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Outlander is not related to cult Sean Connery favourite Outland, but it similarly generates plenty of B-movie fun. The pitch is pretty attention-grabbing: an alien man (Caviezel) crash lands on Earth circa 700 AD, meets Vikings, and together they have to fight the extraterrestrial dragon/monster thing that he's unwittingly brought with him. Much dark age combat ensues. The resulting film is hugely derivative - it cribs liberally from Alien3 (the premise, minus the Vikings, is essentially the same), Beowulf, The Lord of the Rings (there's even a character called Boromir), Predator, and Planet of the Apes, to name but a few examples - but they've never been combined in this way before.
It all looks surprisingly great, when its relatively limited budget is taken into account. The rather extensive CGI is, on the whole, fantastic (in both senses of the word). The beastie itself looks a lot like an updated version of the Forbidden Planet id monster, and even when given a more screen time later on, the effects stand up to scrutiny. The production design is also of the highest quality, with a fair chunk of the action taking place in a well-realised fortified township which does a good job of looking muddily authentic. The main hall has a fully grown tree slap bang in the middle of it, allowing for some nifty lighting effects and also differentiating it from other Viking/Nordic halls seen before. The enjoyment as a whole is helped a lot by the photography, which doesn't go in for the usual colour-drained look fashionable these days; the relatively old-fashioned restraint on show works entirely in the film's favour.
The film has been shunted around the release schedules, with some suggestions of it going straight to DVD, but such treatment is completely undeserved. Though not destined to become a genre favourite, Outlander is thoroughly entertaining, making very few real missteps along the way. For one thing, it's certainly far better than the other recent high-concept Viking movie, Pathfinder (in that instance, it was Vikings vs. American Indians). Jesus himself, Jim Caviezel, makes for a likeable and watchable lead; Sophia Myles is typically radiant in an underwritten and clichéd role (the warrior woman who, come the third act, needs to be rescued by the men); while John Hurt looks the part with a shaggy beard. Elevating the endeavour to significantly above run-of-the-mill is the backstory, provided in flashback snippets: the monster, instead of being just some brainless killing machine, actually has some rationale for its actions. Indeed, it's with the sci-fi elements, such as the flashbacks, where the film really shines, so it's a shame that they're mostly relegated to the background in favour of the historical setting.
The summary
A highly enjoyable B-movie whose impressive visuals benefit from the big screen treatment.
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