Borderlands (Movie) – Review

First impressions aren’t always an accurate indicator of quality, but there’s no denying its influence in shaping expectations. Sometimes, this can work to one’s advantage – decreased confidence presents the opportunity to be pleasantly surprised, bringing to mind a well-known quote from Kratos, of God of War (2018) fame, “Keep your expectations low (boy), and you’ll never be disappointed.”

Even MJ, Peter Parker’s girlfriend in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), has a variation of the line –  “If you expect disappointment, then you can never really be disappointed,” she says, and it does hold a certain degree of truth, albeit defeatist. Lo and behold, Eli Roth’s live-action take on Borderlands, based on Gearbox Software’s popular looter-shooter series and published by 2K Games, is here to prove both of them wrong. 

The hints were there from the very beginning. For one, the original script went through multiple rewrites and handovers. Then came the casting, when the team went with actors who are a lot older than the game characters the talents were supposed to play, but was reluctantly overlooked due to the benefit of the doubt, and the casting of well-known actors. The excitement was dulled further when the first and subsequent trailers dropped, sparking unimpressed reactions and criticism over its visuals.

It’s a sharp precursor to the 102-minute feature, which starts out mediocre-ish and ends up being, for the lack of a better word, a dumpster fire. Borderlands fails to deliver the spirit of its beloved progenitor, and in a weak attempt to include more than it can handle, crashes and burns under its own weight. While there are some highs and notable highlights, boy, do they pale in comparison to the lows. 

The story follows Lilith (Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine), an infamous outlaw with a mysterious past, who unwillingly returns to her home planet of Pandora after being contracted to find the missing daughter of the universe’s most powerful businessman, Atlas (Edgar Ramírez, The Bourne Ultimatum). 

Along the way, she forms an alliance with a team of misfits comprising former elite mercenary Roland (Kevin Hart, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle); teenage demolitionist Tiny Tina (Ariana Greenblatt, Ahsoka); Tina’s bodyguard Krieg (Florian Munteanu, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings); erratic researcher Tannis (Jamie Lee Curtis, Everything Everywhere All At Once); and wisecracking robot Claptrap (voiced by Jack Black, Kung Fu Panda). Together, these unlikely rag tag collective of misfits, because they are not heroes, must fend off alien monsters and dangerous bandits called Psychos, as they find and protect the missing girl, who may hold the key to unimaginable power.

From start to end, there’s a strong sentiment that Borderlands doesn’t know who its audience is. Newcomers are quickly thrown into an exposition dump, with hardly any breathing room to understand lexicon like Eridians, Vault Hunters, and the Crimson Lance, as well as how these all came to be. It’s an issue that persists as more characters, locations, and worldbuilding are revealed, making it increasingly difficult for them to play catch-up – exacerbated by the blend of both new and existing lore elements. 

Fans of the shooter trilogy, meanwhile, will notice that the film features a mix of characters from the first two games. Lilith, Roland, Brick, and Mordecai are the original four-man team from the first game though here, the latter two have been replaced with Tina and Krieg, who hail from the 2012 sequel. The change doesn’t quite fare well though, with Krieg barely having any presence, and Tina’s on-screen portrayal lacking the unhinged instability of someone who blows up a bound Psycho with dynamite at 13 years old, no doubt due to its PG-13 rating.

Hart’s casting is the worst of the main quartet because the comedian is clearly just phoning in his performance, but Ramírez’s movie-exclusive role follows closely behind. More of a characterisation fault than a mismatched depiction, his character, who’s only mentioned in the source material and has never made an appearance, proves to be uninspiring, bland, and highly forgettable. It’s bizarre that the live-action adaptation didn’t leverage on Handsome Jack, the antagonist of Borderlands 2, and his established backstory, which was fleshed out even more in his own title, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. 

The adaptation’s saving grace takes the form of Blanchett, with small assists from Black and Greenblatt though she clearly know this is her one-man show. Despite her wardrobe looking like a Lilith cosplay, the Oscar-winning actor still oozes charm and manages to command attention, filling the role of the anchor weight. Claptrap, toned down from his exhausting, overly-excitable personality, is brought to life expertly by Black, sporting his fair share of entertaining and witty moments. While Greenblatt’s version of Tina isn’t the most authentic, she does experience some growth beyond her role as a red herring. 

There are naturally other references to be found, some more overt than others. Series veterans can expect to hear about the ECHOnet, as well as catch nods to the Caustic Caverns, one of Mad Moxxi’s bars, and the Firehawk symbol, which by the way, gets horrible treatment near the end of the movie. In case it wasn’t clear, Borderlands doesn’t just adapt the first game. Instead, it serves as a hodgepodge of elements from all across the trilogy, resulting in a lack of focus and messy execution that leaves out some of its signature flair, such as elemental weapons and melee combat.

Occasionally, a glimpse of what its potential rears its head. A certain teleportation ability (if you know, you know) sets up the stage for foreshadowing, and several major plot points from the three titles are retained. The “everything that will go wrong, will go wrong” experience is in line with the Borderlands spirit, and the action can be enjoyable – until the poorly-rendered CGI hits, that is. The funny thing is that enough time, effort and money has been spent on the vehicles, weapons and sets, so why does this look more like a TV movie that is seemingly more interesting in tone and direction than Zack Snyder’s larger dumpster freight train, Rebel Moon?

As a part-action film, shoddy and inconsistent visual effects aren’t a good look. Not only are green screen sequences easily identifiable, explosions and similar images don’t blend nicely into the background as well. There’s an attempt to mirror the game’s aesthetics and user interface (UI) via a peep through a sniper gun’s scope, but the embellishments appear at odds with the overall picture. In contrast, the movie sets are an impressive recreation of the game’s settings, bringing that pop of colour and vibrancy Borderlands is known for. 

More notably, the CGI plummets to a new low in the last act, which is undoubtedly the most dreadful part of the adaptation. In fact, the last 20-or-so-minutes are laughably bad that Borderlands went from a tolerable watch to an unsalvageable mess. The dialogue, already awkward and agonising throughout, cranks up the secondhand embarrassment by a few notches, with cliché tropes and lazy writing making it even more difficult to take the on-screen happenings seriously. If you thought X-Men: Dark Phoenix was bad, this phoenix wants a shot at the title.

It’d be easy to place the blame on its family-friendly rating, which does significantly dilute the franchise’s identity as a whole. Psychos aren’t, well, psychotic and sadistic enough, fight scenes don’t pack the characteristic violent punch that fans love, and swearing is limited to a handful of curse words. However, the failed humour only serves to affirm the movie’s lackluster execution – while there are self-aware jokes that drew some chuckles (“By sending their shortest soldier?” Tina asks Roland at one point, poking fun at Hart’s short stature), most miss their mark. 

There aren’t many redemption chances for Borderlands with its runtime, and it only has itself to blame. Between the crude CGI, flat humour, and everything in between, the live-action flick proves to be a dull, feeble endeavour to bring a popular, kind-of niche title to the silver screen. It commits the grave mistake of missing the entire point of its game counterpart, and concentrates too hard on being something that it’s not. In the film’s finer moments, there are rare glimmers of optimism, though one thing’s for sure – some ideas are better left in the Vault, and Borderlands is certainly one such example.