Altered is available on Digital from Well Go USA.
Director Timo Vuorensola makes his return to the helm with sci-fi action adventure, Altered. It’s got its own vibe with a few genre nods for the fans, and the fact that it centers on underdog with a makeshift supersuit fighting the powers that be lends for an appetizing concept that should be inexorably fun to watch.
Needless to say, the film foists a lot of its so-called appeal through an otherwise feasibly watchable tale set in a dystopian version of the present where years after a mysterious doesn’t-matter-who-did-it culprit pressed a button that launched a bunch of nukes onto the world. The result is a rebuilt society that’s split mankind into two: “Genetics” who are born with certain natural enhancements, and “Specials” who are otherwise born as less-than-normal in the eyes of the former.
The latter is where we meet Leon (Tom Felton), a paraplegic who covertly uses stolen Genetics resources to supply his craft as a mechanic to help customers with their biomechanical parts at his workshop. He operates with the help of teenage orphan named Chloe (Liza Bulgulova) who stays in his care whilst aiding his transactions, a partnership that gets severely tested when Leon decides that a last-minute trip miles away in the middle of the night would be worth the triple-pay he’s promised.
Little do he and Chloe know that they’re about to stumble on a major conspiracy, forcing Leon to affix himself to a biomechanical spine in order to protect Chloe and himself. In light of this, and with his face making headlines as he’s framed for the attack, Leon must then reckon with the consequences of doing nothing, deciding to augment the uniform with his own touch, using a special seeding implants he can utilize as weapons.
Indeed, it’s a cool thing Altered tries in its efforts to revamp the superhero genre with an original IP that isn’t already based on something current. Something like that is a rarity, which makes Altered feel like fanservice that leaves a lot to be desired. Granted, the only thing about Altered that feels near-fully observed is the sequence in which the story is supposed to unfold, including the moment Leon and Chloe rescue a popular singing sensation named Mira (Aggy K. Adams) when they learn a concert she’s giving in the Specials’ district has made her a target.
There’s also some big reveals involving the gang’s leader, Huges (Igor Jijikin), as well as Kessler (Richard Brake), a politician who himself is believed to be a target of the gang about an hour into the film, which already feels enough for a film that’s about twenty five minutes longer. The rest of the film feels undermined by its attempt at telling an abridged story with little room to breathe in between certain aspects of the story, including a possible romantic connection between Leon and Mira that feels foisted more than anything.
The action doesn’t accomplish much as what should have felt like a larger highlight. There’s also the matter of messaging with Altered, in that we have a man in a wheelchair now facing the greatest test of his life, largely in part with inspiration from Chloe who gets miffed at Leon’s initial recalcitrance. Vuorensola constructs a fun narrative here worth exploring, whilst otherwise uncharted in full for a movie that brims with ambition.
Resultingly, much like the rest of Altered, all you’re really left with is a really cool idea that doesn’t sprout much. It signs-off Vuorensola’s newest venture in the sci-fi action realm that, apart from boding as a serviceable timewaster for kids, feels more prosaic and mediocre than preferred. The acting is mostly okay – it ain’t great but the cast does what it can with what they have and they make out pretty well with it.
I’d say for the most part that Altered really isn’t my cup of tea as a film fan with other tastes, while it is a movie that still should have checked off more boxes than it did. Take this critique with a grain of salt, or not.
