Outlander (2008)
August 16, 2019 7:51 PM - Subscribe

During the reign of the Vikings, Kainan, a man from a far-off world, crash lands on Earth, bringing with him an alien predator known as the Moorwen. Though both man and monster are seeking revenge for violence committed against them, Kainan leads the alliance to kill the Moorwen by fusing his advanced technology with the Viking's Iron Age weaponry.
posted by porpoise (6 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
I remember loving the HECK out of this the first go-around. Rewatching it now because of this thread about movies with horrible critic reviews but beloved by lots of (enough) other people.

Also remember comparing it to the CGI heavy (Manga-ey?) Beowulf (2007) and this being so much better. Another comparison was to Reign of Fire (2002) with Chrstian Bale and McConaughey, which was also discussed in the thread and for me it was a tossup given the very different eras.

Later, I compared Cowboys and Aliens with Daniel Craig, Clancy Brown, Sam Rockwell, Olivia Wilde - and despite it being a comedy, thought that Outlander had better production values - or at least got more value from their production expenditures.

This is Jim Caviezel in the middle between The Count of Monte Cristo (2002), The Passion of the Christ (2004) and The Prisoner (2009), Person of Interest (2011-2016) (and a lot of stuff in between).
posted by porpoise at 8:06 PM on August 16, 2019 [1 favorite]


I had forgotten about the colonialism twist, and the other one in the end.

It's still entertaining in a mid-2000s PG-13 movie kind of way, but John Hurt not having a complex compound shattered left arm and possibly shoulder and chest after getting pounded on by Gunnar was completely laughable. As was the rate of work in digging that hole. I also can't imagine that they hadn't invented pickaxes by then. I'm pretty certain whale oil doesn't work that way, and wouldn't Ulfric be super slippery?

It was kind of a weird choice to do a medieval version of the xenomorph dripping KY jelly on Sigourney's face. Also the water-on-steel riff from wuxia movies.

The fights all seem to be in the dark, so that covered up a lot of the weaknesses.

Sophia Myles/ Freya got handed a terribad script but sold it to the hilt despite getting a lot of bad direction.

Still love the aesthetics of the salvage forged weapons in a 80's/90's post apoc scifi/ Heavy Metal kind of way, and ends up feeling like a 80's sword and sorcery movie with 20 years of production advancement and a huge pile of money for it. It's completely implausible they they could actually forge those things though, much less in the timeframe given.

This is not a bad movie. Just not a specifically good one. Felt like a "too many chiefs" situation, or the money backers wanting too much control (a less severe form of what happened to the second Highlander movie that was never made). It could have been spectacular without the meddle making.

Oooooh.

It was produced by that Chris Roberts, of the Wing Commander computer games (and that movie).

Scifi/medieval is a rare enough genre that of extant movies, this ranks in the loftiest of echelons.

I'd love to read the original script.

If you liked 'The 13th Warrior' and 'The Count of Monte Cristo' this is a strong recommendation. If you liked Aliens or the later Predator movies also, this is a must see.
posted by porpoise at 4:13 PM on August 17, 2019 [4 favorites]


Funny I recall seeing this one, along with Pathfinder and the Russian film Wolfhound and I remember thinking at the time... finally they are making the movies my 12 year old self wanted! Outlander is by no means a smart movie but I won't lie... I had fun watching it at the time.
posted by Ashwagandha at 4:33 PM on August 17, 2019 [1 favorite]


'Pathfinger' yeah! But I remember hating it because I thought that it was just stupid. I had obtained a copy before you posted through IMDB's 'More Like This' rabbithole, but haven't re-seen it yet, on the strength of Karl Urban.

Whom I actually have a little antipathy for except for few roles that he just absolutely and completely owns - balanced out neutral-ish.

Thanks for sharing 'Wolfhound'! I think I found a source for an Eng subbed version.
posted by porpoise at 6:14 PM on August 17, 2019 [1 favorite]


'Pathfinger' yeah! But I remember hating it because I thought that it was just stupid

I'm partial to films that might also be confused for a heavy metal album cover. Which might be why Krull is a favourite. YMMV.
posted by Ashwagandha at 10:44 PM on August 18, 2019 [2 favorites]


Krull, yes. I have a soft place in my heart for that one. Willow is less "epic", but I'm fond of it as well.
posted by gudrun at 6:19 AM on August 19, 2019


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