OUTLANDER!
A review by Marso:
I've waited a long time for this movie to either hit theaters or be released on DVD in the US. It stars James Cavaziel, John Hurt, Ron Perlman, Sophia Myles. The premise is that James C's character, Kainan, is a guy who crash lands his starship in Norway in 709 AD, at the onset of the viking age. He brings with him the Morwen, a dragon-like ET creature with a nasty temperament and good reason to hate human beings, as we learn later in the story. What follows is essentially a new re-telling of the Beowulf tale. Everything old is new again!
The Good:
Alien Predator VS 8th Century Vikings. The simple premise alone is glorious. The real good news is that the trailers out there don't do this movie justice. Watching the trailer the first thing that comes to mind is B movie stinkfest the likes of Dungeon Siege or something like that. No. This movie is well (not perfectly, but well) casted, well shot, well paced, and the storyline is solid and engaging. They also took the needed five minutes of screen time to close up a couple of potential deal-breaker plot holes right out of the gate, the biggest being how Kainan was actually human- kudos to the writers, and Hollywood needs a fucking clue here because this was a classic example of a scriptwriter making the effort needed to sell the story in terms of suspension of disbelief.
Even though I've seen just about every screen iteration of Beowulf there is, this movie did not bore me in the slightest. It also sported a 'real world' level of gore commensurate with the tale- I'd damn near hang an NC-17 on it for some scenes. The Morwen (the Grendel of the tale) was a credible alien enemy with its own tale to tell and its own axe to grind. Oh, and how can you NOT love forging a bevy of cool-looking Excalibur-type vikings weapons out of recovered sunken starship alloy?!?!! (We'll forgive them the notion that a blacksmith's forge would do the trick when the ship survived the heat of re-entry... )
The special effects in this movie were very well done, particularly the Morwen. The flashback scenes to alien worlds were pretty good too. The musical score was good if not awesome.
Ron Perlman as a hard hitting, head-crushing viking named Gunnar. Do I really need to say more? Without getting too spoilery, we'll just say he doesn't go out like a bitch.
The ending was absolutely awesome as well.
The Bad:
The vikings didn't strike me as very Norse looking, in either look or manner. No movie has ever done this better than the 13th Warrior, IMHO. They could have taken some cues from that flick and not lost anything. These people seemed more like post Roman Celts or Picts than Northmen, right down to their celtic-looking necklace that was passed from king to king. The clothes worn by Freya made her look more Greek or Roman than Norse. I forgive them the 'wrong font' production values in this regard. Hell, only history buffs would know the difference anyway.
Jim Cavaziel- I'm not sure if he was the right choice for Kainan, but I can't honestly say that he was the wrong choice. I think this movie might have benefited from a stronger lead but he definitely has the acting chops to do the job, and his slighter stature compared to the other vikings helped sell him as a human from a highly advanced technological civilization.
The Ugly:
The only REAL ugly thing was that this movie didn't get a theatrical release in the US, despite some clamoring for it. It did go to theaters in Yurp and got generally good reviews. The other sad thing is that if this movie had opened in theaters in the US, it probably would have flopped hard and been panned by critics as a B-movie excursion in fail. Which is a shame because it is so not true. This movie was better (and more original, even as a Beowulf retelling) than half the crap I've seen in theaters this year.
Summary:
If you like the tale of Beowulf, if you like sci-fi, if you liked Highlander, Predator, Alien, or any of those types of flicks this will be right up your alley. This is a classic example of a movie that you might judge not quite right for a widespread theatrical release, but far too good to be relegated simply to the Direct to DVD bin. Solid storytelling, great action and pacing, solid production values. I netflixed it, but based on one viewing I'll DEFINITELY be adding it to my DVD collection. This was one of those movies that if released in theaters might have become an instant cult classic.
OUTLANDER!
A review by Marso:
I've waited a long time for this movie to either hit theaters or be released on DVD in the US. It stars James Cavaziel, John Hurt, Ron Perlman, Sophia Myles. The premise is that James C's character, Kainan, is a guy who crash lands his starship in Norway in 709 AD, at the onset of the viking age. He brings with him the Morwen, a dragon-like ET creature with a nasty temperament and good reason to hate human beings, as we learn later in the story. What follows is essentially a new re-telling of the Beowulf tale. Everything old is new again!
The Good:
Alien Predator VS 8th Century Vikings. The simple premise alone is glorious. The real good news is that the trailers out there don't do this movie justice. Watching the trailer the first thing that comes to mind is B movie stinkfest the likes of Dungeon Siege or something like that. No. This movie is well (not perfectly, but well) casted, well shot, well paced, and the storyline is solid and engaging. They also took the needed five minutes of screen time to close up a couple of potential deal-breaker plot holes right out of the gate, the biggest being how Kainan was actually human- kudos to the writers, and Hollywood needs a fucking clue here because this was a classic example of a scriptwriter making the effort needed to sell the story in terms of suspension of disbelief.
Even though I've seen just about every screen iteration of Beowulf there is, this movie did not bore me in the slightest. It also sported a 'real world' level of gore commensurate with the tale- I'd damn near hang an NC-17 on it for some scenes. The Morwen (the Grendel of the tale) was a credible alien enemy with its own tale to tell and its own axe to grind. Oh, and how can you NOT love forging a bevy of cool-looking Excalibur-type vikings weapons out of recovered sunken starship alloy?!?!! (We'll forgive them the notion that a blacksmith's forge would do the trick when the ship survived the heat of re-entry... )
The special effects in this movie were very well done, particularly the Morwen. The flashback scenes to alien worlds were pretty good too. The musical score was good if not awesome.
Ron Perlman as a hard hitting, head-crushing viking named Gunnar. Do I really need to say more? Without getting too spoilery, we'll just say he doesn't go out like a bitch.
The ending was absolutely awesome as well.
The Bad:
The vikings didn't strike me as very Norse looking, in either look or manner. No movie has ever done this better than the 13th Warrior, IMHO. They could have taken some cues from that flick and not lost anything. These people seemed more like post Roman Celts or Picts than Northmen, right down to their celtic-looking necklace that was passed from king to king. The clothes worn by Freya made her look more Greek or Roman than Norse. I forgive them the 'wrong font' production values in this regard. Hell, only history buffs would know the difference anyway.
Jim Cavaziel- I'm not sure if he was the right choice for Kainan, but I can't honestly say that he was the wrong choice. I think this movie might have benefited from a stronger lead but he definitely has the acting chops to do the job, and his slighter stature compared to the other vikings helped sell him as a human from a highly advanced technological civilization.
The Ugly:
The only REAL ugly thing was that this movie didn't get a theatrical release in the US, despite some clamoring for it. It did go to theaters in Yurp and got generally good reviews. The other sad thing is that if this movie had opened in theaters in the US, it probably would have flopped hard and been panned by critics as a B-movie excursion in fail. Which is a shame because it is so not true. This movie was better (and more original, even as a Beowulf retelling) than half the crap I've seen in theaters this year.
Summary:
If you like the tale of Beowulf, if you like sci-fi, if you liked Highlander, Predator, Alien, or any of those types of flicks this will be right up your alley. This is a classic example of a movie that you might judge not quite right for a widespread theatrical release, but far too good to be relegated simply to the Direct to DVD bin. Solid storytelling, great action and pacing, solid production values. I netflixed it, but based on one viewing I'll DEFINITELY be adding it to my DVD collection. This was one of those movies that if released in theaters might have become an instant cult classic.
OUTLANDER!
Same here. I think it's the caps and exclamation point.
