Borderlands Movie Review: Dead on Arrival

Borderlands is what an out of touch executive thinks the “cool kids” would find appealing: one obnoxious quip after another that feel outdated as soon as they’re uttered.

Borderlands sees a treasure hunter named Lilith (Cate Blanchett, TÁR) reluctantly return to her home planet of Pandora to find the missing daughter of the universe’s most powerful man, Atlas (Edgar Ramírez, Jungle Cruise). She forms a team of misfits: Roland (Kevin Hart, Lift), a once-respected soldier; Tiny Tina (Ariana Greenblatt, Ahsoka), a feral pre-teen demolitionist, and Tina’s protector Krieg (Florian Munteanu, Creed III); Tannis (Jamie Lee Curtis, The Bear), the scientist who’s seen it all; and Claptrap (Jack Black, Kung Fu Panda 4), a persistent wiseass robot. Together, they must battle alien monsters and bandits to find and protect the missing girl, who may hold the key to unimaginable power.

Quite early on, Blanchett’s Lilith is introduced to our main villain, Atlas, through a holographic device that allows people to project their faces on top of other individuals. The sequence itself is odd, though, given the circumstances, you’re left to believe that was the intended point of the scene, to show how disconnected characters are with one another. It doesn’t take long after this moment for you to realize there is something deeply wrong with this new attempt at launching a franchise based on a popular video game. That wasn’t just an awkward back and forth between two actors that clearly weren’t on the same set upon filming. That is simply what the rest of the movie would be like.

On the drive back home from the theater, I tried my best to think of anything positive I could say about Borderlands. I’m a firm believer you can take something of value from any film, even the poorly made ones. I guess the cast itself would have made for a solid assemble with a better script and a different approach to the material. Although, speaking of approach, it’s baffling that a studio would hand director Eli Roth (Thanksgiving) the keys to a franchise with mean-spirited characters and a cruel world – sensitivities that would fit him like a glove given his background in splatter films – only to handcuff him to a PG-13 rating. Granted, I doubt an R-rating would have solved Borderlands’ problems, but you can’t help but wonder if more creative freedom would have helped this find an identity.

Instead, Borderlands comes across as a Guardians of the Galaxy imitation that’s a decade too late. Like any imitation, Borderlands takes all the wrong lessons from the many space operas it’s inspired by. Instead of creating characters to endear the audience with, which is why Guardians works, Borderlands seems to think James Gunn’s success with his Marvel films was due solely to an 80s soundtrack and wildly expressive characters that apparently don’t have an off button.

Whereas the soundtrack is directly linked to the emotional journey of our heroes in Guardians, allowing for scenes that explore their feelings, Borderlands does not give us a single earnest character moment. Our protagonists don’t get to reflect on their actions; they’re constantly screaming at each other to a point where the dialogue gets lost amongst its set pieces’ tedious background music and sound effects.

Visually, Borderlands fails to capture any sense of awe, too. Part of me wants to be partial to the art departments here because, after all, the games’ world falls into the category of post apocalyptic-like setting à la Mad Max or Fallout. Similarities to other IPs are inevitable. The issue with the film’s portrayal of Pandora is that, similarly to how it treats its characters, the movie would rather tell us what the world is like than let us live in it. There are brief scenes with Cate Blanchett walking through the wasteland: those scenes give us a glimpse of personality that is immediately interrupted by unnecessary voice over. There is constant narration that feels mandated by a studio who is not confident in their audience to understand the rules of this universe, thus opting to have Blanchett explain it away.

As somebody who’s familiar with the source material but isn’t a player himself, I find it hard to believe a fan will take anything of value from Borderlands. Yes, the games themselves do carry pretty childish humor and tone, but as a player, you still have the benefit of exploring the world, interacting with the colorful characters that inhabit it, and turning it off at your leisure. Here, you’re forced to endure that same universe, though without any of its actual DNA, and worse, you can’t turn it off whenever you want. 

Borderlands will be released globally in theaters on August 9, 2024. Read our reviews of video game adaptations The Last of Us, Fallout, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and Knuckles.