a5c7b9f00b 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. In 709 AD, in the Iron Age, a spacecraft crashes in the Viking kingdom of Herot, Norway, and the pilot Kainan survives. He turns the beacon on; learns the language and culture of the planet using a machine; and finds that the predator, Moorwen, that he was transporting, had escaped. While chasing the alien monster, he finds a village completely destroyed and is arrested by the warrior Wulfric, believing that he killed the locals - Kainan is brought to Herot as a prisoner. Kainan's (Caviezel) space ship crashes to earth in the year 709AD and he is the only survivor. The beast (read monster) he was transporting to his home world escapes and terrorizes a Viking town.<br/><br/>This is every bit as good as the movie Beowulf (gave it an A) and could become a classic as it has all the ingredients: town afraid of the monster, a good king Rothgar (Hurt), a beautiful woman, Freya (Myles) who won't marry the man the king, her father, wants her to marry; someone (Kainan) who is new to the kingdom and catches Freya's eye, a bad king or leader (Pearlman) from another town in the country and he blames the good king for everything. The only thing missing is Kainan's adversary. Wulfric (Huston) would have become that guy, but he and Kainan become friends. Who would have thought? These new classics are becoming more epic friendly. Chummy.<br/><br/>You now know everything and can see all the way to Russia and you know what will happen from here on in. But, it's in the telling, the dialogue, the looks, the movements, the fighting, the looks, the dialogue. (Is there an echo in here?) that counts. Very well done. <br/><br/>This movie ranks up there with Beowulf, King Arthur, Braveheart and the 13th Warrior. It is that good. <br/><br/>Good story, great acting performances by all, nothing wasted and I was on the edge of my seat when they got serious about going after the monster. The action scenes and CGI were terrific. I was even ducking blows and staying still so the monster wouldn't see me. You have never seen a monster like this one. You'll be hiding too. <br/><br/>Violence: Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: Yes, one F-bomb by Kainan in the early scenes when he crashes. Major Spoiler! Actually, I expected the movie to be a lot worse than it was. I did not rent this movie expecting much, effects were really nice and it was "turn your brain off" action. But the ending sorta required some SERIOUS "turn your brain off TOTALLY, please", more than the rest of the movie. Never minding oriental dragons on viking buildings, or that vikings look like they have a team of makeup artists. The end was so much... deeper.. Oki.. Try to follow me: You are in a viking village. You go down the well in the center of the village. You swim under water and end up in a cave, that, really, happens to be volcanic! I mean, ACTIVE, as in RED LAVA! Everyone knows of course that all viking villages are based upon volcanic caves, and you can get into them via the well! Oh, wait, it gets more interesting. You run through the cave and end up in an opening, and manage to stop before you FALL DOWN INTO THE FJORD, because you are standing on a plateau far over the fjord, in a waterfall. Oki, follow me. Down the well, through a volcanic gave, out an opening and look down at the fjord. Lets do this again... Volcanic cave... Overlooking... the fjord...<br/><br/>Being Norwegian, I can state we do not have volcanic caves, but I could forgive that, if THEY DID NOT OVERLOOK A FJORD! Now, you did not notice the opening would take you to such a dangerous place, since it was just an opening, but when you turn to look into the opening, you can not, because now the opening is covered by... the waterfall. It did not cover it when you walked out, but NOW it does. You walk into the cave again and suddenly there is a ton of water from the waterfall.. that was not there before. But the moving waterfall just does not compare to.. Down The Well... Into Volcanic Cave... Out Opening... Enjoy view of Fjord.<br/><br/>Oki, action movies does not always have to make sense, BUT FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! By taking nonsense seriously Outlander never achieves camp. It's a comic book that's mistaken itself for scripture. Outlander was first conceived by director Howard McCain as similar, but not based on, the classic Old English epic poem Beowulf but with Viking overtones. When McCain later joined with Hollywood screenwriter Dirk Blackman to produce the screenplay, Blackman added science fiction elements to the story by changing the main characters into aliens. In an interview with Sci Fi Wire, principal actor <a href="/name/nm0001029/">Jim Caviezel</a> described Outlander as "kind of like <a href="/title/tt0112573/">Braveheart (1995)</a> (1995) and <a href="/title/tt0091203/">Highlander (1986)</a> (1986) combined." The movie states that the story takes place in 709 A.D. Norway, although it actually was shot around Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Laborador in Canada. The language he speaks at the start is Old Norse, the precurser from which modern Scandinavian languages such as Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish originated. The actors were coached in Old Norse/Icelandic by an Icelandic professor. Yes. The Department of English at McMaster University, (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada) has placed the text to Beowulf online here. The choice of reading it in old English or translated into modern English is facilitated.
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