The movie opens with a spacecraft's fiery descent into Earth's
atmosphere and eventually plunging into a lake in Norway. Two figures
rise from the lake's bottom, wearing what might best be described as
powered armor. In the morning, only one is alive. Kainen (James
Caviezel) queries a computer/signal buoy where he is. The computer
tells him he is on a primitive planet with an abandoned colony. The
year is 709 AD.
After setting his distress beacon and learning the local language via computer implant, he sets out with his blaster to hunt the Moorwen that escaped from his ruined ship. He soon discovers the smoldering remains of a village though there are no bodies. The Moorwen has been here. He immediately sets to pursue but is overcome by a mounted Viking. His blaster tumbles down a hillside and washes away in a stream. Bound, he is dragged back to the fortress of King Rothgar (John Hurt).
This rather disappointing introduction of our hero does not much improve through the movie. The Moorwen proves to be truly devastating, virtually invulnerable to the weapons of the era, ridiculously fast, and somewhat larger than a draft horse. Very quickly, I was wondering how Kainen expected to face this thing without his gun. I was also wondering why he left his powered armor behind. Continually, Kainen seeks to face the Moorwen with nothing more than a crude sword but, as luck would have it, the Moorwen leaves him be.
Kainen's and the Moorwen's back story is told in occasional flashbacks and eventually he tells the King's daughter (Sophia Myles) his sad history. His people had found a planet suitable for colonization but the Moorwen were dangerous. Viewed as nothing more than animals, his people had committed genocide to prepare the world for colonists. As a warrior, he was granted land on the new planet and settled his wife and son there. But not all the Moorwen were dead and Kainen was off-world when it came for revenge.
All efforts to kill the Moorwen fail as more and more folk are slaughtered. There are now two Moorwen, the younger having infiltrated the Viking fort via the well. Finally, after the sword he was given breaks on the Moorwen's hide, he decides it's time for a return to his ship. So, does he recover his powered armor? Does he raid the weapons' locker for a spare blaster? No, he recovers parts of the hull so that the blacksmith can forge some stronger swords. Right. We are never told what that alloy is but one wonders if the blacksmith's forge is even capable of getting hot enough to affect it. So, armed with these better weapons, Kainen and the handful of remaining warriors set out in search of the Moorwen's den.
As the younger Moorwen had come up from the well, Kainen decides the well will lead to the den. Sure enough, after a brief swim, he finds a tunnel. Once the others join him, they stumble about in this entirely unbelievable subterranean lair. At one point they are traversing a precarious bridge over a river of lava and the next they are on a towering cliff over the fjord with a huge waterfall. It goes without saying that Kainen succeeds in killing the Moorwen and its offspring. Kainen opts to live out his days on Earth with the King's daughter, becoming the new king in the process.
Since it is Vikings, it must be a variant of Beowulf. Yes, this is Beowulf where Moorwen stands in for Grendel/Grendel's mother/the Dragon. The Moorwen is finally slain when its arm is lopped off, just like Grendel. The Moorwen assaults the shield hall of Rothgar again and again, just as Grendel had assaulted the mead hall of Hrothgar. I suppose you could even say that the Moorwen avoided killing Kainen in much the same way that Grendel avoided killing Hrothgar. Beowulf slew Grendel and his mother and later became king; Kainen slays the Moorwen and becomes king. The names have been changed (in most cases) to protect the innocent.
Since every bit of technology is abandoned in the film's opening, the sole point of the crash is to introduce a non-historical monster to the time period. Surely, that could have been done better. Also, it would have been nice if Kainen had something, maybe just a flashlight or a lighter. Nope, he went for total immersion in the setting.
After setting his distress beacon and learning the local language via computer implant, he sets out with his blaster to hunt the Moorwen that escaped from his ruined ship. He soon discovers the smoldering remains of a village though there are no bodies. The Moorwen has been here. He immediately sets to pursue but is overcome by a mounted Viking. His blaster tumbles down a hillside and washes away in a stream. Bound, he is dragged back to the fortress of King Rothgar (John Hurt).
This rather disappointing introduction of our hero does not much improve through the movie. The Moorwen proves to be truly devastating, virtually invulnerable to the weapons of the era, ridiculously fast, and somewhat larger than a draft horse. Very quickly, I was wondering how Kainen expected to face this thing without his gun. I was also wondering why he left his powered armor behind. Continually, Kainen seeks to face the Moorwen with nothing more than a crude sword but, as luck would have it, the Moorwen leaves him be.
Kainen's and the Moorwen's back story is told in occasional flashbacks and eventually he tells the King's daughter (Sophia Myles) his sad history. His people had found a planet suitable for colonization but the Moorwen were dangerous. Viewed as nothing more than animals, his people had committed genocide to prepare the world for colonists. As a warrior, he was granted land on the new planet and settled his wife and son there. But not all the Moorwen were dead and Kainen was off-world when it came for revenge.
All efforts to kill the Moorwen fail as more and more folk are slaughtered. There are now two Moorwen, the younger having infiltrated the Viking fort via the well. Finally, after the sword he was given breaks on the Moorwen's hide, he decides it's time for a return to his ship. So, does he recover his powered armor? Does he raid the weapons' locker for a spare blaster? No, he recovers parts of the hull so that the blacksmith can forge some stronger swords. Right. We are never told what that alloy is but one wonders if the blacksmith's forge is even capable of getting hot enough to affect it. So, armed with these better weapons, Kainen and the handful of remaining warriors set out in search of the Moorwen's den.
As the younger Moorwen had come up from the well, Kainen decides the well will lead to the den. Sure enough, after a brief swim, he finds a tunnel. Once the others join him, they stumble about in this entirely unbelievable subterranean lair. At one point they are traversing a precarious bridge over a river of lava and the next they are on a towering cliff over the fjord with a huge waterfall. It goes without saying that Kainen succeeds in killing the Moorwen and its offspring. Kainen opts to live out his days on Earth with the King's daughter, becoming the new king in the process.
Since it is Vikings, it must be a variant of Beowulf. Yes, this is Beowulf where Moorwen stands in for Grendel/Grendel's mother/the Dragon. The Moorwen is finally slain when its arm is lopped off, just like Grendel. The Moorwen assaults the shield hall of Rothgar again and again, just as Grendel had assaulted the mead hall of Hrothgar. I suppose you could even say that the Moorwen avoided killing Kainen in much the same way that Grendel avoided killing Hrothgar. Beowulf slew Grendel and his mother and later became king; Kainen slays the Moorwen and becomes king. The names have been changed (in most cases) to protect the innocent.
Since every bit of technology is abandoned in the film's opening, the sole point of the crash is to introduce a non-historical monster to the time period. Surely, that could have been done better. Also, it would have been nice if Kainen had something, maybe just a flashlight or a lighter. Nope, he went for total immersion in the setting.
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