I won't pretend to you that Outlander is the kind of movie that will transform your soul and fill you with a new appreciation of what it means to be human. Go see Wall-E or 2001 if you want that, OK? Tonight go to see the movie that is so badass, so unapologetically fun, that the characters actually fight a battle with swords forged from the hull of a spaceship.

Look me in the eye and tell me that you haven't at some point dreamed of a giant fucking sword made from indestructable space material. Well, maybe it's just me.

The story behind the alien smackdown in Outlander is suprisingly fresh and original. It takes place in eighth century Norway, at the height of Viking civilization, which is about to be menaced by a creature who looks like something out of Norse mythology. It turns out that Earth is a former seed colony of an interplanetary civilization - and that civilization has just returned to our planet with a vengeance. Humans' space-going counterparts have been terraforming a planet filled with glowing, dragony creatures called the Moorwen, and unfortunately they decided to do it via genocide and fire.

But the Moorwen strike back, killing many of the colonists. And one of the extremely pissed Moorwen has survived by stowing away on a ship piloted by our hero Kainan (Jim Caviezel), which he's flying home to bury the bodies of his dead family. His stowaway has other plans, however, and after a scuffle we never see his ship crashes in a lake near two Viking villages. Now it's Kainan vs. Moorwen on an alien world - Earth. What follows is an occasionally slow, but mostly exciting and gorgeous exercise in world-building.

I think what I was most impressed by, aside from the generally excellent special effects on the monster, was the way filmmakers Howard McCain and Dirk Blackman show us how easily a space-traveler fits into the world of the sea-faring Vikings. Unlike many of their medieval contemporaries, the Vikings had mastered the art of traveling hundreds of miles over the sea, and often crossed the ocean to countless islands (including England) for raiding and colonization. So when Kainan first encounters the Viking band he eventually teams up with, he tells them the truth about his situation. He says he was on his way to an outpost when his ship crashed, carrying a "dragon" that had destroyed his village.

Because the Vikings understand the idea of ships traveling great distances, they accept his tale - though of course they think he's traveled the ocean rather than from the stars.

Most of the movie is, in fact, about Kainan becoming a Viking. I think probably this whole middle section of the movie, where the Vikings fight a bear and a rival gang, is what has put many critics of the film off. They're looking for something like Aliens when in fact McCain and Blackman have explained that the movie is much more along the lines of Beowulf or Lord of the Rings. If it weren't for a few scenes where Kainan uses high tech equipment from his ship (including making the swords at the end), and some flashbacks to the Moorwen world, this could really be a Viking epic with a dragon instead of an alien.

But the fact that the dragon is an alien, and that the man the Vikings call "outlander" is in fact a space-traveler, lifts Outlander head and shoulders above your typical D&D ripoff tale. This is an action-adventure that shows how some dangers transcend both space and time. And it reminds us that space operas have a lot in common with medieval epics.

There are also some surprisingly good performances here, too. As Kainan's rival and friend Wulfric, Jack Huston is funny and lithe (and looks good in fur); and John Hurt plays King Rothgar with cool gravity. Sophia Miles plays Freya, Rothgar's sword-wielding daughter, who manages to kick major monster ass while wearing a dress that will be all the rage at the next SCA gathering near you.

Of course there are groan-worthy moments - it's a freakin monster movie. There's a scene of drunken Viking revelry that goes on waaaay too long, and the movie does admittedly take a bit too long to get down to the Viking vs. alien action. But once it does, you'll be beating your chest and demanding another barrel of the monster mead this flick serves up.

The point is that if you want a great example of the alien smackdown genre, Outlander will please the hell out of you. It's a fresh, original take on a timeworn topic that's been ruined by many giant Hollywood movies with budgets four times bigger than Outlander's. And did I mention the giant sword? Made out of a spaceship? Holy crap I love this movie.

We were starting to wonder if Outlander would ever open in U.S. theaters, after it had showings around Europe last year but nothing was scheduled in the U.S. But the delay in getting the film released here was just the tail-end of a long struggle by co-writers McCain (who directed it) and Blackman (who produced it.)

Outlander tells the story of an alien (Jim Caviezel) who crashes on Earth, near a Viking town. And with him comes the Moorwen, a deadly monster that threatens to kill everyone in its path — if Caviezel's character can't enlist the Vikings to help him. Also starring in the film are Sophia (Doctor Who) Myles, John Hurt and Ron "Hellboy" Perlman.

Their mission to create a viking-alien adventure story began years ago — they had both read Beowulf in high school and loved it, unlike most of their peers. So they wanted to make a Beowulf-esque saga. Early drafts of the script actually named the hero Beowulf and the monster Grendel. But their Hollywood agent, "in true Hollywood style," told them nobody wanted a Beowulf movie.

Since then, of course, there's been Michael Crichton's Beowulf clone The 13th Warrior, the Robert Zemeckis Beowulf, and an Icelandic version, among others. But by that time, McCain and Blackman had already revamped their script to make the Beowulf references less overt.

They wanted to have an alien and his monster foe crashland in Viking times, because it removed the whole issue of historical accuracy from their "historical epic." Whether or not you can believe there was a monster named Grendel, anybody can tell that a crashed spaceship is made up.

Over time, the studio execs pressured Blackman and McCain to change some of the more authentic Viking names. And in every development meeting, Blackman and McCain had to explain that their Vikings would not have horned helmets, they wouldn't be goofy, and this wasn't going to be something out of Asterix.

The story McCain and Blackman ended up with clearly borrowed from Lord Of The Rings — another epic that nobody was considering filming, back then. And since LOTR lifted heavily from Beowulf, "we cribbed from a cribber. We stole from the best, who was already stealing," says McCain. "We knew what we were doing. For better or worse, whether anybody likes the movie or not, we knew what we were stealing from."

They also did tons of research into Viking culture — an earlier draft of the script spent way more time going into local Viking politics, including blood feuds and a battle over the throne. "There was a deeper tapestry." Blackman and Howard amassed a four-inch thick notebook with a D-ring binder, full of notes on belt buckles, tattoos, sword hilts, buildings and hairpins. They visited the Viking ship museum in Norway and took copious notes. In the end, of course, they had to decide which details to represent faithfully and which to sacrifice for the sake of a good story.

"It's a monster movie," says Blackman. "You're not there to recreate history, you're there to create a world that's fun to enter into and live in."

Their dedication extends to including some of the Viking warfare and politicking — plus a fight with a bear — before Caviezel's character even shows up. That way, you feel as though it's a real world, which was already having a life before the story begins.

The duo had a stroke of luck, when they managed to get Ninth Ray studios, a group of artists formerly from Pixar and ILM, to work on art and designs for the movie. (Including some of the concept art featured with this interview.) Ninth Ray had just done a first pass on a John Carter Of Mars movie, and had time to work on Outlander. So by the time the film actually had a budget, it already had detailed designs for every prop and building. (See more of that stuff here.)

One of the great parts of the film is that when Caviezel's alien visitor shows up, the Vikings pretty much understand him right away. They get the idea of his ship having crashed, and the fact that he's hunting a monster. McCain argues that the Vikings would have been pretty cosmopolitan — they had raped and pillaged so many other cultures, and traded with so many as well, that they had an idea of what other cultures were like. Vikings reached as far as Constantinople and Africa. Plus they had a rich mythic life, including valkyries as well as dragons.

On the other hand, Blackman says, if E.T. had visited the Vikings, "they would have eaten him."

In coming up with the Moorwen, the alien monster Caviezel and the Vikings fight, Blackman and McCain were mindful that only a few classic alien monsters had beocme icons, like Giger's alien and the Predator. So they came up with the idea of making the creature bioluminescent — something they think will also turn up in James Cameron's Avatar later this year. And they focused on giving the creature a rich backstory. But then they were lucky enough to have input from Patrick Tatopoulos, who worked on Dark City, I Am Legend and several other big films.

They wanted the creature to look like it could fit into the more natural world of the Vikings, as opposed to Giger's alien, which looked more mechanical and could only look at home in a world of conduits. "We had to thread a needle where it looks like an alien, but it could actually have a presence in the Viking world," and the Vikings could mistake it for a dragon.

The Moorwen also got some backstory, as we learned that humans had destroyed the Moorwen's homeworld. The Moorwen becomes more of a sympathetic character — right before everyone goes back to trying to kill it. Blackman and McCain said they wanted to add some depth to the storyline, and make Caviezel's space traveler less of a clear-cut good guy. In an earlier draft of the screenplay, the monster actually talks towards the end, so you realize it's not just a mindless beast. You have to feel for the Moorwen a bit, just like you feel sorry for King Kong.

"We may still have to kill it, but it's not entirely a good thing," says Blackman.

They also wanted to include a bit of a political message about invading other people's homelands and stirring up trouble — even though when they first wrote the script, Bill Clinton was still president, they felt it was a timeless theme about the "cycle of violence" perpetuating itself.

So is Outlander an action movie? A horror movie? A monster movie? An adventure film? I asked, and it turned out Blackman and McCain have been arguing this exact same point for years, partly in the process of figuring out how to market their baby. "We had a lot of deep arguments, ten years ago," says McCain. Blackman is very clear in his own mind that it's an adventure film, but McCain sees it as more of a monster movie with adventure elements.

But their biggest genre influence, originally, in coming up with the story, was all of the Chinese movies of the 1980s and early 1990s. "All those Chinese action movies, where they'll throw in everything," says Blackman. "I mean, there's gods and there's demons and there's kung fu fighting, and when we thought about that, we decided, 'what'll be fun?'... There was a certain amount of influence there, in terms of saying, 'Okay, we'll have some mythology, we'll have some scifi. Why not?'" But unlike some of those Chinese films, they think they found a narrative thread that ties it all together.

They're still sad that the film was kept out of the U.S. for so long, and didn't get a wider release. This weekend, it's opening in a bunch of cities around the country, but not L.A. or New York. The film did really well in Spain, "a country which isn't known for loving its Viking films," where it made $3 million on 200 screens. If it had opened wide in the U.S., and gotten a similar per-screen average, it could have made $30 million. It's not impossible that its U.S. run could get bigger if the film does well in its first weekend. (So tell your friends!) At this point, though, they mostly hope it gets a new life on DVD.

Meanwhile, the duo also have another movie opening this weekend — they rewrote the script for Underworld III: The Rise Of The Lycans. They were involved with a Conan reimagining that's still looking for a director. They have a World War II film, based on a true story, in development. And they're talking about a host of other genre projects. Let's hope their next movie doesn't take another 18 years to come out.

More clips at the link. [Outlander via Shocktillyoudrop]

The Outlander site denies any DVD talk but mentions a rather "small" theatrical release. Which usually means 15 screens, then the movie gets dumped to DVD. This would be a terrible idea, but this is what they say:

We'd like to reiterate that Outlander is *not* going direct to DVD. The nearest we can tell, no date has actually been set for the DVD release, so the Amazon listing is possibly spurious. Though they are taking preorders, don't expect to see the DVD come November 18th. And again, The Weinstein Company is contractually obligated to give Outlander a theatrical release. We don't yet know to what extent they'll do so (hopefully not on the level of Death Defying Acts), but we're hoping the reactions out of the fantasty filmfest spur them to action in this matter.

Would you buy the Outlander DVD? Or drive 100 miles to see it in the theater?

[Outlander Solesector]

Variety's Derek Elley says Outlander's, "screenplay hardly makes a convincing case for being set in the Viking Age rather than any other period," and that, "Hardcore genre fans will turn out, but word of mouth is likely to be pic's biggest enemy."

French film site Cinema also called the film slow and is bored by the monster hunt. Besides the slow moving plot Cinema also accuses Outlander of having an easy guess plot and that, The love story is obvious... and the actors' dialogues are filled with testosterone." Critics also said the film only picks up in the second half, when we finally see more of the monster.

The only one who had a positive thing to say about Outlander was The Hollywood Reporter, which called it, "entertaining nonsense."

These negative reviews hurt my heart. How could they mess this up? It's Vikings versus an alien, just let it happen! Or maybe people actually went to this movie to see something other than vikings fighting an alien? I know that I won't be going looking for the love story from Pride and Prejudice, but there had better be a whole lot of horned-helmeted Viking bluster, and alien gnashing of fangs.

[Outlander]

James Caviezel plays a crashed space man, Kainan, who has been doing battle with the Moorwen alien race. He lands on Earth smack-dab in the middle of Viking times. A Moorwen hitched a ride on his ship and is now seeking revenge on all the innocent Vikings on Earth. It's up to Kainan, a pig-tail-bearded John Hurt as Viking leader Rothgar and the resident warrior Wulfric (Jack Huston) to best the beast.

Outlander will open on Latvian screens today, so if you live in Latvia I'm insanely jealous. It has also been screened across the globe yet still there is no release date in America. Surely this Viking versus alien battle story will be retold through the ages, and it needs to come to the States as soon as possible.

[Outlander official site]