Outlander: Alien Viking Battle

0:00It's April 17. I'm Corey with The Story, and this is Entertainment and Celebrity News Today, your AI-powered entertainment report. Holly was always shyed away from straight-up Viking tales, mostly because they skimp on strong women leads. Enter Outlander from 2008, where an alien named Cain and Crash lands in Viking era Scandinavia around 709 AD. He's chasing a dragon-like beast from his home world, and teams up with local Norsemen to take it down. Jim Cabizel stars as the space warrior, with Ron Perlman as the tough chieftain and John Hurt adding Gravitas. That set up came from director Howard McCain, jumping from low-budget TV flicks to this mid-range sci-fi mash-up. They originally eyed Carl Urban for the lead, but switched to Caviezel. Picture buff Vikings hunting an extraterrestrial monster-pure B-movie gold on paper. Critics gave it a 37% on Ron Tomatoes, saying it played too straight-laced instead of leaning into the bloody fun.

1:00Performances and designs got some nods, but the creature felt forgettable. Box office-wise, it tanked hard-pulled in just $166,000 on 81 US screens in January 2009, scraping 7 million overseas total. Another Viking bomb in a long line of flops, like the 13th warrior. If you're craving that alien Viking vibe, fire it up free with a 7-day howdy trial, on Prime Video, might as hit the spot for a guilty pleasure.