Borderlands Slammed in Early Reactions – “A Complete Mess”, “Baffling” and “Dull”
Cabin Fever director Eli Roth brings Borderlands to the big screen with an all-star line-up of a cast which includes Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Edgar Ramírez, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ariana Greenblatt, Florian Munteanu, and Janina Gavankar, with Jack Black as the voice of Claptrap.
The film is an adaptation of the popular video game from Gearbox, which first hit consoles in 2009 following four Vault Hunters travelling to a distant planet named Pandora in search of advanced alien technology and other riches.
In the film, Blanchett stars as Lilith, a bounty hunter who has returned home to Pandora who joins forces with Roland, Tiny Tina, Krieg, Tannis and Claptrap in a hunt for one of Pandora's best-kept secrets and the missing daughter of a powerful man named Atlas.
Borderlands is hitting theaters on August 9, but the first reactions are starting to hit from early previews, and they're not great.
Darren from Movie Scene Canada called it "baffling", saying it has "a rushed and dull screenplay" and "looks cheap due to poor CGI".
On a positive note, Darren says, "Cate Blanchett, Ariana Greenblatt and Jack Black are all great".
#BorderlandsMovie is a baffling video game adaptation. There is potential for great world building, but it never happens due to a rushed and dull screenplay; the set design is impressive but the film looks cheap due to poor CGI. Cate Blanchett, Ariana Greenblatt and Jack Black… pic.twitter.com/6FX04UAebC
— Darren Movie Reviews ?? #TIFF24 (@dmoviereviews) August 7, 2024
Adriano Caporusso of Bitesize Breakdown calls Borderlands "a disaster" that "swaps the mayhem and imagination of the games for a lifeless, unfunny, and visually repulsive dud".
BORDERLANDS is a disaster. Filled with every cliché you can ponder, this film swaps the mayhem and imagination of the games for a lifeless, unfunny, and visually repulsive dud with annoying characters and a cast with not one ounce of chemistry.
Follow @bitesizebreak for more. pic.twitter.com/3iT70Kexgm— Adriano Caporusso??TIFF (@AdriCaporusso) August 7, 2024
Edgar Ortega also had very little praise for the film, saying, "It’s not even so bad it’s good, just a complete mess."
Also, why would you give Eli Roth of all people a movie with mean spirited characters and a messed up universe, and not give him an R rating? Granted, I highly doubt it would’ve made Borderlands better, but at least it wouldn’t feel like the movie was handcuffed from the start.
— Edgar Ortega (@edgorteg) August 7, 2024
There is very little positivity out of early reactions. All of them pinpoint the lack of humor and waste of talent, as well as commenting on the film's odd choice of PG-13 rating.
Full reviews remain under embargo, so a more accurate portrait will likely arrive in the days to come, but for now, Borderlands has been deemed a certified dud.
#Borderlands is a fun PG-13 action movie. It completely relies on Cate Blanchett’s star power to carry itself to the finish line — and she delivers.
While there’s nothing that particularly makes it stand out from the crowd, the film is enjoyable from start to finish and has… pic.twitter.com/xj4ogue32Z— The Hollywood Handle (@HollywoodHandle) August 7, 2024
BORDERLANDS: The un-ironic, feature-length equivalent of TáR finale, in which Cate Blanchett comes to horrifying realization her career is now in the hands of ... [Rainier Wolfcastle voice] ... nerds. But even nerds have better taste than Roth's abysmally boring IP strip-mining. pic.twitter.com/GVqa70jHrF
— Barry Hertz (@HertzBarry) August 7, 2024
#FIRSTREACTION
Kurt Morrison #Top5FilmDive
As predictable as films come these days, #BorderlandsMovie is borderline unwatchable. With such great talent in front and behind the camera, it's astonishing to me that this ended up being the finished product. Blanchett and Hart are… pic.twitter.com/U3U1UWVWo2— Movie Scene Canada ???? (@MovieSceneCan) August 7, 2024
