I rented this one and it languished on my Apple TV for two weeks before I decided to see if I would be very disappointed for a half-hearted Beowulf knockoff.<br /><br />Surprise! No Beowulf. No Grendel. No Bad, cheesy FX.<br /><br />Space Marine crashlands in 6th Century Norway and brings along with him a alien enemy that starts tearing havoc through the primitive viking people there.<br /><br />The story is simple enough, but the execution is VERY GOOD. The lead character is solid, believable and likable. The Viking hold that takes him prisoner is actually pretty believable with a lot of nice historic touches (If you can excuse the British accents here and there). The angle about the Beast stirring up a feud between settlements makes a lot of sense. And they carried over the acceptance of the Space Marine (Outlander) into the clan in a manner that made social sense-- at least as far as Sci-Fi films go)<br /><br />The FX were very well done, especially the back story where you are filled in on how the Hero came to marooned on this planet-- and the delving into remorse on the part of the spacers for what he did to the creature's homeland was an interesting sideline. . .it added character to the script.<br /><br />The Monster. . .now the monster was GREAT. Menacing and Dangerous with excellent use of darkness and light to accentuate it's pure animal rage.<br /><br />Like the Viking on the Stockade murmured in awe: "Now that's no bear."<br /><br />This one is a STRONG Monster Hunt flick that's well-done. Give this one a go for Saturday night.