Outlander [Blu-ray]

On of the better stranded on earth alien movies. Hot alien stuck in iron age Scandinavia, saves Vikings from alien monster. Meets equally hot Viking shieldmaiden. Pretty decent movies. John Hurt shines as the aging Viking king. I would watch again.

Kinda stupid but I like stupid movies. Mindless. That's good. Pretty good. Kinda long almost 2 hours got a little slow in a couple places. But the story though somewhat stupid kinda parallels the American Indians vs the Europeans so it's somewhat familiar. The acting seemed very good. Special effects I think weren't real bad I've seen a lot worse. Some good sections of the movie over all kept the story going well I thought. I'd been hunting for a good movie without much luck when I ran into this one and I found it good enough to watch the whole thing (though in a couple slow parts it was questionable whether I'd do it I think overall it was worth waiting and watching the entire movie.

Reading Beowulf in college (OK, maybe just excerpts and notes of Beowulf) was a chore. Hard to relate to. This movie retells the story with a sci-fi twist (which is no more fanciful than simply invoking monsters and giants' swords), making it a sort of "Batman-as-Beowulf fighting Alien-as-Grendel" to bring it into the age of modern cinema. It was fun! The troupe of actors is first rate. The pacing is good -- a bit different from what we're used to these days, but faithful to the source material. The plot is, well, classic. Unfortunately, problems start to show up around 1:38. The CG around the waterfall is surprisingly weak, sort of like they ran out of budget. And the sort-of romantic ending didn't really work for me -- felt like the studio chose the ending based on audience testing (which, in my opinion, you just shouldn't do when your source materials dates back more than a millennium). Also, there were a few examples of lazy writing (if he had a beacon that could call for a rescue ship, why didn't he use it earlier to call for a ship with weapons, rather than going to the trouble of diving to get special scrap metal to forge a special sword -- the sword was consistent with the original Beowulf text about the giant's sword, but the way they worked it in was lazy writing). Despite a few weak spots and a less-than-strong finish, the movie is still very good, and it will be especially fun (and definitely worth it) if you had to read Beowulf back in college. I hope they assign this movie, along with the text, in lit classes these days.

I rented this movie because I was simply bored and was not ready to watch another big name movie. Saw this on the Amazon hand picked list and figured this will be a cheesy way to pass the time. I figured what's he going to do bring a laser gun into Viking times and blast Aliens. Well I was extremely pleased with the effects story line and ending of this movie. NOTHING WAS OVER THE TOP and didn't try to be something it wasn't. (Didn't try to be "epic" and failed feeling)It didn't try to have a political message, was not some cheap cliche action movie (like Vin Diesel movies or Jason Statham) or anything like what you expect from smaller limited release movies. It was simply a good movie, great story, and well rounded. I like the fight scenes, the effects, the sci fi was believable and the "dragon" was something cool looking but yet still had that nasty "Alien" (Sigourney Weaver) bad ass killer effect. If your looking for a movie with action/sci fi/viking blend without having to tolerate and extreme stretching of your imagination then this is your movie. LOLI stress that I hate over the top Sci-Fi and action if the guy is leaping 30 yards and shooting rockets from his wallet, I would not even bother writing a review.The short version. Thoroughly enjoyed and I am sad that its not more well known. Pleasantly surprised, by the plot and action.

A great movie for any die-hard sci-fi fan! Let me start by saying that I had never heard of Outlander until a co-worker had mentioned it one day. As he gave me a breakdown, I thought, "Wow, it sounds like a play on Beowulf!". But I was skeptical at first because my friend loved cheesy, low budget, Sci-fi Channel B movies. I finally caught it on Sci-fi one day and was really shocked at how good the movie is! Is it Oscar material? Well no, but it is well written and actually doesn't fall flat on it's face for sci-fi plausibility. Is the CGI cutting edge? Well no, but it's done well and I've seen worse on bigger budget films. The scenery is down right beautiful and they actually constructed a believable Viking village for this movie. The acting is actually handled really well with the exception of Ron Perlman. I really wanted to like him in this movie and for some of it I did. However, the biggest complaint I have is he couldn't keep his "Viking" accent straight through the entire movie. Jim Caviezel played a good hero, a bit flat, but it helped separate him from the rest of the cast who were all "Vikings". John Hurt did a fine job as the village king and brought a lot of experience to the movie with his part. The creatures were "scary" and as the movie progresses, you can actually attempt to sympathize with them. I would say about the only plot hole I really had a problem with was when the "Outlander" retrieves a piece of his space faring ship for Iron Age Vikings to forge new weapons out of. Aside from that, I really enjoyed this movie. I would definitely recommend this to any sci-fi fan.