Outlander (2008 film)

[Vympel]

Just saw this the other day at a friend's place, we borrowed the blu-ray from the video store.

It was ... weird. Jim "Jesus Christ" Caviezel was in it, as a human from outer space who's ship crash lands on Earth (an abandoned seed colony of his race, apparently) to hunt a "Moorwen" - a creature he had on his ship, or something.

It's sort of a cross between Beowulf (because its in Norway which is close enough and its 709CE and there's a big monster eating Vikings) and maybe Highlander 2 (lol) because he's a soldier / hunter from SPAAAAAAAAACE.

It was ok. Highly forgettable stuff, but I wasn't loathing it whilst watching it.

Anyone else seen this? Apparently it only made $59K on its opening weekend in the US (limited distribution, no advertising) and $6M worldwide. Compared to a budget of $47M, yeah big commercial failure.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Saw it a year ago, loved it. Don't know why it didn't get a wider release, because I love vikings vs. aliens.

[UCBooties]

I grabbed the DVD when it came out and thought it was a lot of fun. Also, I thought the story and exposition was pretty strightforward so I'm not sure why you're confused about that. I thought the ending was a bit silly but I thought the creature was cool and the nightime raid on the Viking village had some neat moments.

[Vympel]

I grabbed the DVD when it came out and thought it was a lot of fun. Also, I thought the story and exposition was pretty strightforward so I'm not sure why you're confused about that. I thought the ending was a bit silly but I thought the creature was cool and the nightime raid on the Viking village had some neat moments.

I wasn't confused about the plot, I just thought it was weird.

I liked the movie, though it annoyed me how he lost his (stupidly unwieldy) gun in the first two seconds and he never found it again. What a rort ...

[Darth Wong]

I know it's not going to win any awards, but I really enjoyed it and my kids did too. Mind you, David is a huge fan of monster movies in general, and this one has a really big monster, so that was almost a given.

[Vympel]

The monster was one thing that had me really worrying at the start. When I first saw it (just its tail) it looked cheap as shit and I was about to start groaning, and then when I saw the whole creature I changed my mind and thought it was the coolest part of the movie.

I was really disappointed when Ron Perlman bought it. I thought he'd do more.

I'm on a bit of a monster movie kick lately - I just saw The Thing for the first time in my life the other day as well.

[Darth Wong]

The monster was one thing that had me really worrying at the start. When I first saw it (just its tail) it looked cheap as shit and I was about to start groaning, and then when I saw the whole creature I changed my mind and thought it was the coolest part of the movie.

I was really disappointed when Ron Perlman bought it. I thought he'd do more.

I'm on a bit of a monster movie kick lately - I just saw The Thing for the first time in my life the other day as well.

The part when the guy's head falls off, sprouts legs, and scurries off like a spider creeped me right the fuck out when I was a teenager.

[Vympel]

That creeped us all out as well, bigtime. The Stomach-Mouth-Arm-Chomp bit in that scene was just deranged. Whoever thought up those creature effects was a nutbar. I saw it in hi-def and the effects still hold up pretty damn well (though the scene with the ship in the crater is really really obviously a matte painting in the blu-ray version).

[Temujin]

Outlander is on my list of films to watch, as such, its good here some positive reviews as I know it was made on a rather low budget.

That creeped us all out as well, bigtime. The Stomach-Mouth-Arm-Chomp bit in that scene was just deranged. Whoever thought up those creature effects was a nutbar. I saw it in hi-def and the effects still hold up pretty damn well (though the scene with the ship in the crater is really really obviously a matte painting in the blu-ray version).

One of my favorite in a series of scenes. That movie was so unappreciated when it came out.

[Plekhanov]

I really quite liked it, don't understand why they put so little effort into promoting what's a fun well made film.

[SylasGaunt]

Anyone else seen this? Apparently it only made $59K on its opening weekend in the US (limited distribution, no advertising) and $6M worldwide. Compared to a budget of $47M, yeah big commercial failure.

I actually saw it in the theater 3 times when it came out. Of course the only reason I managed to do so, despite the fact that I'd been following its production for a while was pure chance. I was sitting around bored one afternoon and decided to check up on it again since I hadn't looked in a while.. lo and behold limited theatrical release which made me check around for theaters showing it and luckily there was one not too far off.

If I hadn't checked I very well could have missed it though because I saw no advertising for it whatsoever while it was out. No TV ads, nothing in magazines, hell I never even saw a poster in the local cinemas so it almost gives you the feeling that whoever distributed it (the Weinstein company IIRC) just didn't give a fuck.

I'm also in agreement on the Moorwen being pretty much my favorite thing in the movie. I think it's a damn spiffy monster design and it does a great job looking unstoppable and dangerous. Also, it seemed suitably unimpressed by the somewhat obnoxious priest.

You've also got to love the way Kainan's people have absolutely no sense of fair play whatsoever. "Hmm.. planet full of incredibly dangerous beasties with no tools or advanced weapons... Nukes and air strikes for everyone!'

[Tsyroc]

You've also got to love the way Kainan's people have absolutely no sense of fair play whatsoever. "Hmm.. planet full of incredibly dangerous beasties with no tools or advanced weapons... Nukes and air strikes for everyone!'

So they are Shep's space ancestors?

My dad and I both liked this movie. I bought him a copy for Christmas las year.
Spoiler

How about that scene when the young Moorwen is eating the guy while he is still alive. The guy reaches out and the young Morwen just grabs his hand and pushes it away and keeps chowing down on his guts.

The Moorwen was designed by Patrick Tatopolous, the same guy who designed the '98 Godzilla, the Pitch Black creatures, the Lycans for the Underworld series, and a whole bunch of other stuff. The head of the Moorwen does somewhat resemble the '98 Godzilla. I liked how the creature could do all of that stuff with colors to lure it's prey in. Considering how tough the thing was it would be interesting to see what the rest of the fauna on it's world was like.

[Stark]

That creeped us all out as well, bigtime. The Stomach-Mouth-Arm-Chomp bit in that scene was just deranged. Whoever thought up those creature effects was a nutbar. I saw it in hi-def and the effects still hold up pretty damn well (though the scene with the ship in the crater is really really obviously a matte painting in the blu-ray version).

It's pretty poorly done even on the DVD transfer. All the model stuff looks fine though - the clapboard base sets are less plausible. The Thing is fantastic.

[hongi]

I liked how the Moorwen were sentient, but weren't humanoid looking. Really excellent design.