The film about the loot shooter Borderlands had already had some problems beforehand. MeinMMO editor Nikolas Hernes was finally able to see it and was nevertheless disappointed without any expectations.
How do I stand in line? I love Borderlands. I probably spent several thousand hours on parts 1 to 3 and the spin-offs. I wasn’t particularly excited about the announcement of a film from the start; with Eli Roth as director it could have at least been bloody trash.
The bad press of the last few weeks washed away any expectations I had and the film still managed to disappoint me. Unfortunately, all the Easter eggs don’t help.
You can see the trailer for the film here:
English trailer for the video game adaptation Borderlands
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A completely boring look
The first part of Borderlands is heavily inspired by Mad Max. There is a lot of desert and grey, dirty buildings. The sequels were much more colourful. The film is a bad mix of the two. You mainly travel through deserts, but they never look dirty and wicked enough to make you recognise Pandora as a criminal planet.
The characters look way too clean. A dusty, sandy planet should be dirtier. I also don’t like the costume design. Nothing about the clothing looks organic, it looks more like a cosplay event.
The world and the characters never merge visually and the effects and sometimes the green screen do the rest. The games live from the look, which mixes comics and apocalypse. The film seems more like a fan film.
There is no story, characters don’t work
What about the story? The main story has never been the Borderlands games’ greatest strength. It was the absurd characters, side quests and worlds that you traveled through. There is no real story in the film either. The group around Lilith, Roland, Tiny Tina, Krieg, Tannis and Claptrap are looking for the chamber.
I don’t understand the constellation of characters. I don’t think it’s a bad idea to have Lilith as the protagonist, but why is Krieg included and not Brick, who was playable with Lilith and Roland in part 1? In the games, Brick and Tina have a lot of moments together. Krieg seems like an advertising tool so that the well-known psychos are included.
The villain is also lame. Handsome Jack is probably the most entertaining character in the entire series in part 2. You just love the charmingly unsympathetic villain. The Atlas boss from the film has no character and is just the nasty CEO.
With Cate Blanchett and Jamie Lee Curtis, you even have good actors who can’t do much here. Blanchett works best as Lilith, but since there is no chemistry between the characters, you never feel any sympathy for the group. Jamie Lee Curtis is also disappointing, although she has already shown in Everything Everywhere All At Once that she can play an absurd role.
The film tries to tell an emotional story with Tina and Lilith alongside the really unbearable jokes, but that didn’t work for me at all. The Tiny Tina DLC in Borderlands 2 did a much better job: Why a DLC for a 12-year-old loot shooter is the best I’ve ever played.
Easter Eggs for fans of the series
What kind of fans are there? One positive aspect is the fan service. You can always discover Easter eggs in the background. For example, Dahl weapons or the legendary Infinity pistol. I also knew posters of Face McShooty or Mick Zafford from side quests in Borderlands 2.
Unfortunately, this is never brought to the forefront. Sometimes you only get names like Caustic Caverns. When you get there, it doesn’t look like it does in the games, but just like a dark corridor.
They could also have played more with the familiar weapons. After all, it is the franchise with endless guns. You often see designs that don’t fit the world or the games at all.
The film often doesn’t seem like a film for Borderlands fans, but rather a sci-fi film that hides elements from Borderlands in the background.
What about the action? That also leaves something to be desired. With Eli Roth, who recently directed a fun slasher called Thanksgiving, I expected at least some bloody scenes, like the series has. But the film is rated FSK12 or PG-13.
The film was originally supposed to be much bloodier and more brutal, but a more light-hearted version was chosen for a wider target audience. This doesn’t really suit fans of the series, who are confronted with humorous but also crude situations in the games. (via Kotaku)
Despite the lack of expectations, I had a glimmer of hope. After all, Fallout, Arcane and The Last of Us have shown that video games can be adapted well. Borderlands is unfortunately not a film that I can recommend to people. Neither fans of the games nor trash connoisseurs will get their money’s worth here. If you want a dystopian, silly video game adaptation, you should watch Twisted Metal: A new series on Amazon is the next good video game adaptation – It’s a mix of Fallout and Mad Max