Outlander (www.the-usher.com)

" If you truly believe that you write the tale of your life, then the end is up to you"

Crash landing on a strange, primitive world, the ships only survivor Kainan (Caviezel) buries his comrade, arms himself and initialises his distress beacon before heading off to find shelter. He soon realises that the crash wasn’t accidental and a creature called a Moorwen had smuggled onto the ship and has now headed into the woods. Following it, Kainan comes upon a destroyed village. Knowing this was a Moorwen attack, he picks up its trail only to be intercepted by the natives people of the area, a proud race known as the Vikings.

Mixing Science Fiction with history has been a stable plotline of the genre for many a movie but mixing alien men, space monsters and Vikings could be something very original.

When it comes to making your first Hollywood film, you might as well make a few waves in your chosen genre and co-writer/director Howard McCain and his writing partner Dirk Blackman have done just that. There have been many a monster movie that seen a lone warrior take on the beast using only what the land can give to him but for this film our out of this world hero has the help of an almost legendary people, the Vikings. With the alien creature, the Moorwen, looking like a dragon of Viking myth and with Kainan’s technology allowing him to learn the language and culture of these proud people in seconds, we are in for a science fiction, historical drama crossover of epic proportions, or so you would think.

There is no denying that the premise is fantastic. Mixing a space warrior, Vikings and an unearthly creature should have been a work of science fiction genius but unfortunately it doesn’t live up to the possible cult status expectations. This doesn’t mean that it is a disaster however, far from it. The problem is that the premise has such promise you are bound to be disappointed by a film that is just good at best and not the action, Sci-Fi, historical blast that you might have been craving for.

The good points do outweigh the bad however. The production and costume design and locations capture the feel of the Vikings culture and with Newfoundland and Nova Scotia in Canada doing a great job filling in for their Norwegian home. The design of the Moorwen is suitably dragon like but distinctively alien to make it a menacing and deadly monster. As for the cast, John Hurt is always worth watching, Sophia Myles isn’t your usual damsel in distress, Ron Perlman makes a welcome addition in a smaller role and Jack Huston is a star in the making as Wulfric, the Viking action man. James Caviezel is a let down however as the lead, Kainan. While he is supposed to be a man who has lost everything, he just looks miserable all the way through it, even when things turn out for the better.

‘Outlander’ so wants to be a cult science fiction movie but doesn’t quite achieve these heady heights. It is still enjoyable however, even with Caviezel’s emotion-less performance because of the excellent create design and seeing Viking fight it but just don’t expect something that is out of this world.

Not Available

The Host

The Usher Home | Hush, Hush... | The Big Story | The Usher Speaks

Stuck @ Home | Coming Soon | Links | Contact the Usher

2009