We’re in a new era where video game adaptations are considered just as good as any other nerdy stuff. While many of us used to think that video game movies would undoubtedly be terrible, there have been enough good ones now that conventional wisdom has changed. Despite this general shift, the Borderlands movies feel more like a relic of an older era – when most game adaptations were generic, throwaway action movies at best, and often worse than that. And “universal” and “disposable” are the essence of “Borderlands”.
“Borderlands” is directed by Hostel director Eli Roth and is adapted from the huge game series set in Pandora. It’s full of amazing technology. Enter Lilith (Cate Blanchett, with the most awful American accent), hired by Atlas (Edgar Ramirez) to find her kidnapped daughter on Pandora. Of course, there’s a problem – the daughter is little Tina (Arianna Greenblatt), who’s more like his creation than his real daughter, since she’s made from the blood of ancient aliens It was modified for the purpose of opening the vault. And she wasn’t kidnapped – Atlas soldier Roland (Kevin Hart) rescued her from imprisonment.
It didn’t take long for Lilith to catch up to them, and soon after, they were all attacked by Atlas soldiers. Lilith must then team up with Roland, Tina, their sympathetic bandit friend, eccentric scientist Tanis (Jamie Lee Curtis), and comic relief robot grandstanding to survive and find the vault on her own.
Let’s talk about Claptrap, who is probably the most iconic character in the game. The video game version of Claptrap was originally voiced by former Gearbox developer David Eddings, who was later replaced by a similar-sounding voice in Borderlands 3. Voiced by Jack Black – that’s how scary it is. I kind of got into the mood of it in the first few minutes of the movie, but by the time Grandstand introduces himself to Lilith, the whole thing is doomed.
It’s hard to say what the fatal flaw in Black’s version of Grandstand is — perhaps it’s that he’s completely unable to match Grandstand’s established pace or tone, so he plays more like a new, obnoxious Star Wars droid. But his presence gives the entire movie a twist, especially since he gets almost every joke attempted.
It’s an odd thing to say about a movie starring Kevin Hart, but somehow it’s true. “Borderland” is not a movie where Hart would be annoyed by the constant jokes, as he hardly makes any. Hart plays Roland as a deadpan action hero, which he’s very good at when he’s allowed to, but it feels like most of his key scenes are missing. Maybe it’s a side effect of the movie’s PG-13 rating – the game is rated M for gore and profanity, and Borderlands often feels like you’re watching a basic cable cut of an R-rated game. This smooth feeling leads to one of the film’s other biggest problems.
“Borderland” is only 102 minutes long, and in today’s era of super-long movies, you might want to reflexively celebrate. But there’s a reason why longer movies are popular – more time brings more depth, and depth is what Borderlands lacks the most. But sometimes, what happens when a film takes four years of post-production and rework—everything gets ground into nothingness over time.
It’s frustrating to see a filmmaker like Eli Roth, who often plays the director in horror movies like Last Year’s Thanksgiving . But in recent years, he has been doing this kind of thing a lot. and a house with a clock in its walls. And his remake of Death Wish. Simply put, the anonymous studio businessman’s work isn’t very good and has no real authorship. Likewise, Borderlands is a generic, mid-budget CGI effort that looks like a fairly cheap episode of The Mandalorian most of the time. After years of re-edits and a round of reshoots by another filmmaker, little remains of the filmmaking craft on display.
Unfortunately, the cast doesn’t have much to offer. Blanchett puts in some effort, but her American accent isn’t great – so her occasional narration sounds particularly obnoxious. But she’s not the only one, as none of the adult stars made a lasting impression in Borderlands. The real star here is Greenblatt as little Tina. It’s a shame that Tina fades into the background as the movie goes on, but when she does take center stage, Greenblatt’s performance is good enough that she’s one of the few characters in Borderlands worth remembering one of the aspects.
But hey, at least there yes Something worth remembering. For much of Borderlands’ running time, it’s bland, the kind of thing that fades from one’s mind so quickly that it’s hard to actually dislike it. Except for Jack Black’s disturbing new version of grandstanding, anyway.
