Outlander is a rocket of a film that blends medieval fantasy with sci-fi for the story of a humanoid alien who crashes on Earth during the time of the Vikings and accidently brings a nasty space critter with him. The movie is fast-paced, full of action, and a ton of fun to watch.
Directed by Howard McCain (who also wrote the film with Dirk Blackman), Outlander stars James Caviezel, Sophia Myles, Jack Huston, John Hurt, and the great Ron Perlman (although he is only in a few scenes).
The film’s plot is straight-forward, and only requires you to turn the brain off. Caviezel takes on the role of the space man Kainan – who crashes to the Earth in the opening moments of the film.
In a scene that reminds of the original Planet of the Apes, Kainan crashes into a lake; manages to get some gear from his sinking ship; and pulls his dying captain to the shore. After burying the captain and turning on a rescue system, Kainan makes his way inland in search of food and armed with a blaster rifle. It doesn’t take long for him to come across a destroyed village and see the signs left by the space critter he brought to Earth (known as a Moorwen).
He goes on the hunt for the creature, but is ambushed by a group of Vikings – which causes him to drop his blaster over the side of a waterfall. He is taken prisoner by Wulfric (Huston) and brought to their village. While this is happening, Viking king Rothgar (Hurt) is trying to get his headstrong daughter Freya (Myles) to start warming up to the idea of marrying Wulfric – who is next in line to be married.
It isn’t hard to figure out that there is going to be a romance between Kainan and Freya, and a little bit of conflict between him and Wulfric.
The movie moves along at a somewhat predictable pace, but remains entertaining as Kainan is taken into the Viking tribe after the Moorwen attacks. He is part of a group sent out to kill the creature, and hopefully stop another tribe (led by a savage looking Perlman) from attacking them.
With no love lost between the two tribes, Perlman believes that Rothgar’s people attacked his village, but soon learns the truth. This leads to some more predictable plot points – where the two enemies join together to fight a greater threat, and Kainan and Wulfric become friends due to their bravery on the battlefield.
The movie keeps the tension building as the Vikings are attacked by the Moorwen and learn that the creature has a few surprises of its own. This leads to a Predator like hunt with Kainan, Wulfric and a handful of Vikings heading to the Moorwen’s lair.
While Outlander suffers from plot predictability (the Myles character seemed to be in the film to simply provide some romance and a tough Viking woman) and some limited special effects work, the film is still a ton of fun to watch.
When I first heard about the movie, I was interested in seeing it, but had my doubts due to Caviezel’s involvement. He is a great actor, but I just couldn’t see him in a Viking action film.
The casting works great for the movie as his character really seems like an odd man out in a world so far behind his own civilization. Caviezel moves through the film with a kind of quiet violence that you don’t expect out of an “action hero.” His character has known a lifetime of killing (McCain adds more sci-fi elements through Kainan’s flashbacks of life before the crash), and easily adapts to this new violent world.
The film also benefits from a great (although brief) appearance by Perlman. One of my favorite actors, Perlman rocks in this film with a shaved head, and a pair of warhammers – which he uses to smash through anything that gets in his way. While I enjoyed Caviezel performance, Perlman (with his bloody warhammers) made the movie cool.
As the film rolls on, the appearance of the Moorwen tends to hurt the movie’s tension due to the less that stellar CGI work. While kept in shadow, the creature seems cool and very deadly, but the big reveal just looks like something you would see on any action Xbox game. It didn’t completely kill the film for me, but might ruin it a bit for some movie fans.
The DVD comes loaded with some decent special features that take a look at the making of the film, the designing of the creature and characters, and some visual effects test. It also features a ton of deleted scenes that help expand on some of the characters and story more. The scenes are worth watching and seem to have been cut for pacing issues.
Outlander is a blast to watch, and features a ton of action. At times, it feels a little too much like a low budget B-movie, but remains entertaining from start to finish.
Outlander is now available at Amazon . It is available for pre-order at AmazonUK for a Sept. 7th release. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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