Director: Howard McCain
Starring: Jim Caviziel, Sophia Myles, John Hurt
Out Now
I would say this movie was disappointing, but you don’t tend to go and see anything within the genre of historical sci-fi with particularly high hopes.
Jim Caviezel (a.k.a. Jesus from The Passion of the Christ) heads up the cast as Kainan, an alien distinctly resembling a human, whose high-tech spaceship crash-lands in Viking-era Norway. The trouble doesn’t end there, as Kainan has been pursued by a generic monster-type alien called Moorwen from another planet (that is, a planet different from his), who begins to terrorise the Norse community with a bloodthirsty flurry of gruesome attacks. Kainan, originally imprisoned by the Vikings, must jump on horseback and unite with the them in order to defeat this common enemy, in a format best described as “Braveheart Vs. Predator”. Unfortunately this somewhat idyllic fusion results in a product entirely unworthy of that title.
The action is this movie is essentially solid, with passable special effects and plenty of blood. The costume design feels authentic, and Viking culture (i.e. drinking loads of booze and burning people on boats) seems to be accurately represented. Beyond these areas, the film just feels incredibly lazy. The script is complete dross, and even appearances from Hollywood stalwarts Ron Pearlman and John Hurt can’t quite bring the endless slur of laboured exchanges to life. With Caviezel’s character coming from a distant galaxy that is several millennia more advanced, you would expect some form of culture clash between him and the Vikings. This doesn’t really happen; he just seems to fit right in there with a personality indistinguishable from any other character. He gets an ultra-lame back-story about his wife and son being killed (both speak English despite the fact that Caviezel was speaking in an alien tongue earlier), and his accent is all over the place. Speaking of accents, the Norsemen have a variety of wacky inflections, ranging from English to Irish to Russian, presumably to convey some form of personality associated with each nation (tyrant, joker, hard-man?). While some enjoyment can be taken from the action sequence, the film is too long and drawn-out and the eventual end comes as a great relief.
Verdict: While Outlander is fairly inoffensive, you should only give it a go if you want to waste two hours in the most mediocre fashion possible.
**
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