WasAnnon Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Anssi Vartiainen It's the end of the 21st century and humanity is losing a war against invading alien force. A time machine is their only remaining hope, but things take a turn for the worse when the original traveller dies and a young girl is sent instead.As you can see, the film doesn't exactly shine with originality. It's your basic time-travelling fish out of the water storyline, this time with a Japanese setting. But even there it fails because it more closely resembles an urban gangster movie, and not a very good one at that. Sure there's the aliens, but they're not in the movie very much and are your run down the mill basic Roswell aliens.Not to say that the film is godawful. Some of the action scenes have a bit of flash to them and the two main characters are enjoyable, especially Milly (Anne Suzuki), who's delightfully capable and resourceful for an early turn of the century action heroine.Still, the fact remains that Returner has perilously little to show for itself. It's not original, it's not particularly well executed and you really don't get much out of it. There are worse movies out there, certainly, but it's not a movie worth looking for.

kld0068 What I expected was a so so Japanese version of a sort of sci-fi/alien/Terminator type story. I was pleasantly surprised to see the story develop into something original and unique.Milly travels back in time as the cusp of an alien takeover of Earth. Her goal is to prevent the aliens from reaching the point where they are too strong to defeat. The story was well told with not only sci-fi alien invasion and time travel, but it was also a Asian gangster and revenge flick. There were a couple of E.T.esque soppy moments, but the film was had a good amount of action, explosions, subtle humor, and an interesting multifaceted story.

Attic77 The Japanese ape American Movies? Please, go over your history. The Japanese were able to take a Western art form and appropriate it to their own culture in ways we may only stand in awe of their accomplishments. This includes rock-n-roll, the arguably penultimate Western art form. Yes, 'Returner' is very sentimental in places, ala Stephen Spielberg, unfortunately. Still Suzuki and Yoshiro work so well together in this film, it is just a plain pleasure to watch. I will never regret the tears I shed for this work.As a reviewer before me noted, where are the Americans getting a large proportion of their best movies? The Japanese and the Pang Brothers (Hong Kong, I believe, though they work a lot in Thailand). Usually less than brilliant remakes of the originals. Bangkok Dangerous? The Eye? Does anyone dare re-make 'Ab-normal Beauty'?

Vincent This is a well directed and acted film but the fact that it doesn't even attempt to be original makes it hard to like.The acting from the two leads is very good they are convincing and interesting to watch. Kaneshiro plays the stylish clichéd "super assassin" with aplomb and Suzuki is convincing as a slightly paranoid punky girl. Kishitani over acts entertainingly as the evil villain and is interesting to watch whenever he is on screen.The style and effects are excellent with some great set pieces and neat special effects running at a reasonable pace although hard edge of the seat stuff.The problem is that there is not a single original thought in this film. The main plot is obviously taken from Terminator but that is only the start with bits from The Matrix, E.T. and Transformers being the most obvious inserts but there are other films used liberally.This is more a homage to American sci-fi films than a film in its own right and although the few humorous touches are well timed and delivered the film would have been better if it had been play more for laughs.Its watchable if you have nothing else to do but I certainly wouldn't seek it out.