Messy, chaotic shell of a film

As expected, Borderlands was a commercial flop, grossing just $18 million worldwide in its first 10 days of release, which is terrible news for studio Lionsgate, which likely lost at least $150 million after the film cost over $120 million to make and was heavily marketed.

With this in mind, it’s no surprise that the film will be available for streaming sooner than expected. It will be available on digital stores like Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV on August 30th, just 21 days after its August 9th premiere. Will the film get a second life on streaming? It doesn’t seem likely, but strange things have happened. Here are our thoughts on whether the film is worth paying to stream.

Missed Opportunities

Borderlands could have been better

Borderlands

There could be a world where movies are made based on video games. Borderlands is a colorful, violent, and often frustratingly drab first-person shooter that could have been good, but I’m almost impressed with how poorly this adaptation was made, mostly because it’s not actually a complete film. As a fan of the game I went into the movie with a loose understanding of the film’s atmosphere, setting and characters, and this movie doesn’t seem like it would be good for fans, nor appealing to the uninitiated. I’d like to say that the actors look like they’re having fun, but really, they don’t seem entirely sure what they’re doing or why they’re doing it.

Aside from some clever casting and fitting a bunch of likeable stars into perfectly suited roles, there’s not much good about this mess of a movie. It was obviously plagued by production problems, including reshoots that never brought any consistency, and its running time of less than 100 minutes, PG-13 rating, and early August release date all suggest that everyone kind of knew how it was going to end.

Borderlands

Strong Points

• Less than 2 hours
• Proper attire
• I want to play video games

Cons

• A confusing plot and a cluttered tone
• Not faithful to the original
• Not funny at all

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Release date, rating, showtime

Unsurprisingly, not many press members have had a chance to see the film in advance. I saw the first screening on Thursday ahead of its official release on August 9. The film is an hour and 40 minutes long and, for some reason, is rated PG-13.

What I like about Borderlands

Watch these talented actors persevere

Let me start by saying that there is very little to like about this movie. It’s clearly an attempt to make a little money to make up for expected losses. I liked that it was just over an hour and a half long. I think what I enjoyed most was knowing that talented actors endured the filming and tried to hang on. Actors, like you and me, sometimes have to take stupid, poorly managed jobs just to earn a paycheck so they can get more fun and satisfying work in the future. There’s plenty of time to dwell on such things, because the movie feels hollow inside. Thankfully, not for too long.

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What I didn’t like about Borderlands

Concerns from the start

Borderlands

It immediately makes sense when you understand that the film was shot in 2021, had a rotating cast of writers and directors, and was reshot with a different director two years after principal production ended. The film starts with a short narration that tries to explain some of the game’s lore, which isn’t actually that complicated. Pandora is a chaotic planet that has been plundered for resources by corporations and turned into a wasteland inhabited by creatures, cults, military outcasts, and opportunistic mercenaries. I think this occasional narration is completely unnecessary and added after the fact as a way to make the audience “understand” what’s going on. It doesn’t really add any value.

That’s how the majority of the movie plays out. There’s a weird dynamic to the film, sometimes the story is detailed and sometimes it’s ignored completely. It’s loud, aggressive and chaotic for the most part (true to the game), but at times the tone shifts to emotions and friendships that just aren’t earned. There are joke openings and joke endings, but none of it really connects. There are no real stakes or consistency from scene to scene, and the many talented actors are forced to put in a lot of effort to make this movie work, but they just can’t.

The story follows red-headed bounty hunter Lilith (Cate Blanchett) who is tasked with finding a special girl named Tina (Ariana Greenblatt) who has been kidnapped by a soldier (Kevin Hart) and may be being escorted by a hulking ex-cultist wearing a creepy mask. This mismatched group soon meets, and it isn’t long before they realize the man with the bounty on him is the real bad guy: he’s searching for the key to a rumored treasure, and our band of heroes are trying to get there first.

Lilith and company, a tiny one-wheeled robot named Claptrap (voiced by Jack Black, occasionally funny) and an eccentric scientist (Jamie Lee Curtis), make their way through several different areas of Pandora, including underground caverns filled with corrosive liquids and crazed villains. Surprisingly, it all looks boring. There are moments when the wasteland feels substantial and unpleasant, but it lacks pop and substance, and the environments and designs, like much of the film, feel half-baked. Even the action is uninspired. The film’s only idea of ​​entertainment is having Lilith look classy—flicking her hair over her eyes and twirling her gun to reload. Cool.

Not only is there no tension in any part of the story, but it feels like the camera was left rolling when the people in front of it thought it was done. Kevin Hart starts the film off as a funny goofball, and he fits the role perfectly, but then suddenly transforms into a heroic, stoic, earnest man. Meanwhile, Blanchett is forced to play a sarcastic loner, a skilled bounty hunter, a motherly protector, and a Chosen One with a tragic past. It’s all too much and not enough at the same time.

The 100 minutes feels long, even though the plot twist (I hate to use that word) is foreshadowed right away and the ending is completely predictable, and while there are some funny moments, most of it just comes off as silly and stupid when the movie is trying to be something serious and special.

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Our verdict: Skip it!

Skip the movie and play the game instead

Lionsgate

It’s not at all necessary for a video game movie adaptation to be faithful to the story; it just needs to stick to a consistent look, atmosphere, tone, and fairly representative characters. Borderlands is certainly a bad video game movie, but it’s also a bad movie. And a sad movie. That’s how I felt the whole time I watched it, seeing little bits of potential here and there and wishing it could have been better. Obviously, this is a movie made by a lot of different people with different ideas (and I suspect a lot of studio interference and changes), none of which really worked.

It’s hard to dislike this movie, and it’s not really worth it. It’s not like someone took a bad idea and ran with it. There’s just nothing about this movie. From start to finish, I always thought this wasn’t a real movie. It’s unfinished, it has no consistency, it has no real conflict, it has no character development, it has no real entertainment value.

I think the biggest grudge is for co-writer Joe Crombie, the pseudonym of a writer who was apparently embarrassed to put his name out there. I’m sorry, but Blanchett, Hart and the other actors did everything in their power to keep this movie alive, and their names and faces are attached to this movie. I also had to sit through the movie and add my name to having seen it. You should add yours too.

Borderlands

Borderlands is a chaotic, unfinished film adaptation that will disappoint fans and newcomers alike with its disjointed story, lackluster action, and contrived character dynamics. Despite a strong cast, the film offers no real entertainment value, leaving viewers disappointed and wanting more.

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