Dir. Howard McCain, US/Germany, 2008, 115 mins
Cast: James Caviezel, Jack Huston, John Hurt
Review by Carol Allen
This is a bizarre and initially promising mixture of science fiction and Viking saga set in the Iron Age, which puts forward the unlikely premise that perhaps Beowulf or one of the other Nordic heroes was actually an astronaut.
In 709 a spacecraft crashes in a Scandinavian fjord. The only survivor is Kainan (Caviezel), a man from a far off world peopled, it would appear, by humans just like on earth only more advanced. Actually he's not the only survivor, in that also on board is an alien predator known as the Morwen, which wreaks immediate destruction on a nearby village. Kainan is taken prisoner by warrior Wulfric (Huston) and hauled off to his village, which is ruled by King Rothgar (Hurt). The villagers assume the Outlander is a spy from a rival tribe led by Gunnar (Ron Perlman), but when Kainan saves the king's life, the village accepts him into their clan. And as the Morwen gets crosser and more destructive, after a bit of mutual bloody warfare based on a misunderstanding, both tribes under Kainan's more technologically sophisticated instruction join together in attempts to destroy it.
It's all really a bit silly. Caviezel has the sort of face which falls easily into a suffering look — which is why he was such natural casting for Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ — and he suffers and gets battered about a lot here. Sophia Myles plays the king's daughter Freya, Wulfric's intended, who fancies Kainan, in a boringly cliché romantic interest role with a few feisty add ons to give her a feminist slant and there's a cute little moppet called Erik (Bailey Maughan) on hand to make us all go “Aahh”. Will he I wonder grow up to be “Erik the Viking”? Huston, grandson of John and nephew of Angelica and Danny, looks good in cleverly draped Viking furs which show off his legs and the most engaging character is Hurt as the wise old tribe leader. Though one is always worried he's going to be killed off early, which is what usually happens to veteran actors in this sort of movie, to ensure they don't steal all the limelight.
There's lots of clashing of swords, bloodletting, roaring, a bit of pillage though no rape and the Morwen itself is an impressive bundle of special effects, though the final confrontation between the monster and Kainan and his not so merry men and one woman does go on for weeks. Sadly the possibilities of the other world technology Kainan could have brought to this Iron Age society are more than somewhat unexplored in the thirst for action and more action, leaving game, set and match to the Viking saga side of the story. I would actually have liked to know more about the Morwen's story. We discover in a brief flashback that the Morwens were once a peaceful looking vegetarian species, whose planet was conquered and destroyed by Kainan's people, though we don't learn what turned them into fiery, dragon-like monsters. They do though have a reasonable case for being a bit cross.
|
