The Lacroix of Video Game Movies | Borderlands Movie Review

WACO, Texas (KWTX) - Reviewed by Alex Richardson

Video game adaptations have had a rocky history, falling out of favor after the Mortal Kombat series of movies came to an end. That is until a few years ago when a combination of Detective Pikachu and Sonic the Hedgehog hit theatres and made oodles of cash at the box office. Video game movies are now billion dollar movies and the latest mega block-buster hopeful is Borderlands. Based on the bombastic world of the games of the same name, Borderlands is looking to draw in audiences with humor and action along with a star studded cast. Going into this as a fan of the series who has played almost all the Borderlands titles to completion, I was excited to see this world brought to live action. You could feel the love that the Gearbox family and friends had for their world. I wish that their love for the world could have made it into the movie.

While there were glimpses of the Pandora fans know and love it fell very flat as the characters and locations while well done just couldn’t capture the life and chaos of the Borderlands franchise. It truly felt like the Lacroix of Borderlands. All fizz and no flavor. The faintest essence of the source material while being not much more than a lifeless plot pushed forward by massive star power. While the star power was there it felt… misplaced. Kevin Hart a well known comedian cast as one of the few stoic characters of the series just felt off. I will say however while Tina’s background is… something I was pleased with how well both her and Claptrap were presented. Although I didn’t go into this expecting a 1 to 1 retelling of the original story this movie felt like it had no identity of it’s own. If you go into the movie not knowing any details about the Borderlands series you could get lost very quickly. However somewhere between the development hell multiple director and script changes it lost so much of its life that it’s hardly recognizable by long time fans. The choice to go with an original take on the story would be admirable if it didn’t decimate most of what makes the blood soaked world of Borderlands so fun to watch.

Most confusingly is the choice of characterization. We don’t spend enough time with any of the cast to get an understanding of them, causing them to come off as celebrity impersonations of the game’s characters. Tiny Tina and Rolands relationship is completely changed from the games and Lilith feels like a pale imitations of her fiery character. Props to the actors who put in the work, especially to Jack Black who despite going up against an iconic video game voice managed to find his own fun version in the annoying robot CL4PTRAP. Ultimately the story doesn’t serve the characters well and the characters deserved a better story.

Character and development issues aside another thing that I feel held this back is the rating. Long time fans know Borderlands is known for vulgarity, dark humor, and crazy firepower. While there was no shortage of gun fights and action every hit felt like concussive force. It honestly felt like an episode of power rangers as a gunshot point blank to the head results in a jerk of motion or a giant axe swing cause sparks against a bare chested psycho. It felt like there was no damage whatsoever not even singes after a point blank grenade. This one glaring detail made action scenes feel sterile and lack impact. Removing any sibilance of danger times, scenes would try hard to sell action that simply wasn’t compelling to watch. Credit where credit is do however the environmental team did a great job. While the action made Pandora feel like it had a fear of actual violence ‚the environment and props felt full of life. While the physical weapons felt true to the games, they were maybe the most washed of anything in this movie. Borderlands is known for it’s over the top amount of guns, ranging from guns that talk to guns that fire exploding guns. Almost every weapon in this movie is a standard Jakobs weapon, making for no variety and no character. To top it all off this movie took one of the most distinctive art styles in the gaming industry and wiped it for realism instead. In the end I don’t think it’s as bad as some people make it out to be and you can still enjoy the movie if you don’t take it to seriously. I give the Borderlands movie a 4 out 10.

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