, although close to the top you do begin to see how the items are beginning to match collectively.

It’s not actually the top, although: Alienoid is simply the primary of two elements. It closes on a little bit of a cliffhanger, so I’ll have to attend till the second half drops to see if the obvious rationalization is true or not.

I didn’t watch the screener with my youngsters since I wished to test it out myself first, however I’d say it’s akin to one of many Marvel films by way of content material. There are many struggle scenes, from hand-to-hand fight to flying spaceships with lasers. There’s not an excessive amount of gore for essentially the most half, although there are a whole lot of deaths or implied deaths. In all probability the creepiest elements are the spear tentacles (which you’ll see within the trailer under), although they’re not truly slashing individuals for essentially the most half.

Should you’re in search of a film that’s out of the odd with a number of motion and a few off-beat humor, try Alienoid when it releases subsequent week!

You’ll be able to watch the trailer right here:

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