Review of Outlander (2008) by Frank T — 10 Mar 2010

A spaceman from the future crash lands on Earth in the Viking days, bringing with him a dragon creature that he is hunting. It's a great premise, one filled with possibilities, and an even greater example of how a great premise does not make a great end result.

The main problem being Jim Caviezel - his emotional canvas for this character is pretty blank. He goes from being passively disappointed that he's marooned, to passively disappointed that he's captured by Vikings, to mildly passionate about stopping the creature. As I always say, a compelling lead can fix even a flawed story, at least to some degree, but without either a movie sinks. The story is again, the whole Pocahontas/Avatar scenario, complete with the king's daughter, the noble but jealous warrior she is betrothed to, and our hero learning to become part of the tribe and lead them. But without the great visuals, it feels as wooden as a norse hammer.

The creature in question is another major flaw - there isn't ONE shot which has a practical element to it. It's a completely computer generated monster with a silly design. It's unique that it has red electricity running through its veins, but did it need that? There was nothing organic about it...

There is a good sequence near a waterfall and all the science fiction elements were very strong, but they were mostly seen in flashbacks and at the very beginning - the balance between sci-fi/Viking should have been more even in my opinion.