Lilith, an infamous bounty hunter with a mysterious past, reluctantly returns to her home, Pandora, the most chaotic planet in the galaxy. Her mission is to find the missing daughter of Atlas, the universe’s most powerful SOB. Lilith forms an unexpected alliance with Roland, a seasoned mercenary on a mission; Tiny Tina, a feral pre-teen demolitionist; Krieg, Tina’s musclebound protector; Tannis, the oddball scientist who’s seen it all; and Claptrap, a wiseass robot. Together, this ragtag team goes on a mission to save Tiny Tina, battle alien species, and discover one of Pandora’s most explosive secrets. The fate of the universe could be in their hands — but they’ll be fighting for something more: each other. Based on one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time, welcome to Borderlands.
What We Thought
I’ve never played any of the Borderlands games so I thought I might enjoy the movie more than others. It was a box office disaster, but because I didn’t know what to expect and had no real expectations of what the characters should be like I thought I could at least enjoy it as an action/adventure flick. Unfortunately I see why it bombed, it’s really not good.
Even not knowing the characters or having expectations of what the characters should look/sound like I still think there were some bad casting choices. I have no idea what Lilith is like in the games, but Cate Blanchett seems to be a bad choice. She’s a good actress, but the role seems wrong. The character has the biggest arc in the film, but it’s still a CGI flick that doesn’t require someone like Blanchett in the role. It’s a total misfire for me as is Jamie Lee Curtis in her role. I like Jamie Lee Curtis, but she seems too old for the movie especially if they thought it might become a franchise. I’m assuming Kevin Hart’s character is much bigger in the games and Hart doesn’t have the same physical qualities, but I didn’t think he was too bad here. I watched the bonus features and he did a lot of pre-production work and put in the time to at least make a solid attempt at the role. I’m not overly familiar with Ariana Greenblatt, but she was decent in it at least. Jack Black voices Trapclap and you get exactly what you expect from him. You either like him or you don’t which seems to be the same as Trapclap in the game.
The biggest problem is that it doesn’t separate itself from every other similar project. I watched a couple of episodes of Fallout (another game I never played) and this feels a lot like that. There’s no real heart to the movie and the end is your typical CGI-fest. The characters don’t get much development beyond Lilith and the world building might be there if you know the game, but I don’t know nor care about the places they go to. I’m sure gamers will notice tons of Easter eggs, but they go right over my head. I’m a huge Eli Roth fan and nothing about the film felt like an Eli Roth film. Maybe the studio had too much say in it because it’s a forgettable film.
The worst part is I watched the bonus features and saw how much went into the production of Borderlands. The cast seemed to love working with Eli. The cast seemed committed and did a lot of their own stunts and seemed really into making it. Having been on movie sets myself you can tell when a production isn’t going the way you think it will and none of the bonus features show that. No one seemed to know they were making a historical bomb. And that’s what Borderlands is, a bomb. It’s lackluster with a story done a million times. Having no expectations I was hoping it would at least be a fun ride filled with action and adventure like Brendan Fraser’s The Mummy, but even with zero expectations it wasn’t worth the watch.
BONUS FEATURES:
- Borderlands – From Game to Screen
- Meet the Team
- All Aboard the Death Choochoo
- Bringing Borderlands to the Screen
- Badonkadonk Time
- Fashion and Action on Pandora
- High Tech Hellscapes
The Nerds Templar 