Borderlands

First off, I know nothing about a Borderlands game. I just saw a flashy trailer with some promising stars and thought, sure, I'll give it a go.

A bit surprised to see Cate Blanchett in it... could she pull off a badass, wise-cracking bounty hunter? Turns out she could - definitely a strong point in the film. Indeed, there was quite a bit of good acting talent in it - AND Kevin Hart. And yet, somehow it all seemed wasted. (Why did they bother with Jack Black?) I quickly accepted the lurid art direction - especially after finding out its game origins. And, not having any comparisons to make, was fine with the cast. But what really let it down was the lazy writing.

I'd even go along with the fairly thin, derivative plotline if it was an enjoyable journey along the way. But the dialogue was a string of tired lines trying to be hip and edgy and falling very flat. Clearly this was intended to be action/comedy - and the action was actually ok - but Eli should have handed over some the comedy content to people with the right skills. I get a lot more laughs out of a late night talk show monologue.

So, while it looked pretty cool - and the fight scene using Motorhead's Ace of Spades sounded cool - ultimately, I just didn't get enough personality from any of the characters to care what happened to them. (With Furiosa a similar-looking movie, it gave me renewed respect for George Miller as a writer/director.)

So right up front I'm HUGE borderlands game fan. Always have been. Now with that in mind I came in with certain expectations. And I'm going to give you an honest review.

First the casting, I thought it would be dreadful, but to my surprise even though it wasn't the best casting, the actors did an amazing job playing their respective characters. Having said that the ones I would change out are Tina, Moxie, and Roland. They all did their thing, and it was good for them no doubt, but sadly they were not the right casting for those particular roles.

And here's how you can tell. Tina in this movie is a kind of lost girl with explosives, but you get this sense that she kind of needs protecting, and in the game it was completely the opposite. Even the bandits wouldn't mess with her because she was so wildly deranged. That insanity is her defining trait, not having it killed the character. Moxie was more sexy than badass in the game, in the movie the sexiness took a huge backseat and the problem with that is that it IS her personality. You can't just change that in a character. Which brings us to Roland, I love Kevin Hart. And he did a great job portraying Roland, but here's the thing Roland was a completely different physique and completely different personality in the games. He was way more serious, and that's not Kevin's forte, of course it's not, he's a comedian. So like I said, those are just bad casting choices.

Now onto the actual movie, the story was... well not the version of the story we had in the games, which is weird because you know the established fanbase wants that story right? It doesn't have to be the same exact one but it has to be close and this one wasn't it. Now even all of this I can forgive, but what I can't forgive is the PG-13 garbage. Borderlands games are a hardcore rated R+ genre, you absolutely can't change it to PG-13, gut the script to have stupid lines that don't go at all with the scenes and expect anyone to like it. It doesn't work.

6/10 Great acting, mediocre casting/plot, terrible writing. PG-13 rating sunk it.

Whoever let this get re-written and re-shot into PG13 hell should kicking themselves. It needed to be as deranged as the video games. What happened?? This could have been awesome but we got Jumanji without the Rock. (The Rock would've made this worse to be honest.) What I can give it a 4 for is the world-building, action sequences, effects, costumes and props. Not even Cate and Jamie-Lee could breathe life into some of the innane dialogue. Not even Jack Black's cheap CL4P-TP laughs were enough to add another star. I wanted to like this movie but I will stick to playing the games. Unless we somehow magically get that R-rated cut, write this one off.

I dont know how people can rate it a flat 1, but since it got alot of hate the rating isnt really what it should deserve.

Main thing i dont get how they want to adopt a mature 18+ game where most of its core is the vulgare language and dark humor to a pg13 film it really is missing alot of points on that aspect.

Considering this, you get the reason why they made this movie "for the next generation of gamers that are around the age of 13". To bring them into the franchise.

So it is an alright movie for a evening at home while drinking with friends and have a couple of laughs and not take anything to serious.

If you take it to serious you might not like it, however your Kids might really enjoy it.

This adaptation strips everything that was fun about the Borderlands games.

The plot is as generic as they come. Even the 'shocking twist' was laughable.

The jokes mostly don't land. Clap Trap is amusing but nothing to write home about.

Most action scenes are completely unwarranted and seem to serve the short runtime or the absence of plot.

Most of all it seems as though the only that was kept from the original games are the character names and locations.

Not try to gatekeep here, it's just a bad movie. It doesn't hold up even on it's own. So people who came to see the movie not knowing what its about are bound to be disappointed.