Outcast

I went into this expecting crap, and I guess there are lots of weird things in the film.

For example, it bypasses the language barrier by giving everyone involved the universal translator, and the Chinese characters speak English in distinctly British accents, wtf.

Also, it combines elements of both the Crusades and Chinese Imperial stuff into a single film, which was interesting.

Hayden Christensen punches a woman in the face. I found that funny, considering the nobody made a fit about "violence against women omagazz". Then again, the film does depict lots of women and some children being slaughtered, it probably would've gotten a pg13 for that if the censors got their hands onto it.

The dialog is somewhat cliché, then you also have the white savior cliché in which Nick Cage and Hayden Christensen kick Chinese ass to save Chinese people from other Chinese people, but I'm cool with that. But honestly, the film does in fact fulfill its duty to entertain. There are lots of sword fights, some cool (although anticlimactic) arrow scenes, and a nice supply of blood, but not in a particularly gory way.

The story is somewhat nonsensical, I guess the only defense to that is 'who cares'.

Over all though, it still was kinda FUN, nothing really made me cringe, and the Chinese theme in a non Chinese film is somewhat refreshing. So my final verdict is: 6/10 fun but not particularly memorable.

This isn't a great film and I think that the low IMDb rating (4,6) is correct. I'm afraid that the explanation lies in the clichéd dialogues and in the naive action scenes (who could find convincing a man who regularly defeats dozens of enemies as if they just didn't exist?) which seemed outdated for the present times.

But this bad outcome is, under many respects, a pity, because the film has a very good cast, great stunting, beautiful scenery, excellent images, a modern editing and its storyline, although not even remotely original, is a honest classical plot for an adventure movie.

Nick Powell is a top stunt coordinator (and that's why the stunting is so good), here at his first experience as a director. I don't know how great his ambitions are but he didn't seem far from making a film that could be much more appreciated by people like me.

I love, Nicholas Cage. However; his accent ruined the movie. I'm no linguistic expert. It just sounded forced. Maybe I'm wrong...just my opinion.

Other than that, I did enjoy the movie...after 2 glasses of scotch and a twelve pack of beer.

I would still say it's a watchable movie if you're looking to pass time.

I have watched a LOT of really bad movies, and this isn't anywhere near the bottom of the barrel. In fact, it's kind of enjoyable. The bad guy is sufficiently bad that we he drives the story and justifies our anger. He has just enough complexity that he escapes being one- dimensional. Hayden Christensen is acceptable as basically the fallen hero, and Nicholas Cage is, well, a little off the wall.

Some people complain about the action, and the first sequence is not that great. But the later action scenes are decent, and the last sword- fight is pretty good.

Some of the story is sort of sketched in instead of really told in depth, but it's not inconsistent or riddled with plot holes. What story there is moves along at a good pace.

Nic Cage to some has lost it. He's not the main attraction here though. Hayden is (hence my summary line) and he is either barely succeeding in that brooding act he's putting on (going through a hard time trying to redeem himself, not entirely of his own free will mind you). Following orders is not always the best way to go.

The story is pretty straight forward, the action scenes are decent, but the cutting/editing of them is very frenzy. You might like that (it creates the illusion of fast and hard hits or blows to the body) or not, depending on your taste. Overall this is not the worst of Nic Cages recent outputs, but it's not an instant classic either