Outcast

Year: 2014
Genre: Action adventure
Director: Nick Powell


Plot: A former knight from the Crusades comes to the aid of a princess and her younger brother, the heir to the throne, who are on the run from their cruel older brother, who seeks to become king.


The gist: With an IMDb rating of 4.6, you'd expect this to be one of Nicolas Cage's worst films, and he has made many bad ones over the years. To be fair, Outcast is not a great film at all, but certainly not the worst I've seen from Cage (that honor for me, goes to Stolen).

The story, a mix of Kingdom Of Heaven and Tears Of The Sun, and a few other medieval adventure films you may have seen before somewhere, centres on Jacob (Hayden Christensen), a knight of the Crusades who has grown weary of the war and become a drug addict, until he runs into Prince Zhao and Princess Lian, who are on the run from their older brother Shing. Their late father has named Zhao as the heir to the throne, so Shing wants him dead in order to rule. Jacob, despite being in no real shape to be a protector, reluctantly takes on the task, hoping to redeem himself for his sins. Later, he seeks help from his former mentor Gallain (Cage) to join his quest, but he has renounced fighting for others.


The good: At the very least, this movie does not offend much. I know that's really not a good reason to see this, but some films are just so awful you won't make it past the first fifteen minutes before giving up. Outcast managed to sustain my interest till the end, which is more than I can say for some other movies I've seen. Cage and Christensen try their best to make the film work despite being given laughable dialogue to read, and their shaky British accents are quite hilarious to listen to, especially the former's. Is this good? Yes, in a funny way, it is.

The bad: The shaky camerawork during the fight sequences stand out. When will they ever learn? As mentioned, the dialogue is badly written, and we have to ignore the fact that the Chinese cast speak English even among themselves. The ending was very poor too, with an anti-climactic fight scene.


Verdict: You can try this if you've got time to kill and nothing else to do. Or if you're the kind of person curious enough to see how good or bad a Nicolas Cage film is. (6/10)