Stories are about as limited as one’s imagination. Peaceful creatures can find themselves on a quest to save the land, people of average heritage feel the pull to right wrongs, and villains can be born from the mildest of slights. And these are just the average tales that don’t include lizard people, space fascists, or hollow Earth theories. Speaking of, Iron Sky series filmmaker Timo Vuorensola returns with a new sci-fi adventure, Altered, originally released in 2024 and now coming available in North American via Well Go USA, that posits a world in which the near destruction of humanity created a brand-new caste system of haves and have-nots. Though packed with Vuorensola’s brand of inventiveness, Altered is both underbaked and overcooked, making the 85-minute runtime a strangely laborious experience one must try to survive alongside the characters.
Tom Felton as Leon in ALTERED. Photo courtesy of Well Go USA.
Sixty-five years after the world collapsed due to an attempt at total annihilation, a version of it has survived thanks to two parallel events: a previously unknown plant that absorbed radiation which could be harnessed for power and a large number of the population experiencing a genetic mutation that improved humanity. However, like in any society, there are those who don’t get access to the social advancements due to genetic incompatibility. These individuals are called “Specials,” even though viewed as the dregs of the community. Two such “Specials,” Leon (Tom Felton) and Chloe (Elizaveta Bugulova), accidentally find themselves in a unique position to make use of an exoskeleton suit when they get caught up in the wake of violent anti-genetic protestors tired of being kept down by a government that only devalues them day after day. Will they use this opportunity to remain in the shadows or will they step forward to protect those who need it?
L-R: Elizaveta Bugulova as Chloe and Tom Felton as Leon in ALTERED. Photo courtesy of Well Go USA.
Before getting into the gritty elements of Altered, let’s shine a little light on an aspect that’s important in today’s culture of performative consciousness. Felton’s Leon has paraplegia and it’s treated as an aspect of him, not a defining characteristic to those who matter. This is significant because the inclusion of the exosuit that grants Leon the ability to maneuver without his wheelchair would, by many other creatives, be viewed as a way of suggesting that Leon is incomplete without it and would thereby have some character arc wherein either he must accept who he is without the suit or is “made whole” as a result of its use. As presented, there’s only one person in the entire film that makes any kind of comment or implies any sort of negative implication about Leon as a result of his wheelchair use and it’s not Leon, Chloe, or any of the other individuals he works with. This choice helps to better solidify the concept of the villain in the film as obsessed or preoccupied with “good genes” versus the humanity of an individual. Even the use of the exosuit is presented as something that Leon has to get used to versus other tales which typically offer a brief acclimation period before functioning with fluidity. Instead, Leon’s natural state is within the chair and the presentation of this not only aligns with the greater ideas of the script — the cruelty of a caste system based entirely on body function via genetic make-up — but it also flies against the usual depiction of someone with a disability who becomes defined by it. Leon is, well, Leon and has other characteristics that make a greater mark on the outcome of the narrative and none of them, in terms of his arc, are tied to his status as a wheelchair user.
Tom Felton as Leon in ALTERED. Photo courtesy of Well Go USA.
Where the struggles come in begins with the overcomplication of the power source component of the narrative. The trailer and the film’s official summary focus on the genetically superior vs. not aspects, setting up Altered to be, essentially, a reverse X-Men story wherein the genetically unmodified are viewed as subpar humans and left to do menial work which continues to be viewed as unessential (despite being *incredibly* essential for any functioning society). The power source component does very little to the larger narrative, but its inclusion enables the film to begin, post-cold open, with a segment that introduces the characters and this world so that the exposition dump is harder to notice amid what they’re doing. The reason why this segment of the narrative (not the scene, the overall aspect) struggles is because it’s under-explained how it’s useful for Leon’s and Chloe’s rehab activities. We can easily understand that Leon is handy with tools considering the events of the initial sequence, so there’s no need to explain how he can help repair the techno components of various individuals in their encampment who require servicing. That part the audience can run with without heavy explanation; however, the way Leon includes the white-glowing buds somehow automatically causes the tech to purr to life by contact or adherence. This combined with an exosuit that doesn’t seem designed for paraplegic use (no handheld controls to activate legs; no cerebral control to circumvent spinal nerves) yet does creates a stretch of the imagination that tears under any scrutiny. One is willing to allow sci-fi to play as they like, but when certain aspects go unexplained while heavily explaining others (such as the genetic divide), the negative space left behind is difficult to ignore.
Aggy K. Adams as Mira in ALTERED. Photo courtesy of Well Go USA.
One does get the sense that the feature, running at 85 minutes, had more going on before the final edit – a theory that grows since the press kit states a 124-minute runtime. Maybe the intention is to focus on the action, try to make Altered have more of a superhero feel as Leon dons the exoskeleton in a bid to stop this small group of anti-genetic protestors and even going so far as to add aspects to the suit — mask, plant-like armor, and bio-based weaponry — that make the character exude elements of a homegrown Steel. The issue is that the film is both in a rush and ready to take its time so there’s rarely a moment that doesn’t feel in contrast to another. As if we’re missing pieces to more tightly connect the whole. It certainly doesn’t help that the brief musical sequence featuring in-world musician Mira (Aggy K. Adams) is so jankily shot that one gets the sense that if the camera lingered too long, we’d see through the cinematic fabrication and lose all the magic. This happens with the several action sequences to the point that the editing reduces the energy through a series of quick cuts, implying that the action doesn’t work without using editing to insert momentum and excitement. Especially as the third act turn arises and revelations (as they do) come to roost, we find ourselves struggling to care because there’s been no reason to get invested through the missing information, overabundance of exposition that tells us who people are and what matters, and tech that seems important but we don’t know enough about to care.
Richard Brake as Frank Kessler in ALTERED. Photo courtesy of Well Go USA.
For their part, Felton (Ophelia), Richard Brake (The Last Stop in Yuma County), and Igor Jijikine (Vampire V) make the most of what’s available to them, even when the script, as-presented, doesn’t afford them much beyond the surface. Despite this, however, there’s none of the magic nor madness that made the Iron Sky films as wildly entertaining as they are. There’s imagination, to be sure, with the notion’s that Altered intends to explore weighty and profound (any government order that sends its citizens to camps is not ideological morally good, among other things); except so much of this is by-passed in favor of more personal conflicts which we can’t fully invest in through their presented execution. This all results in a frustrating watch for we can see what Vuorensola intends, even if not achieved.
In theaters and on digital November 21st, 2025.
For more information, head to the official Well Go USA Altered webpage.
Final Score: 2 out of 5.
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Categories: In Theaters, Reviews, streaming
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