Science Fiction movies usually don't interest me, so I went into seeing "Outlander" expecting to really hate it, fortunately I found a half way decent movie, once I was able to suspend belief in what I was watching. Usually this works for me during Sci-Fi movies, or comic book adaptation movies. Otherwise I would wonder just why I bothered sitting through this movie.
During the Iron Age, Kainan (James Caviezel) a man from a far-off world, crash lands on Earth, bringing with him an alien predator known as the Moorwen. This creature has many capabilities, it can be near invisible, and it can turn from a blue hue to a bright red when it is angry or attacking. When Kainan reaches land his co pilot is dead and as Kainan searches the valley, he comes across a village, this village lies in ruins, flames and blood are everywhere. The claw marks on the door are recognizable to Kainan, he saw them on the door to his own home when the Moorwen attacked his home village. Kainan is taken prisoner by Wulfric (Jack Huston) and dragged back to the castle of King Rothgar (John Hurt) where he is tied up and beaten by Wulfric and other vikings. Freya (Sophia Myles) comes to tend his wounds but Kainan has already burned through his ropes and escapes from the hut. As he runs out several vikings are being attacked and killed by the Moorwen, they don't even see it coming. As Kainan reaches the outer doors of the village he recognizes the sound of the Moorwen and returns to the village. He is recaptured by the Kings men and taken to a hall, the elders discuss what exactly they are facing, they believe it is a bear, Kainan tries to tell them it is more like a dragon, they scoff at him and tell him he is now part of the team that will hunt the creature.
During the hunt they find a cave that just happens to have a large bear in it. They are able to kill this bear and return to the village, Kainan knows this isn't what killed the men of the village but he knows the King and the others are so happy. A band of survivors from the first village the Morrwen attacked are led by Gunnar (Ron Perlman) they attack the village as the men are feasting, several of the men are killed, but they are able to drive Gunnar away. Latter Gunner will help the men fight the Moorwen, but King Rothgar is killed, Wulfric becomes the king and the men agree they must kill the Moorwen. Kainan returns to his sunken ship in order to retrieve metal from it so they can make swords to defeat the creature, when he sees a Moorwen swim past him with a body. Kainan returns to the surface and sees Wulfric clinging to whats left of their boat, Freya is no longer with them, Kainan knows she is the person the Moorwen has taken. The men now set out to track the creature, they track it to a cave that they believe the creature is using to sleep.
When the men enter the cave they hear what they believe is the creature, but we see that a second smaller creature is feasting on a pile of bodies that have been stacked up like firewood. Freya is among the bodies stacked up and she is trying to get away, but attracts the smaller Moorwen, the creature approaches Freya the men arrive in time to get the Moorwen to attack them, Kainan is able to fight the creature and the men are successful in slaying it, the group of vikings is of course slimmed down, but they are victorious. Just as the men get ready to celebrate the adult Moorwen charges them, the 3 survivors, Freya, Wulfric and Kainan run out through a waterfall, they are trapped on a ledge. The two men fight together to destroy the creature, Wulric is killed in battle and he tells Kainan that he wanted to be King for so long, and that he hopes Kainan wears the crown far longer than he himself was able to. the end of the movie shows the viking funeral for both Kings, Rothgar and Wulric, it also shows how Kainan returned to where he crashed and destroyed his homing beacon, he decides to stay with his new friends.
I give Outlander a 3 and on my avoidance scale a 0, this is a really entertaining movie, it is worth seeing, there is so many movies out now that are not worth seeing, this small limited movie is a hidden gem. Take the time to see this movie, you will find yourself enjoying it as much as any other major studio film of it's type. If you like the Alien and the Predator series of films you will really like this take on the other world creature movie.
Outlander is rated R for Violence
Running time is 1 hr. 55 mins.
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