ALTERED Review: Fun, Punchy Ride

It's no Iron Sky. Still, it's got Richard Brake!

Altered
The film debuts January 20, on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD via Well Go USA.

With Iron Sky (2012), his long-in-development, lovable 'Nazis on the Moon' science-fiction comedy, Timo Vuorensola created something of a sensation, especially among those of us who love ambitious independently-made science-fiction movies. Admittedly, as our reviewer Brian Clark concluded: "At the end of the day, it probably is more fun to talk about the film than actually watch it." Still, it remains amazing to me that Vuorensola got the film made, and succeeded in gaining such wide distribution for such a goofy concept.

Neither that film's sequel, Iron Sky: The Coming Race (2019), nor the ill-advised horror sequel Jeeper Creepers: Reborn (2022), generated much enthusiasm. His latest feature, Altered, is an original project that he wrote and directed. As with Iron Sky, the filmmaker has bold visual ideas, but comes up short on execution. But that doesn't mean the film should be ignored.

Tom Felton stars as Leon, a wheelchair-bound rebel against the worldwide order that resulted from an accidental war. (Nuclear bombs exploded, but nobody knows why.) Most of the world's population have been genetically-enhanced; those that are not are called "Specials," yet are treated as vastly inferior humans, suitable only for the most menial of tasks.

Despite the overt discrimination that he suffers for being 'normal' (i.e. not enhanced by genetics), Leon fights the good fight in concert with Chloe (Elizaveta Bugulova), whose parents were lost in the worldwide accidental nuclear explosions, lobbing grenades, as it were, which only irritates the ruling-class, so-called Genetics. Tapping into the increasingly active discrimination by the Genetics, politician/scientist Kessler (Richard Brake, whose scary glare is familiar from dozens of supporting roles) promises that he has devised a treatment to 'cure' the Specials, enabling them to accept genetic implants as adults.

Of course, something more sinister is afoot, and popular singer Mira (Aggy K. Adams) becomes the fulcrum for the second half of the movie when she makes an appearance, quickly getting caught up in the narrative's twists and turns devised by writer/director Timo Vuorensola.

The narrative is more familiar here than in Iron Sky, with clearly-defined good and bad characters, and nothing as outrageous as Nazis on the Moon or Udo Kier riding on a dinosaur. The visuals are more familiar as well.

Even so, Tom Felton is entirely engaging as Leon. He comfortably rides the movie's sillier impulses -- like dressing up as a goofy fake doctor -- and talks a good game as the movie's principal voice and most active character. He and Elizaveta Bugulova enjoy a friendly, affectionate chemistry as 'the old man' and 'the kid,' while Felton also pairs well with Aggy K. Adams in a relationship that develops, again based on their good chemistry together.

Altered is a fun, punchy ride, for what it is: a sci-fi b-movie (the kind I love) that makes a good rental or purchase on a Video On Demand platform.