Based on the action role-playing first-person video game of the same name, set in a space Western science fantasy setting, Borderlands is the newest addition to the heavily saturated video-game adaptation sub-genre. The movie is directed by Eli Roth, a filmmaker famous for his entries into the horror franchise, particularly those of an incredibly gory nature including Hostel and last year’s Thanksgiving. Starring Cate Blanchett (TAR), Kevin Hart (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle), Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween) and Ariana Greenblatt (Barbie), Borderlands follows a ragtag team of misfits who embark on a mission to save a missing girl who holds the key to unimaginable power. Despite boasting a competent cast and colorful visuals, Borderlands is severely let down by poor dialogue, an uninteresting story and complete ignorance of the source material.
The success of a video game adaptation largely relies on one thing – how true it stays to the lore of the game. Though audiences mostly look for fresh, original ideas in cinema, that shifts slightly when focusing on adaptations, whether it be books, TV shows or video games. We saw this last year upon the release of Five Nights at Freddy’s, with most discourse surrounding how faithful it remained to the dense lore of the games we’ve been playing years prior. We don’t want our video game adaptations to steer too far away from what we know. Unfortunately, Borderlands is very likely to disappoint fans of the video game as quite frankly, it mostly ignores anything introduced by the games. The first issue here is the age rating – it’s summer blockbuster season, so making it appeal to the masses seems logical, though a higher age rating may have allowed for a lot more carnage. This is more surprising given that director Eli Roth has a penchant for blood, guts and plenty of splatter – it seems he thought better of utilizing what he knows best. The game is known for its frenetic and intense action, and whilst we do get plenty of that, it does emit the level of violence that usually comes alongside it. Not only does it lack the violent nature, but it lacks the element that the game is known best for – its sense of adventure. We don’t get to explore much of this vast, colorful world, with most of the movie taking place in one spot, a spot in which our main character disapproves of. There was a lot of potential to explore some incredible locations, but the script lacks that exploration which makes the games so fun.
Not only is this sense of adventure ignored within the setting, but within the storyline, too. It has a simple premise of locating a child to bring her home to her Father, and whilst this works well to establish the characters and location, it doesn’t really have anywhere to go. This results in a slow, poorly paced movie that throws every exciting idea it has into its ending, resulting in an uneven affair with a rushed final act. There is a reveal here, but it’s highly predictable and made quite obvious within the first two acts. It’s also very by-the-numbers in terms of its sci-fi storyline, not really trying anything new or introducing fresh ideas to audiences. The overall premise of a bounty hunter being sent to locate a child, only to then grow to care for it and wish a better life for it is something we’ve received before, quite recently in fact, and we’ve seen approached in a much better way. This simplistic, formulaic storyline would be more excusable if there was some development for our characters, location and lore – unfortunately, there isn’t. We learn very little about our ragtag team, even lead Lilith played as well as she could be by Cate Blanchett. This creates detachment between us as the audience and our band of misfits, as we don’t know enough about them to get behind them and root for their cause. There isn’t much lore involved in here either, and you don’t come away from this knowing much about Pandora, Atlas or quite frankly, Borderlands as a whole. This is all pushed aside for one main reason – humor.
Borderlands dialogue is the weakest element of all. It attempts to pack too many laughs in, with unfortunately not many of them land due to their immature nature. Riddled with urine jokes, defecation gags and a robot whose only characteristic is that he won’t shut up, Borderlands may be painful for adult audiences to sit through. What starts off as light, silly humor soon turns into the grating kind, with many of its main laughs repeated to oblivion. This is even more of a shame given the talent we have on offer. The cast, made up of not only Blanchett but Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Jamie Lee Curtis, Edgar Ramirez, Ariana Greenblatt and Gina Gershon is absolutely stacked, but through no fault of their own, they are unable to show their range. Cate Blanchett expectedly delivers the best work, which is not only down to her skill but having more to do than anyone else; each talented actor is merely reduced to delivering unfunny one liners and over-using curse words as a vessel for humor. This not only results in annoying and unlikeable characters but also ones that lack chemistry. There’s no sense of camaraderie or friendship that you’d wish a movie like this to have, which in turn weakens the sense of adventure present. It lacks depth within its dialogue, making it all too easy to zone out.
The best thing about Borderlands is quite easily the visuals, though they don’t pass with flying colors, either. The vibrancy of this world is certainly a highlight; there’s plenty of color on offer, and the futuristic make-up and costuming are definitely a great sight. Each frame oozes with an electric brightness that has the ability to envelop you into this world, and it definitely cannot be accused of looking bland. Though most of the best bits were shown in the trailer, there are still plenty of cool visuals to feast your eyes upon. The action sequences are shot fairly well despite avoiding urgency and stakes due to the lack of carnage, and they’re quite frequent too, which helps push along the standard storyline. The main issue with the aesthetic is the overuse of CGI. It’s hard to jump with two feet into a world that looks so artificial, and is so heavily reliant on computer generated effects, landscapes, props and location. Though some may argue this gives it a video game feel, we expect better from live action cinema. When looking at the most effective sci-fi, fantasy or dystopian worlds, many utilize a balance of practical and CGI effects. Borderlands, not so much. It just feels and looks empty.
There’s nothing new to add to your knowledge of Borderlands that the overplayed trailer hasn’t already taught you. The cast on display is full of greats and the colorful visuals seldom get old, but they’re unfortunately bogged down by cringe-worthy dialogue, a weak and under-explored storyline, underdeveloped annoying characters with no chemistry and a lack of intensity when it comes to the action. Borderlands is a game known for its edgy, mature nature, as is filmmaker Eli Roth, but none of that can be found here. Instead, we get a carbon copy of many better films, that’s trying way too hard to be something else.
