Borderlands — borderline unwatchable, but not quite

Borderlands. Borderlands. Photo: Courtesy of Lionsgate

By Noelle Adams

16 Aug 2024

It’s not quite the disaster that social media is making it out to be, but big-screen video game adaptation Borderlands, starring the likes of Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Ariana Greenblatt and Jamie Lee Curtis, is crippled by poor creative choices at every step.

Borderlands is forgettably mediocre at best, but among the film’s many puzzling creative decisions, there’s the occasional flash of something to appreciate. So it’s not a complete train wreck, despite what social media and the film’s drain-circling box office performance would have you believe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU_NKNZljoQ

The Borderlands game series is seven titles strong at this point (including spin-offs) and the new film is based primarily on the original Gearbox Software release from 2009. Or, rather, it sets its own tale within the Borderlands universe, and slaps familiar names and appearances on rewritten characters.

The end result is an ensemble sci-fi adventure where down-on-her-luck bounty hunter Lilith (Cate Blanchett) is hired by one of the universe’s most powerful corporates, Atlas (Edgar Ramírez), to find his kidnapped daughter Tiny Tina (Ariana Greenblatt).

The search takes Lilith back to her home world, Pandora, an arid, danger-filled planet that has been torn apart by treasure hunters, all of whom have been searching for a legendary Vault filled with superior alien technology.

Lilith’s mission sees her cross paths with the likes of ex-soldier Roland (Kevin Hart), Tina’s “psycho” protector Krieg (Florian Munteanu), socially inept scientist Dr Tannis (Jamie Lee Curtis), and Claptrap the robot (voiced by Jack Black).

That doesn’t sound too bad on paper, and Borderlands features a surprisingly seasoned cast, including two Oscar winners. The biggest problem though, is that the film plays against its strengths at almost every step.

Borderlands as a game franchise is known for being gleefully anarchistic and R-rated. Director Eli Roth seems a decent enough fit for the project given that his filmography features over-the-top gorefests like Cabin Fever and Thanksgiving, in addition to the more serious Hostel. Except, Borderlands: The Movie is a bloodless PG-13 film where characters talk about “poopy butts”.

Borderlands is far from good – it’s forgettably mediocre at best – but amid all its puzzling creative choices there are a few things to appreciate. (Photo: Courtesy of Lionsgate)

Borderlands Photo: Courtesy of Lionsgate

The cast, too, are mostly playing against type in the worst possible way.

There’s novelty in seeing 55-year-old Blanchett in an action hero role, but the charismatic performer is stuck in dour mode, routinely adopting awkward hip-thrust poses to suggest her “badassery”. Lee Curtis is awkward in a different way, playing a figure stripped of the actress’s innate playfulness. Black’s Claptrap gets the best lines but is also the most obnoxious character by far, mugging for the camera in a way that makes audiences think fondly of Star Wars’s Jar Jar Binks as a CGI sidekick.

Oddly, it’s Hart who fares best in an uncharacteristic role, while Gina Gershon is fun in a five-minute appearance as Mad Moxxi, a Dolly Parton-esque bar owner, whose gaudy exterior hides a heart of gold.

Borderlands rather publicly underwent reshoots with Tim Miller (Deadpool) behind the camera, and the result is a strong sense of filmic identity crisis. There are moments where Borderlands wants to feel like one of those trashy comic and TV series adaptations from the 1990s – think Barb Wire, Tank Girl and Wild Wild West – or a bottom-shelf sci-fi movie always in stock at the video store in the Eighties.

While there’s no faulting the film’s production design – a CGI monster takes flight in one scene in jerky stop-motion, and the cast is confined to canyons, tunnels and car interiors in a throwback, practical-minded manner that viewers may associate with something like Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Borderlands doesn’t look cheap, but it has a consciously cheap creative mindset.

Photo: Courtesy of Lionsgate

Borderlands has a solid production design and at least one effective action set piece. (Photo: Courtesy of Lionsgate)

If the film had consistently and overtly embraced such an approach, along with the hyper-violence of its source material, perhaps things might have been different. The issue, though, is that someone (or multiple someones) had a tight hold on the reins, tugging back on the retro cheesiness and resulting potential fun.

Audiences instead get something safe, contrived in the story department, and painfully unfunny. As an example of the latter, an early sequence in the movie sees Lilith having to deny she’s a Vault Hunter six times in maybe three minutes.

Photo: Courtesy of Lionsgate

Cate Blanchett as Lilith in Borderlands. (Photo: Courtesy of Lionsgate)

In its defence, Borderlands is a brisk 100 minutes and features one very effective, horror-leaning set piece where our heroes must outrace and outfight a tribe of deranged cannibals in a maze of tunnels.

Borderlands is also a missed opportunity – an example of a film battered into unsatisfying shape by misguided thinking that viewers will embrace a calculated Guardians of the Galaxy clone by default.

However, audiences have moved on, and their sensibilities have evolved. Borderlands may have delivered the entertainment goods at one point, but movie fans have been primed for something better – and very recently at that.

On the small screen, we’ve seen that video game adaptations can be a serious art form, given a highly faithful treatment, thanks to The Last of Us. Fallout has deftly shown how to combine dark humour, violence and plot twists against a “wild west” background. And right now Deadpool & Wolverine is delighting cinemagoers with its mix of R-rated shenanigans and heart. DM

Borderlands. Borderlands. Photo: Courtesy of Lionsgate

Borderlands released on 9 August and is screening in cinemas, including IMAX, now.

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