Wut I Think: Outlander

Okay, so you can probably guess what kinds of movies I like reading by half of the posts on this blog. So it probably shouldn't be a surprise that I found myself happily enjoying the movie Outlander.

It starts out well enough, with a spaceship crash landing on (supposedly) planet Earth in Viking Times. Then, the human looking alien, Kainan, learns the ways of the local viking tribe and eventually bonds with them. BUT WAIT. Something else escaped the ship crash. It isn't human. And it looks really freaking cool. Something like Cloverfield crossed with Predator. And it's given a really cool viking sounding name, the Moorwen.

Dang, this movie keeps getting better and better.

So then the Moorwen terrorizes the Viking village and Kainan wants to kill it so he gets a Viking group together to Viking kill the beast. Vikings. That's all there is. It's not complicated, but it's still a pretty cool movie.

Starting with the story, sure it might sound kind of boring from what I've put up there, but somehow the writers managed to put in a little bit of royal troubles, rival viking clans, you know, what Vikings would worry about. It makes for a nice display of the world that Kainan has crashed into. It also makes for one of the most unique movies I've seen this year. And that's saying something. An alien crashes onto Viking lands and then helps the Vikings fight off a beast that also happens to be an alien? Giant sword made out of spaceship? Viking Mead Halls? Oh yes.

I have to give mad props to whoever designed that alien, because in motion it looks really dang cool. A lot of care was placed into making it seem like a living, breathing beast. I really liked the way it lights up whenever it's distressed or about to eat something.

The one thing I've constantly heard about this movie, is that it seems like a Sci-Fi Original Movie that you see late at night when there's nothing else to watch. Totally not true. There's something about this one that feels just right. Maybe it's that certain level of earnestness behind it. All the actors seem to be actually invested in their roles, none of the characters seemed hammered in, all seem natural enough. There's none of that acting to fill a paycheck, shoehorned jokes, or absurdity just for the sake of being weird. It's not really much of a cheezeball movie, just one that has a monster and vikings. Actually, I think the creators wanted something along the lines of Beowulf or Lord of the Rings. And in that respect, they've done pretty well for themselves. I think we need more movies like this. Something that's a little bit more than strange, but still well worth watching.

Outlander gets:
SO. FREAKING. KEWL.

Also, Vikings.