The “video game adaption” genre is currently booming. The Last of Us, Uncharted, Sonic the Hedgehog and Detective Pikachu have all proven that there is a market out there and it appears that people are interested in these stories, even if they are not initially aware of the source material. These adaptions are a great way at introducing these long standing franchises to new audiences and it helps to expand the world and stories of these games. This brings us to the latest adaption with Borderlands.
I myself have very limited knowledge of the Borderlands game series and it isn’t exactly a mainstream series so a lot of the film-going audiences won’t be aware of how bonkers, bizarre and violent the game series is. The games feel like a western on steroids, in an over-the-top Mad Max style in terms of looks and visuals. It appears they have attempted to replicate this effect for the film and what comes across is a mix of Guardians of the Galaxy meets The Magnificent Seven.
The story for the film is simple, kind of, in that there is a hidden vault of treasure from a lost civilisation on the planet of Pandora - no relation to the same location in the Avatar film series. It turns out one of the keys to opening the vault is the “Daughter of Eridia”, which appears to be Tina who is captured by a mercenary called Roland, but the centre of the narrative is Lilith a bounty hunter who teams up with a robotic side-kick called Claptrap and must attempt to find Tina before an capitalist organisation led by Atlas finds her. How this all comes together and how the story plays out is very complicated and doesn’t attempt to go into too much detail and thus audiences lose track of what is going on too.
The cast is exceptional with the highlights being Cate Blanchett as Lilith who plays against type as a trigger happy Bounty Hunter. Then there is Barbie actress Ariana Greenblatt as Tina who provides a lot of hijinks, mayhem and humour, and then I personally believe Jamie Lee Curtis steals the show as a mad scientist type of character known as Tannis, who has history with Lilith. If it sounds like a lot is going on then that is because there is. The story is hectic, fast-paced and doesn’t attempt to go into any depth at all. The script had the potential to create a vibrant and violent world where there are no rules, almost like a Mad Max version of Star Wars, but instead it feels like a disorganised playground of ideas. There is a lot of unnecessary jokes and a lot of forced humour too. Most of the characters play it straight and as a result makes the film come across a little sillier than intended.
Borderlands has all the hallmarks of a big blockbuster science fiction film. Sadly the potential is never met and the story sadly doesn’t deliver. Even the end feels rushed and we get no satisfying conclusion. Overall the film is a mess from start to finish. The characters are never explored apart from Lilith and even then we don’t learn much about her until the final act of the film, the script is littered with needless jokes that just don’t land but the saving grace is the cast. The cast put in the effort and it may be a little entertaining, it just isn’t entertaining enough for repeat watches.
★★☆☆☆
2/5
Final Verdict:
Borderlands is all style and no substance. The humour is lacking, the action is repetitive and unoriginal but the cast try their best to balance the tone and the story. The story is pretty basic with not a lot of depth but thankfully the performances of the likes of Ariana Greenblatt, Jamie Lee Curtis and Cate Blanchett makes it more or less watchable. Honouring the music and style of the Guardians of the Galaxy films, it feels like Borderlands is a copy-cat film rather than a sci-fi original. It won’t go down in history as the greatest video game adaption but it may instead sadly go down as one of the worst.
Thanks for reading today’s blog!
Alex Murray, the Head of Eyesight Productions
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