Outlander

I watched this film today with fingers crossed that it would add up to a decent enough film. However this film ended up exceeding those expectations, with a pretty good plot, a cast which was decent enough (with a few minor blips that I'm willing to overlook) and action sequences that are quite creative and thrilling to watch. At times parts of this film reminded me of The 13th Warrior, with a little Beowulf sprinkled on top. You certainly won't get bored watching this film. I'm surprised that this film did not get a little more attention, as it deserves it, but there you go. If you like to see aliens get hacked away by men in beards, this is the film for you!

It's a real shame I haven't seen a single preview or a billboard for this movie. Whatever, though - the box office opportunity was wasted because someone or other didn't have faith in humanity (I mean seriously, anyone with a droplet of testosterone in them would find this highly entertaining, so of course there's a market for it), but this movie's cult status is assured.

Spaceship carrying terrifying bloodthirsty monster and a mysterious hero (well, not that mysterious) crash lands on Earth during Viking times. I repeat - Vikings! Swords, battles, mead- drinking and all-around Norse badarsery are featured prominently. The acting is good for the most part, the writing isn't stupid and formulaic, and the director keeps a brisk pace throughout the film. And the space monster is simply terrific, imbued with the perfect amount of personality.

If I was 10 years old when I watched it, I would have been running around on the ceiling for months. Being the mature and responsible grown man I am now, I didn't exactly do that - instead, I recommended it to all my friends and watched it 3 times.

I stumbled upon this move by accident, but being a sci-fi and fantasy nerd, I watched it, despite the fact that sci-fi movies nowadays tend to be rather poor.

The story begins with Kainan (James Caviezel) crash landing his spaceship into a lake, in the middle of Viking-land, in 709 AD. With his co-pilot dead, and his ship in ruins, sunken to the bottom of the lake, he uses his only working piece of technology to teach himself the norsk language. (I laughed my head off, when the first word he utters in Earth language is the "F" word :D) Wandering around in a forest, he is found by Wulfric (Jack Huston) and brought back to his village. They think Kainen is responsible for brutally ransacking a nearby village, and when Kainen tells them he is hunting for a "dragon", he is labeled as a liar and enemy. When in fact, the "dragon" he is referring to, is a monster from another planet, now hunting the viking populace and fauna of the land. Soon, when the villagers start vanishing and turning up as mutilated corpses, the vikings realize that Kainen might be telling the truth after all...

I gotta say, combining space marines and alien monsters with a fantasy Viking setting intrigued me to no end. Outlander is the living proof, that such a combination can result in a very good and entertaining 115 minutes. Although the story is a little shallow, lacking in huge plot-twists and deep character development, but it is enough to keep the attention between the awesomely gory fight scenes.

The acting is good enough, with the Christian Bale look-alike Caviezel, and the great but short performance of Ron Perlman, it manages to be captivating. We see far more swordplay than pulse rifle shoot-outs, so the sci-fi part of the film is largely suppressed to make way for the epic battle between the vikings and the moorvens, but that's just how it must be in this movie. The fight scenes are nicely choreographed and acted, the special effects are more than awesome, and the whole is movie is just great.

I'd like to point out, that the Moorven is most astonishing space monster I've ever seen. With the clever colored pulsing and the well thought-out anatomy of the beast, it manages to be best so far.

It's not the best movie I've seen, but it's still great, and every sci-fi and fantasy fan should go see it.

Like a previous reviewer I don't know why this had a limited release. It is MUCH more value for ticket money than a number of other recent offerings and its faults are minor compared to the good qualities.

The story is basically a sci-fi plot but since the lead character's space ship crashes in the Iron Age, among Vikings, you can understand that most of the movie takes place with Viking themes and scenery.

The basic plot is quite sound and for the first 40 minutes the movie is VERY gripping. It tends to go a little flat at the end of the middle act and the start of the third act but effects, gore and very tense action compensate for those not too engrossed in the intricacies of the story. A pity about that because it looked like the story had more to offer and was chopped up somewhat to fit in a bunch of set pieces. I realize this is now making the movie sound a little lame: it isn't Lord of the Rings, but it is definitely worth the price of the ticket. See it expecting to be entertained for about 95% of the time and you wont be disappointed.

Outlandish. Howard McCain's Outlander may be the best B movie you never saw. This release dumped unceremoniously into theaters in the early year scrap heap is certainly a movie that is fully aware of its preposterous nature and approaches it with a straight face, a talented cast and premier production values that all work oddly well to produce an entertaining if far from perfect Sci-fi cult classic.

Originally slated for a normal wide release, a series of setbacks plagued production to an extent where it was deemed no longer feasible for such distribution. Why is this important you may ask? Well, thanks to the original and best laid plans producers threw a whopping $50 million into the film which provides us with some damn good effects for a film you would all but assume to be a low budget, straight to DVD release.

The plot is as tantalizing as they come; an alien, Kainan played by James Caviezel crash lands in ancient Nordish territory in the age of the Vikings. But along with his technology he brings a foreign parasite, a deadly creature known as the Moorwen. Caught in the middle of two warring Viking clans headed by Rogthgar (John Hurt) on one side and Gunnar (Ron Peralman) on the other, the primitive tribes must ban together to defeat their new common foe. oh yeah, it is in fact that awesome. The 'modern' story is framed by an interesting if slightly preachy back-story of past betrayal and genocide throughout the history of Kainnan's homeland.

After all this financial mumbo-jumbo is put to the side, what we are left with is a deliciously acted, well made period/sci-fi/creature feature/action film that only works at all due to all originality and the bizarreness of the plot. A few elements keep Outlander from being a cult-masterpiece however; it is too long, there are too many false climaxes and the goofy plot only just holds up. That being said the good news is that this film will make a quick trip to your local movie store bargain bin which means that you can score it for about the cost of a rental. Outlander is worth a look and even if you don't like it, you can't deny how perfectly it defines the so-bad-it's-good adage.

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