When an extraterrestrial spaceship comes crashing down to Earth during the reign of the Vikings, the Scandinavian plunderers get set to do battle with a most unusual enemy in director Howard McCain's earthbound science fiction thriller. Jim Caviezel, Jack Huston, and Sophia Myles star in a film scripted by director McCain in collaboration with screenwriter Dirk Blackman. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
In Outlander, the nuttiest hunk of junk in many months, Viking warriors and a stoic intergalactic traveler join forces to combat an enormous beetle with whiplash stingers.
Outlander is a fluid genre exercise that satisfies cravings for action and Norse mythology in one fell swoop. It's a full-bodied adventure movie that's responsive and reverential to the needs of sci-fi escapism.
Vikings vs. aliens -- Outlander is probably the best possible version of whatever movie you've already made in your head from reading those first three words.
A mead hall party feels like a Iron Age version of "Cheers," right down to the "Norm!" greeting for one character. It's one of many leaden diversions from what should be a lean, economical, brutal B-movie of aliens, Vikings and alternate timelines.
About as subtle as being punched in the face by an angry Norwegian, it delivers everything you could possibly want from a movie about Vikings and alien monsters.
Stunning special effects and bloody battle sequences make it just the ticket for a popcorn monster fantasy. If you want to engage your brain, best avoid.
As clunky and ineffective as an iron-age weapon on an alien predator's hide, this retro-SF rationalisation of Beowulf could have done with less sword and more pen.
With plenty of spattered blood and gore and some nice homages to the Beowulf tale the movie isn't without thrills, though its conceptual ambitions are rarely fulfilled in their execution.
A film version of fish and chips - humble, honest fare that's ludicrous, inventive, gory within limits, and has a cast having so much fun it's hard not to be swept along with them. And besides, you can't have nouvelle cuisine every night of the week.
Sadly, the kooky premise of Outlander solidifies quickly into formula: monster is fought, fair maiden won, kingship gained and past errors redeemed with no real surprises along the way.
This movie got little advertisement when it was released in 2009 and thus ended up heading to DVD in a hurry. The box office on this shouldnt scare you. I just watched the blu ray and I must say not a bad little film. John Hurt as always is awesome. I love me some Sophia Myles. Ron Perlman gets a bit part. Just a nice
little gem hidden away. Dont go in expecting too much and you will find yourself a good scifi show.
Taking a strong lead from 'Alien 3' and 'The Relic' methinks with this one, quite a good action flick none the less but it starts out quite drab and lifeless with little on offer.The cast is lifted with the presence of Hurt and Caviezel is strong as the hero but the rest of the cast can't really compare and come across
rather cliched and unoriginal. Perlman fits this perfectly of course with his unique features.Its an odd plot really as it appears to be set way back in time as the hero from another planet crash lands on earth in the year 709AD amongst viking warriors!. Once you overcome that subplot you get a kind of 'Pathfinder' meets 'Highlander' romp which slowly melts into 'The Relic' with a large beastie that moves and see's much like a Giger Alien from 'Alien 3'. One such scene in the caves towards the finale is pretty much a dead ringer for the corridor sequences in Alien 3.Quite abit of blood n gore as viking males get torn apart by a reasonable looking alien creature, kinda like a large neon lion with more teeth. Effects are standard cgi fare and nothing special but the flashback sequence to Caviezels home world is a nice looking animation.Not bad, good fun with a few flaws and odderties like why the viking folk don't seem too surprised by the strangely dressed, short haired stranger in their midst and why Caviezels alien species appears to be completely identical to the human race, I guess it could happen perhaps, but its a decent sci-fi/period/monster flick which is worthy of a viewing.
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