2084. After decades of intense fighting, an alien invasion force is close to destroying what's left of the world. In a last-ditch effort to save the human race, a guerilla fighter named Milly leaps into a waiting Time Shifter. With the Alien Wars set to begin in 72 hours, she tricks Miyamoto, a skilled martial-arts expert and gunman, into joining her cause. Together the two launch an all-out assault on the local crime lord who's captured a spaceship - and imprisoned its extraterrestrial pilot. now the Returner and her partner must free the captive alien before warships begin to attack the planet in this sci-fi thriller packed with dazzling special effects and blazing martial arts action.

In the year 2084, the Earth is practically devastated due to a war with a alien race we have dubbed the Daggra. As a last ditch effort to save all of humanity, a girl, Milly (Ann Suzuki), is sent back in time to stop the first alien invader. She lands in the present day, right in the middle of a battle between warring gangsters, the evil Mizoguchi (Goro Kishitani) and hitman-for-hire Miyamoto (Takeshi Kaneshiro- Chunking Express, Fallen Angels, who has vowed to avenge his boyhood friend who was killed by Mizoguchi.

Thanks to an implant that will blow his head off at the touch of a button, Miyamoto is made the unwilling pawn in Milly's efforts to find the first invader and dispose of him before he can call the others. But, Mizoguchi's criminal empire has their hands everywhere, including the research facility that houses the spaceship and alien.

You'd think with aliens who disguise their ships Transformer style, the neat-o effect of a time-stopping device in the fights, and liberal doses of good gunplay and wire fu action it would be hard to fail. Unfortunately, I found that for all of its potential cool, Returner never really lives up to the cool factor it so desperately wants to convey.

The real problem, for me, was summed up in the stretched out finale, where following some action, the film drags on with a lot of character drama. The ending seems to be under the impression that we should really care about the characters and established that somehow, despite being part of a shameless popcorn action film, we the viewer should be emotionally invested in them. It is always a bad sign when the weepy orchestra is cued up and you just don't feel the emotional swoon intended.

Likewise, in its various influences, Returner misses the light-hearted, who cares?, just have fun mark it should have. Instead of offering a wink and a nod to its inspiration like Army of Darkness or Versus did, Returner plays it pretty straight. So scenes that look like they were taken straight from Mission Impossible 2, Stargate, and the video game Metal Gear Solid just feel like unimaginative ripping-off instead of knowing tributes to an action influence.

Still, despite the pitfalls, it is a pretty entertaining film, just not the film it could be if director Takeshi Yamakazi let you in that he was paying his respects to his influences. But, as far as empty fantasy action goes, it is a slick and fairly enjoyable ride. The effects are pretty good- some moments like the aliens are weak, but the transforming spaceships and time slo-mo effects are impressive. Luckily the leads are charismatic enough with their heavily cliched characters. While it feels like an effort that missed the target, there is still just enough imagination, good pacing, and interesting bits to keep you entertained.

Just before she lands, a young man named Miyamoto (Takeshi Kaneshiro) thwarts a sinister deal between crime lords. Mizoguchi (Goro Kishitani) attempts to purchase a group of kidnapped children for use in an unknown purpose. Miyamoto dispatches of the seller and his goons but gets distracted by Miri’s emergence into the present (shooting her in the process), thereby letting Mizoguchi escape.

Because he feels bad for having nearly killed a young girl, Miyamoto brings Miri back to his apartment to tend to her bullet wound and make sure she is okay. Once there, she reagains consciousness and sticks a small explosive to Miyamoto’s neck, forcing him to help her with the mission. Because her story sounds so incredibly far fetched he is reluctant to participate. After a display of impossible but convincing futuristic technology, however, Miyamoto embarks on a quest with Miri that could prove to be the key to humanity’s survival.

REVIEW:
Aside from feeling befuddled and quirky, ‘Returner’ is pretty decent. It borrows heavilly from other sci-fi themed blockbusters, but it doesn’t bite off any particular title too obviously. The story is, therefore, marginally original, but it’s hard to keep from letting other sources poke out of the seams anymore these days.

The action sequences are fairly cool, but they are sparsely used. The film tries pretty hard to mix multiple genres, including comedy and drama, so I guess the action was downplayed in favor of this approach. Unfortunately, it begins to teeter towards the end when the sap is layed on pretty thick, and sticking to fast paced science fiction elements would have been a much better avenue for this type of movie.

The acting was good for the most part, and even though Goro Kishitani’s performance as Mizoguchi seems somewhat goofy at times, his cool saunter and subtle, spiteful tendencies make him a very fun character to watch. Takeshi Kaneshiro is a superb action star, and I can see his name tacked extensively to roles for many years to come. I was a tad disappointed to find out Ann Suzuki was only 15 years of age when the movie was made, because she is a very beautiful young lady. And yes, I think her performance is very good as well.

As I said earlier, the action is few and far between, but when it is on screen it is a lot of fun to watch. The special effects helped these scenes along quite nicely, even if it is hard to be wowed or impressed by much of anything with the massive surge of CGI layden films in the past few years. Still, a strong nod for a very worthy effort goes out to the production crew from this critic.

FINAL VERDICT:
I suppose I could get off my lazy ass and do some research, but it wouldn’t surprise if there is a ‘Returner’ manga series floating around out there. I say this because the concept and delivery has me wondering if it was intially scribed as an anime project; it comes across as a live action comic book.

All things considered, Takashi Yamazaki has the makings of a very promising director. Once he gets the opportunity to put a few more films in the can, I think we’ll see some very great movies from him.