3 out of 5

Director: Howard McCain

I cant say exactly what I was expecting, but a viking movie with aliens, for some reason, carries with it a lot of promise. And Outlander never fulfills that promise. Spaceman Kainan (Caviezel) crashlands on viking-era Earth, accidentally bringing a space creature with him, which just happens to look like a dragon, so that earth-people can relate to it. After gaining the trust of the viking clan, Kainan helps them to overcome this new challenge. The main issue with Outlander is that it doesnt know when to play its hand. It tries to get embroiled with viking-business with a war between tribes, and whos gonna be king, then wants to later whip out some spaceman nonsense with flashbacks and big battles. Handled with more balance and precision, this would have been effective. But the movie leads you too long in one direction for you to be too involved when it doubles back and tries to go the other. The camaraderie similarly never gels, as its too easy for Kainan to work his way into the tribe (something that couldve been played more for drama) and the extra level of tribal feuding just gets mixed up in the plot. But its straight to video, right? Which is why its three stars. the movie, truly, is average. Grabbing at times, boring at others, but completely mediocre overall, theres passion here that was tweaked out of the mix, as evidenced by the ninety million deleted scenes on the DVD, which show hints the mood the movie could have perhaps more successfully taken. Prime example of DTV for the digital era.