Borderlands Review – A Soulless Arthouse Film That Deserved Its Failure

When a film has been stuck in development hell for a decade and a half, it might be a sign that it’s time to cut its losses and save face rather than keep production going — especially if that film can only be described as cinematic pulp.

RELATED: Take-Two CEO Responds to Disappointing Reception of Eli Roth’s Live-Action ‘Borderlands,’ Asks Fans to ‘Give the Movie a Chance’

It’s been almost 15 years since Borderlands The video game franchise was at the peak of its popularity. The first game, released in 2009, had sold around four and a half million copies when Lionsgate decided it wanted to pursue the project as a film.

Given Hollywood’s long history of attempting to create films based on video games, many knew right away that this wouldn’t end well.

In the years 2015–2018 Borderlands saw a ton of writers and directors jumping in and out of the project. Then, when filmmaker Eli Roth agreed to do both roles on the film, a little thing called COVID-19 happened, which caused further delays and aggravation for the studio and resulted in most of this movie being shot in 2021 while Hollywood was still operating under COVID guidelines.

From there, the film was held back for another two years before a series of reshoots were ordered. All of this ultimately led to this, 2024, when the film finally saw the light of day.

But even with a production cost of $120 million, it’s clear that Lionsgate didn’t have much confidence in what it was releasing – and after watching the film, you can totally understand that. definitely Tell me why.

Borderlands begins with the character of Lilith, a rebellious bounty hunter who is tasked with returning to her home planet of Pandora and finding Tina, the missing daughter of a wealthy and influential player named Atlas.

Reluctantly joining forces with a chatty robot named Claptrap, Lilith eventually completes her mission and finds the girl. However, she soon discovers that she may have taken on more than she can chew, as she is not the only one who wants to find Tina and redeem her at all costs.

Add to that a miscast group of characters whose chemistry is about the same as that of sodium and water, and you have a two-hour sci-fi action comedy that may go down as one of the biggest wastes of time 2024 has to offer.

RELATED: ‘Borderlands 3’ Co-Writer Slams Sweet Baby Inc. Critics, Saying Most ‘Have Never Made Anything They’re Proud of in Their Lives, and the Rest Are Just Bigots’

People, there is no better example of the heartlessness that consumes Hollywood than this.

Borderlands is a film that doesn’t feel authentic for a second of its runtime. The entire film feels like a bunch of A-list Hollywood actors dressing up at Comic-Con as a video game franchise they know next to nothing about, just because a studio exec from even less knowledge gave the green light to the project because they thought it would be easy to make money from the IP name.

For a movie that relies on the chemistry of a band, this is a band that lacks personality and charisma. The acting in this movie feels like the actors took three character descriptions and decided to create their personalities as the movie went on. No aspect of this movie builds any kind of emotional connection with the audience.

Take Cate Blanchett, for example. Despite being a talented, award-winning actress, Blanchett is horribly miscast in the lead role of Lilith — as is basically everyone in this movie, from Kevin Hart’s incongruous performance as Roland to Arian Greenblatt’s laughably bad take on Tina Tina, the list goes on.

And although many have made this comparison, Borderlands fraud Guardians of the Galaxy would be an insult to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, even in its current form.

Ultimately, the best part of this film is its bright and colorful landscapes, which come alive through the use of a ton of green screen visual effects, and all of those shiny visuals keep viewers awake for just 15 minutes longer than they otherwise would have.

Apart from rare exceptions such as Sonic the HedgehogThe concept of a “movie based on a video game” doesn’t usually lead to a positive outcome. And unfortunately, Borderlands is another example of the fact that what works for one medium may not necessarily work for another.

(And of course, a fair amount of blame falls on Eli Roth — you have to ask yourself how much of a hand he had in making this a disaster of a film that was at least 13 years in the making? A lot? A little? Either way, it ended terribly.)

In conclusion, if you are a fan of this series, instead of wasting your hard-earned time and money watching this soulless Hollywood masterpiece masquerading as a summer blockbuster, you are better off buying Borderlands Fix that by dusting off your old PlayStation 3 and playing the original games for a few more hours.

(At least Some (some of the jokes in it may make you laugh a little.)

NEXT: ‘Borderlands’ Star Jack Black Confirms Tenacious D Isn’t Done After Donald Trump’s Death Wish Kyle Gass: ‘We’ll Come Back When We Feel Like It’s Right’

Mentioned in this article:Ariana Greenblatt Borderlands (2024) Cate Blanchett Edgar Ramírez Florian Munteanu Gina Gershon Jack Black Jamie Lee Curtis Kevin Hart

More about:Movie ReviewsMovie Reviews