South Korean film “Alienoid: The Return to the Future” is not as boring as I feared, and that is the only consolation for me. Thanks to the sprawling narrative of “Alienoid” (2021), the movie has lots of things to gather and then explain during the first half, and then it feels too hurried and jumbled with lots of busy actions thrown into the second half. I did not care much about the story and characters, but the overall result is a little better than the tedium of “Alienoid” at least while amusing me a bit from time to time.

Just in case, I will summarize on what happened in the previous film, which alternates between two different time periods. On one hand, the movie presents a young girl living with an alien robot which has been the guard for alien prisoners trapped inside human bodies for a very, very, very long time, and then there comes a serious problem when one of the most dangerous alien prisoners on the Earth attempts to escape right in the middle of Seoul in 2022. On the other hand, the movie also presents a number of different characters living in the 14th century, and, not so surprisingly, some of them turn out to be connected with what is happening on in Seoul in 2022.

One of these characters is Lee Ahn (Kim Tae-ri), who is incidentally that aforementioned young girl and has been stuck in the 14th century for 10 years since she went there as shown at the end of the previous film. She has looked for a certain alien object which will help her go back to Seoul in 2022, but, of course, this alien object is wanted by not only her but also several others including Mureuk (Ryu Jun-yeol), a goofy lad who has a particular set of special skills just like many of the main characters in the story.

Anyway, Mureuk eventually comes to learn that he was actually involved with whatever happened shortly after Lee Ahn came to the 14th century, and that makes the situation quite awkward between them even though they come to like each other more than they can admit on the surface. Lee Ahn thinks she should distance herself away from him as much as possible, but Mureuk only finds himself getting more involved into Lee Ahn’s ongoing adventure along with his trusted two magical companions, who can be transformed into cats or humans under his command.

The movie also pays some attention to a couple of silly but undeniably gifted mages who become very determined to get to the bottom of what is going on around them after also getting involved into Lee Ahn and Mureuk’s circumstance. Later in the story, they happen to encounter a blind swordsman who has also been looking for that alien object, and, what do you know, this dude turns out to have a private motive behind his back.

Meanwhile, the movie also shows us what is happening in 2022 mainly via the aunt of Lee Ahn’s best friend, who becomes more crucial in the whole story due to her personal and professional background. After watching a little video clip shot by Lee Ahn in the previous film, she quickly goes all the way for stopping a disaster to be unleashed sooner or later upon not only Seoul but also the whole world, and she actually has some resource for that daunting cast.

After finally unfolding every piece of its story on the front, the movie is shifted onto full action mode, but it fails to engage us more due to its deficient narrative and thin characterization. As hurriedly shuffling between a number of different plots, the story frequently feels too scattershot to hold our attention, and its main characters remain as bland cardboard figures as they were in the previous film. While there are some unexpected plot turns later in the story, that does not bring much depth or drama to the main characters at all, and we only come to observe them without much care or attention.

In case of the action sequences in the movie, they look relatively more expensive than the ones in the previous film, but they are merely drenched in lots of digital special effects without any substantial dramatic effect, and, above all, they seriously lack style, personality, and imagination. To be frank with you, those alien villains and several other alien stuffs in the film are mediocre at best and uninspired at worst without much artistic qualities, and that is another main reason why the expected climax sequence does not work at all.

Many notable South Korean performers are assembled here, but most of them are sadly under-utilized in one way or another. Although Kim Tae-ri brings some spirit to her character in addition to having some fun, but she is eventually limited by her inherently flat role, and she and Ryu Jun-yeol unfortunately lack enough chemistry to care about their characters’ relationship development along the story. While Kim Eui-sung and Lee Hanee are wasted due to their thankless supporting roles, Yum Jung-ah and Jo Woo-jin provide some amusement for us at least, and it is a shame that they are not allowed to show more of their comic talent.

Compared to director/co-writer Choi Dong-hoon’s more successful films such as “Tazza: The High Rollers” (2006) and “The Thieves” (2012), “Alienoid” and “Alienoid: The Return to the Future” are a big letdown to say the least. At least, “Alienoid: The Return to the Future” manages to give us a fairly decent resolution for everything shown in the previous film, but it is still dissatisfying for many substandard qualities including its uneven storytelling and weak characterization, and, folks, I am already ready for moving on something better than this massive fiasco.