Outcast (2015)
Director: Nick Powell
Writer: James Dormer
Cast: Nicolas Cage (Gallain), Fernando Chien (Captain Wu), Hayden Christensen (Jacob), Anoja Dias Bolt (Anika), Byron Lawson (Captain Peng), Shie Liang (King), Andy On (Shing), Yifei Liu (Lian), and Elderly Daxing Zhang.
This review has been a real problem for me, not because i didn't like it, but all week getting off at a reasonable time, picking up my daughter after work, and getting into a fender bender that really made me a bit mad, not at the guy who hit my truck, but because it was getting late, i was on my way to pick up my kid at work, and the accident occurred. Things happen, and usually i get ahead in writing, but this time around, not being ahead is kind of aggravating. So i hope you guys love this review, i still and will always love to review movies, despite my week of hell.
The film opens up some issues, historical issues, here they are; The crusades were a part of the story so why not expand on it. Imagine with a bit of an effort, both protagonist were a part of something bigger, protecting something of value. Gallain (Nicolas Cage) and Jacob (Hayden Christensen) both crusaders backstory was empty, like the film makers had more to tell but, there was missing pieces to the puzzle. The King choosing the young boy to lead his people, and Kingdom is a great plot line. The story really is simple, but the amazing thing about this film is the way the plot moves with each scene. Granted, the fast action, which bothered me, in conjunction with the beautiful scenery, created a sense of placement. The characters were fighting in the Middle East 12 century, you felt part of the story, as you were inside of it. Blades clashing, hitting one another while moving around, made everything beautiful.
The actors were good, they interacted with each other well, the scenes were good, it moved, the film was not boring, with that being said remember the film was a little over ninety minutes, which by the way filming with such a short run time destroys the integrity of the film. Short films should only be animated, my opinion only. The main reason why the characters were not given a chance to breathe some form of life, because of the short run time, it's almost impossible for a film to have some decent back story with a short run time. The actors did the best of what they had, and went with it. The story was like a D&D adventure, the history and events are not important, but the characters and the main plot are, almost as if the writers forgot about the history of that time frame, and imagined a wonderful story inside that timeline. Oh, and for those of you who do not know what is D&D? well google it, and it's a geek thing, for those of you who know, i laugh inside, as i smile as well.
Action, action, action, where ever Jacob went, he got in some trouble, real trouble that put him in a real position. But, without him getting into trouble, there would be no movie. And he would've never crossed paths with Lian (Yifei Liu), the girl that belong to a very wealthy family. Lian escaped the clutches of an evil vile army of warriors, which happen to be her father's men, led by another sibling, who's pissed because he was next in line for the King's crown, instead the young boy was chosen by his father to lead the people. The plot like i mentioned before was simple, an easy story to follow, but what i really liked about it was the scenery while the story went from scene to scene, it was perfect, and the most important, entertaining.
Gallain and Jacob were crusaders, they decided to move to the east without knowing anything about it,an example of this would be the firsts scenes in the film, Gallain told Jacob about the East, and Jacob expressed concern, almost confused. "What is out there," a strong look given by his friend, Jacob. The character was basically telling Gallain that there is nothing out East. The characters at least had there moments with each other, great scene by the way, fighting and having a pep talk really brought life to the characters. The overall characters, and story mixed in with the scenery made the film, a D&D experience, and my entertainment for the night was filled. The movie had done it's job, that's why there is so many underground films that never make it on a box office level, but make there money in other ways, like streaming or DVD, maybe not at this moment, but in time it will, and sometimes that's more important than the huge mega hit.
The film was a beautiful, visually it made the film great, an experience that should be remembered. This movie is a popcorn type of film, eat, experience, have fun. Sometimes there are movies that are good, but not enough for the box office, in fact Outcast had a 30,000,000 budget, don't care about the global or world wide, just love it for what it is, a wonderful film.
The film opens up some issues, historical issues, here they are; The crusades were a part of the story so why not expand on it. Imagine with a bit of an effort, both protagonist were a part of something bigger, protecting something of value. Gallain (Nicolas Cage) and Jacob (Hayden Christensen) both crusaders backstory was empty, like the film makers had more to tell but, there was missing pieces to the puzzle. The King choosing the young boy to lead his people, and Kingdom is a great plot line. The story really is simple, but the amazing thing about this film is the way the plot moves with each scene. Granted, the fast action, which bothered me, in conjunction with the beautiful scenery, created a sense of placement. The characters were fighting in the Middle East 12 century, you felt part of the story, as you were inside of it. Blades clashing, hitting one another while moving around, made everything beautiful.
The actors were good, they interacted with each other well, the scenes were good, it moved, the film was not boring, with that being said remember the film was a little over ninety minutes, which by the way filming with such a short run time destroys the integrity of the film. Short films should only be animated, my opinion only. The main reason why the characters were not given a chance to breathe some form of life, because of the short run time, it's almost impossible for a film to have some decent back story with a short run time. The actors did the best of what they had, and went with it. The story was like a D&D adventure, the history and events are not important, but the characters and the main plot are, almost as if the writers forgot about the history of that time frame, and imagined a wonderful story inside that timeline. Oh, and for those of you who do not know what is D&D? well google it, and it's a geek thing, for those of you who know, i laugh inside, as i smile as well.
Action, action, action, where ever Jacob went, he got in some trouble, real trouble that put him in a real position. But, without him getting into trouble, there would be no movie. And he would've never crossed paths with Lian (Yifei Liu), the girl that belong to a very wealthy family. Lian escaped the clutches of an evil vile army of warriors, which happen to be her father's men, led by another sibling, who's pissed because he was next in line for the King's crown, instead the young boy was chosen by his father to lead the people. The plot like i mentioned before was simple, an easy story to follow, but what i really liked about it was the scenery while the story went from scene to scene, it was perfect, and the most important, entertaining.
Gallain and Jacob were crusaders, they decided to move to the east without knowing anything about it,an example of this would be the firsts scenes in the film, Gallain told Jacob about the East, and Jacob expressed concern, almost confused. "What is out there," a strong look given by his friend, Jacob. The character was basically telling Gallain that there is nothing out East. The characters at least had there moments with each other, great scene by the way, fighting and having a pep talk really brought life to the characters. The overall characters, and story mixed in with the scenery made the film, a D&D experience, and my entertainment for the night was filled. The movie had done it's job, that's why there is so many underground films that never make it on a box office level, but make there money in other ways, like streaming or DVD, maybe not at this moment, but in time it will, and sometimes that's more important than the huge mega hit.
The film was a beautiful, visually it made the film great, an experience that should be remembered. This movie is a popcorn type of film, eat, experience, have fun. Sometimes there are movies that are good, but not enough for the box office, in fact Outcast had a 30,000,000 budget, don't care about the global or world wide, just love it for what it is, a wonderful film.
Comments