Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Gurus in the late Goryeo dynasty try to obtain a fabled, holy sword, and humans in 2022 hunt down an alien prisoner that is locked in a human's body. The two parties cross paths when a time-traveling portal opens up.
Alienoid earns genuine novelty marks for its audacious genre-blending — fusing Korean historical fantasy set in the Goryeo dynasty with sci-fi alien-prison action in the present day is a genuinely singular conception that few films attempt at this scale. The cinematography is competent and occasionally striking but uneven. The acting is serviceable across the board with some energetic performances. The plot, while creative in its mashup ambitions, struggles with coherence and pacing, cramming too many ideas into one film. The ending is a clear weak point, functioning more as a setup for a sequel than a satisfying resolution in its own right, leaving audiences feeling incomplete rather than rewarded.