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This weird creature “a smudge in the darkness” is called Moorwen and is accompanied by alien Kanian (Jim Caviezel) to Planet Earth. They land in Norway during the Iron Age but Moorwen is a stowaway from Kanian’s spacecraft and his vanishing into the woods is cause for concern as he feasts himself on the villagers. Reappearing of course periodically to send shivers down the audience’s spine but often unintentionally funny. Meanwhile, the Vikings, who mistake him for a marauder, capture Kanian but it doesn’t take long for them to realise their folly. The Viking king (John Hurt) then encourages his comely daughter (Sophia Myles) to have some fun on the side with this probable saviour since she is already betrothed to another Viking warrior (Jack Huston). That there will be a triangle of sorts is expected but all this is drowned in miles of footage packed with a surfeit of action, razzle-dazzle, gizmo fare with little rhyme and even less reason. Worse still, it takes place in near darkness and it is hard to spot some of the reptilian creatures. But for the volume it would lull the viewer to sleep. The handsome Kanian goes from one adventure to another almost mechanically but this 110-minute drama lacks any cumulative build up and director Howard McCain, in his effort to be visually dazzling, loses track of the narrative. It is far too listless and long-winded and though some of the sets and action sequences are impressive it is only towards the end, by which time one loses track of the proceedings, that one gets a rounded picture of the story. Too little, too late, it seems. Jim Caviazel seems wasted in this lacklustre tale and though Sophia Myles displays enough oomph to justify her presence but it isn’t enough to compensate for the ennui. John Hurt as the Viking king is purely academic and it is indeed sad to see yesteryear heroes being thrown crumbs. Avoidable.
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In today’s world of super special computer-generated effects you have monsters in a variety of shapes, sizes and hues. Slimy, crawly, yucky saliva-dripping reptiles zooming in and out of the frame like they do in Predator or Species, and though the basic concept of Outlander is cute the implementation is far from it and that is putting it mildly. 