Post by Glorfindel on Jan 26, 2009 10:48:28 GMT -5
I just saw the limited release movie, "Outlander" with my brother yesterday night. It stars Jim Cavizel and has John Hurt, Ron Pearlman and others in it.
It is a genre film that blends multiple type of genre movies into one.
Firstly, it is set during the iron age here on earth and revolves around a group of viking settlements.
Secondly, the main character, who Cavizel plays, is an "outlander" in the extreme because he is actually from another world (planet).
Thirdly, he and the vikings must band together to fight a "Morwen" which is an alien beast that stowed away on Cavizel's space craft.
With it being a period piece/sci-fi/monster/alien/action/horror picture, a lot of things could have be done wrong. Surprisingly,the film was pretty good. The performances were nice and convincing although some of the dialog could have been refined a tad. The general look of the film and the special effects were solid but there were a few camera angles (or lack of framing) and focus that hindered it in spots.
Over all, it was a pretty decent film. It struggled in the first 20 minutes to get going and on a good pace, but after that, it did well. It is one of those films that if they tweaked it a little more and changed up a few of the scenes in the beginning, it could have competed with bigger films that are usually released in late spring like Iron Man or the X-men films were.
It is in limited release and there was talk that it might have been a direct to DVD thing. I think that the distribution part of it fell through and the studios didn't want to or couldn't work out anything worth while for its promotion and wide release. It was released in the U.K. in December to mix reviews. I'm glad to have seen it at the theater. It plays like a big budget film without having the big budget promotion and hype behind it.
Check it out, I recommend it.
G.
It is a genre film that blends multiple type of genre movies into one.
Firstly, it is set during the iron age here on earth and revolves around a group of viking settlements.
Secondly, the main character, who Cavizel plays, is an "outlander" in the extreme because he is actually from another world (planet).
Thirdly, he and the vikings must band together to fight a "Morwen" which is an alien beast that stowed away on Cavizel's space craft.
With it being a period piece/sci-fi/monster/alien/action/horror picture, a lot of things could have be done wrong. Surprisingly,the film was pretty good. The performances were nice and convincing although some of the dialog could have been refined a tad. The general look of the film and the special effects were solid but there were a few camera angles (or lack of framing) and focus that hindered it in spots.
Over all, it was a pretty decent film. It struggled in the first 20 minutes to get going and on a good pace, but after that, it did well. It is one of those films that if they tweaked it a little more and changed up a few of the scenes in the beginning, it could have competed with bigger films that are usually released in late spring like Iron Man or the X-men films were.
It is in limited release and there was talk that it might have been a direct to DVD thing. I think that the distribution part of it fell through and the studios didn't want to or couldn't work out anything worth while for its promotion and wide release. It was released in the U.K. in December to mix reviews. I'm glad to have seen it at the theater. It plays like a big budget film without having the big budget promotion and hype behind it.
Check it out, I recommend it.
G.