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Review: Vikings team up with a spaceman to battle an alien monster in the goofy Outlander
OK ... pretend you're a little kid, and you reach into your toy chest and pull out your Buzz Lightyear (or Major Matt Mason, if you're old school) and a bunch of Viking action figures (maybe from Todd McFarlane's Viking Spawn series?), and you have them fight a big, scary dragon (you can improvise with a dinosaur figure). That'd be kinda awesome, right? A great scenario that, once you'd staged it, with the spaceman and the Vikings victorious on the edge of the chair you had stand in for a cliff face, you'd know you'd really earned that fluffernutter-on-Wonder Bread sandwich afterward.
The James Caviezel flick Outlander (Weinstein Company $19.99), now out on DVD after a nanosecond-long theatrical release in mostly small-market theaters, is born of that very same toy-chest mentality. It is, indeed, about a space man (Caviezel) crash-landing in Norway in the year 709, a space monster that escapes from the wreckage of his ship, and how Caviezel and the local Viking community team up to defeat the hostile beastie.
The conflict, of course, with a hero coming from afar to save the a bunch of mead guzzlers from a critter that's chomping them into human lutefisk, hits the same notes as Beowulf, making Outlander part of a mini-genre of SF-riffing Beowulf retellings that include the 1999 Christopher Lambert flick Beowulf and the Antonio Banderas vehicle The 13th Warrior. Come to think of it, Outlander has the same basic plot as Teenagers From Outer Space and Alien Trespass, only without the Vikings.
The problem with Outlander is that it is such a glorious, goofy, wonderful idea (who doesn't want to see a movie with spacemen and monsters and Vikings?) that the movie itself can't match the vigor of the premise. At the eight-minute mark, we've already had a spaceship crash and a monster attack (albeit off-screen) and seen Caviezel suit up for a monster hunt. Then the movie gets a case of narcolepsy, nodding off at really inopportune moments ... as in, whenever the flick gets interesting. (Do we really care who the Viking princess is going to marry?)
The pacing and the narrative get gummed up, and the disparate elements don't gel with the kind of genre-jumping dementia (historical epic, horror/monster movie, action) that, say, Christophe Gans infused into Brotherhood of the Wolf. There's no sense of urgency, and maybe as much as half an hour of Outlander should have been cut, including a useless flashback to Caviezel's past with the monster and its species that dilutes the mystery of the man and the beast.
The cast is as good as they can be, given the material. Any reunion we have of Hellboy (Ron Perlman) and his adoptive human dad (John Hurt) is welcome, especially when they're outfitted as Viking warlords trying to bash each other's heads in. (Perlman swings a mean war hammer!) But no cast can overcome the fake "D&D" mead-hall boisterousness of Outlander, or the really clunky writing that is as stiff as the armor the characters wear.
Outlander might be worth a look for the sake of some really good visuals cooked up by director Howard McCain (there's some nifty, moody use of snow and moonlight), but on the whole Outlander is just not outlandish enough to be the kind of fun it needs to be.
By REDante at 6:34 AM ON 05/19/09
After seeing it, I have to say that its scifi in the beginning minutes, then for some reason he ditches his space armor and loses his gun which I guess just saves money to stick with swords. I liked the movie ok, I just wanted more space marines and space battles against the viking instead of a generic movie monster.
So the movie is ok, its kind of like a big budget B movie, in fact I think they shouldve promoted this as a scifi original, it wouldve been more successful, or at least A LOT BETTER then any other scifi original movie....
By Killian at 7:02 AM ON 05/19/09
Similiar thoughts as well. Would have liked to have kept it with more Sci-Fi elements but overall I thought it was alot more enjoyable movie than the sci-fi original movies. A good rental for weekend.
By Thogar at 8:41 AM ON 05/19/09
It's a great popcorn flick, not a lot of substance, but pretty enjoyable just the same. Sometimes you need these "matinee movies" just for some light entertainment on a boring weekend.
By Rafe at 9:35 AM ON 05/19/09
The moral premise is pretty awful.
Cavaziel plays a member of a humanoid race that colonized a planet and butchered the planet's native inhabitants except for the loan survivor, the monster.
Think about who the real monster is. The intelligent creature who saw its entire people murdered or the colonists.
By The Spindrifter at 10:51 AM ON 05/19/09
For those of you who don't yet get it: it's Beowulf. Think about it. Yes, the hero is also the monster-- go re-read the classic J.R.R. Tolkien translation and then watch the movie again. I found it thoroughly enjoyable and was surprised at the poor reception; marketing is indeed everything if a turd like "Wolverine" gets better press than this classic tale. I have been waiting for this DVD since it left the theaters.
By Kyle Brady at 11:18 AM ON 05/19/09
I loved this movie! I even paid to see it in theaters (it was actually released out here in Silicon Valley) because I wanted to show my support for it.
While I'll agree with "The Spindrifter" that it was, essentially, the story of Beowulf... the actual movie itself was more like Aliens or Predator meets a Viking movie.
I honestly went in not expecting much, and was surprised.
All hail Odin!
--Kyle
By PixelGalileo at 1:50 PM ON 05/19/09
For me, this movie sucked like a turbocharged Dyson.
By Gabriel Angeles at 4:45 PM ON 05/19/09
That's funny everyone I know who has seen Outlander has loved it but then my friends are not psuedo-intellectuals who have to disect every minute of a movie to try to make themselves beieve that they are in some way of a higher caliber of movie watcher than the rest of us.
This movie was everything it set out to be and everything that movies used to be about ... fun !!
A good enough story with good enough actors and characters, good enough effects.
A great movie for those that know that a sense of fun and adventure didn't have to end when you reached adulthood.
A bad movie for boring, psuedo-intellectuals who have no sense of adventure who will trash this movie while sitting around sniffing wines and believing whatever the critics tell them to believe because they no longer have the imagination to form thier own ideas.
By REDante at 6:50 PM ON 05/19/09
Ummmm Spinddrifter
I think most people will think Beowulf since the cover says "Beowulf meets Predator"
By jack at 12:11 AM ON 05/20/09
this was one of the better scifi movies to come out on dvd so far this year. it would be great if we could get a lot more scifi movies of this caliber out a year. i'd have something worth watching. instead of syfy's lame attempts at b movies on saturday nights....you know the so called "scariest night on television" which is more like crappiest night on television.
it's too bad you couldn't enjoy it for what it was michael, instead of wishing it was something else. it's science FICTION, it doesn't have to make sense or have explosions and naked women every three seconds, you're supposed to suspend your disbelief while you watch it, not be a pompous jerk :)
By besucher at 6:41 AM ON 05/25/09
Wasn't too bad...
By Susan at 9:47 AM ON 05/28/09
I have not seen the movie yet, but I just read a good review of Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. I think I will read the book before watching the movie.
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Susan:
I have not seen the movie yet, but I just read a good ...More »