With poor acting, awkward usage of eastern culture and forced plot, Outcast is already mediocre enough, but one thing that truly sinks it is the camera work. The points of view are always hindered by random objects, tilted in strange diagonal position, excessively close-up, annoying shaky, and sometimes the combination of all. That's for simple scene like a conversation, for combat sequences, Outcast is nearly incomprehensible.
The story moves around two soldiers of Crusade, played by Hayden Christensen and Nicholas Cage, who come to China for redemption. They are inevitably involved in the political struggle when the royal heir is hunted by usurpers. The plot is common for Chinese movie, and probably would've been better if the movie turned full kungfu flick as this bland westernization version only makes everything worse. It doesn't move in consistent pace nor does it create satisfying conclusion.
Hayden Christensen as the main antagonist is uninspiring. After Star Wars it's probably better not to give him moody character who inexplicably has another princess as love interest. He delivers lines in flat overused tone and just looks very detached. However, he's still better than Nicholas Cage who, by the gods, is simply drunk, grumpy and has terrible unknown accent. It's just painful to watch, at least Christensen can seem believable enough, Cage is just him in bad wig, struggling to make something resembling acting.
It's such a shame because the script has a few good dialogues. Liu Fiyei as Lian, the princess and Andy On as Shing, the antagonist, play their roles quite well and deliver some decent scenes. Andy On was great in Once Upon a Time In Shanghai, he's really underutilized here. Furthermore, the movie is shot entirely on English which really diminishes immersion. Whenever the movie looks like it's about to pick up, the cinematography ruins it. Everything is wobbly, out of focus and edited in choppy manner. There's no merit on having these overly complicated shots for trivial scenes and it certainly ruin any tension on fight scenes.
Outcast is awful by western and eastern standard.
The story moves around two soldiers of Crusade, played by Hayden Christensen and Nicholas Cage, who come to China for redemption. They are inevitably involved in the political struggle when the royal heir is hunted by usurpers. The plot is common for Chinese movie, and probably would've been better if the movie turned full kungfu flick as this bland westernization version only makes everything worse. It doesn't move in consistent pace nor does it create satisfying conclusion.
Hayden Christensen as the main antagonist is uninspiring. After Star Wars it's probably better not to give him moody character who inexplicably has another princess as love interest. He delivers lines in flat overused tone and just looks very detached. However, he's still better than Nicholas Cage who, by the gods, is simply drunk, grumpy and has terrible unknown accent. It's just painful to watch, at least Christensen can seem believable enough, Cage is just him in bad wig, struggling to make something resembling acting.
It's such a shame because the script has a few good dialogues. Liu Fiyei as Lian, the princess and Andy On as Shing, the antagonist, play their roles quite well and deliver some decent scenes. Andy On was great in Once Upon a Time In Shanghai, he's really underutilized here. Furthermore, the movie is shot entirely on English which really diminishes immersion. Whenever the movie looks like it's about to pick up, the cinematography ruins it. Everything is wobbly, out of focus and edited in choppy manner. There's no merit on having these overly complicated shots for trivial scenes and it certainly ruin any tension on fight scenes.
Outcast is awful by western and eastern standard.