Film

If a mad scientist mixed the DNA of Predator and Beowulf and created a new mutant film, it would be Outlander. Looked at from the right angle, it sounds like pure sci-fi action genius. Drop an alien among Vikings. Give him a fiendish creature to battle. Throw in a lot of grunting, hirsute, sword-wielding, mead-drinking warriors. Pure gold.

The devil is in the details. Outlander has been in development for more than a decade, and somewhere along the way, the original idea—the Beowulf legend given a sci-fi twist—got revised into a weird mishmash, with a script that feels overlong and underdeveloped. Alien Kainan (Caviezel) crashes in Norway in A.D. 709. He’s unintentionally carried a monster called Moorwen with him. After undergoing an intensive course in Old Norse delivered by computer into his eye (Eat your heart out, Berlitz), Kainan hikes around scenic vistas looking pensive.

He’s taken captive by the Viking tribe of Rothgar (Hurt, alternately growling and squinting earnestly into the middle distance). Kainan gradually wins their trust and gets their help in fighting the creature. Along the way, there’s time for long interludes of drinking, Viking games and some flirting with the comely but spunky Freya (Myles). This flick would be hilariously wonderful if it weren’t so damn boring.