[Outlander]
Plot:Involves a human-like alien that crashlands on Earth in the year 509 AD. His accident accidentally unleashes a vicious creature, prompting him to ask for help from a tribe of vikings to aid him in it's destruction.

Cast:Jim Caviezel, Ron Perlman, Sophia Myles, John Hurt.

My Thoughts:Good action-packed sci-fi/horror!

Review:I had no such high hopes going into "Outlander", a film where a spaceman ends up teaming with a viking tribe in the year 509 A.D., to battle a vicious alien-creature which he incidentally brought to earth. But the movie did surprise me very much. Between the good performances, the strong story, and the very enetrtaining action sequences, it really delivers. Jim Caviezel plays Kainan, a human-esque alien from a distant planet.

Much like the white settlers targeted the Native Americans for extinction many moons ago in order to take their land from them, Kainan's people did the same to an alien creature race called the Moorwen's. One of the surviving Moorwen's however crashlands with Kainan on earth in the year 509 A.D., and quickly begins attacking all human life which resides on earth. Now Kainan has to stop the creature, and upon his pursuit, ends up crossing paths with a viking tribe who blame him for the recent killing and destruction.

Can Kainan convince them he is friend and not foe, before the Moorwen creature makes the viking tribe it's next kill? This film is alot deeper than just a simple man vs. monster tale. While it does have those elements in spades, such as the Nordic Vikings who are willing to embrace their bravado over Kainan's more common sense approach to defeating the creature, it also has a strong story with some interesting overtones. The Moorwen's are not just monsters, but pretty much a victimized race of creatures.

And you have to wonder with the role they play in the movie, had Kainan's people galaxies away, not attacked the Moorwen's planet, would they be so hostile towards humans at all? At the same time, Kainan feels a burdgeoning sense of responsibility for the lives the creature takes and for stopping it, because of what his people have done to it's race, as well as because it crash-landed on earth with his ship. While most viewers will see the film as a simple creature vs man tale, and root for the humans in the film, I saw it a bit more complicated than that. Which is why the story is so solid.

It has alot of different elements to it. And alot of what if's when it comes to the characters of the movie. Kainan's arrival on Earth, coincides with the Viking tribes leadership squabbles, and the King of the tribe, who wishes his daughter (Myles) to marry his second in command. However, based on the second in command's lack of thinking things through, and a tyrannical attitude, she does not want to marry him. This tyrannical attitude he sports has caused many unnecessary battles with other tribes which were pretty much nothing more than misunderstandings taken to the extreme.

And to further complicate matters, she sort of takes a liking to Kainan once he arrives upon the village. Kainan who's family he left behind and hopes to eventually get back to after he stops the Moorwen. So many parts of the story can be equally applied to what Kainan's people went through with the Moorwen's, where simply doing as you're told from a higher authority can lead to more harm than good. And that pilaging and plundering for no other reason beyond simply to pilage, plunder, and steal can have hazardous consequences and destroy families and worlds, human or not.

Circling all of these lessons within the movies storyline is a plethora of awesome battle sequences, battle scenes, and tribal warfare moments. All set to the backdrop of very crisp and spacious mountainous and forest-bound territories. The death scenes in the film are very awesome as well, we get decapitations, impalements, and of course the usual blood and slime-letting that is bound to occur when Kainan leads the viking tribe into battle against the Moorwen creatures. The creatures themselves are very well done. Although I suspected they were cgi creations, they weren't bad cgi creations.

And didn't hurt the quality of the movie at all. And the battle sequences between man and beast were very awesome, mostly because they had alot of action as well as were set to great sceneries and backdrops. This movie from an untrained eye looks very expensive, but I think it was modestly budgeted. But the money was used wiseley and mostly where it was needed most. Basically on the proper creature fx.

The film concludes with a bang as well, and while the ending is somewhat sad...at the same time it makes sense and kind of turns a whole new page on the overall story and it's main characters. If you liked movies such as "300" and "Aliens", then you should enjoy "Outlander". It blends a little of both to create a period piece SCI-FI/Horror film which delivers on all of the vital and crucial levels a movie needs to deliver on to be successful.

Positives:Good performances by Caviezel and Myles, great action sequences, loads of entertainment value, awesome battle sequences, a strong story with many different layers and lessons, and a great ending.

Negatives:Nothing major.

Overall:Four out of four stars.





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