First reactions to the Borderlands movie tear it apart

The first Borderlands game burst onto the scene in 2009. It brought fast-paced action, comedy, and intrigue as players navigate Pandora and all of its dangers in pursuit of sweet, sweet loot. In time, Borderlands became the starting point for an entire gaming franchise, of numerous beloved and not-so-beloved games,

Now, at long last, the long-running series has made the jump to live-action, following in the footsteps of other recent video game adaptations such as Twisted Metal, The Last of Us, and Fallout, to name a few. Early critic impressions of the Borderlands movie are in, and well, they’re not very positive.

Borderlands misses the mark for the majority of critics

To say that critics haven’t held back on Borderlands and its supposed cacophony of missteps would be an understatement. The film has been widely panned before it even hit theaters.

“Eli Roth’s fiasco is so drearily routine and slapdash that even an A.I. would deem it too plagiaristic,” wrote The Daily Beast‘s Nick Schager of the film’s uninspired and rushed writing. Over at The Hollywood Reporter, David Rooney expanded on this, specifically discussing the feature’s lack of emotional resonance: “Since the characters remain one-dimensional — not much more than cartoonish gamer avatars — we’re never terribly invested in their survival, or their quest to get to the vault first.”

Highlighting the film’s overabundance of needle-drops and sci-fi action, Empire‘s Dan Jolin notes, “Borderlands so wants to be Guardians Of The Galaxy…but it doesn’t come close to capturing the same Guardians space-magic.” Vicky Jessop of the London Evening Standard even put it in contention for worst movie of 2024, claiming that it calls back to a bygone era of absolutely atrocious video game adaptations. Alistair Ryder over on AwardsWatch doesn’t even think it has the makings of a future cult classic with its lack of originality and style.

What does Borderlands have going for it?

Seems like a lot of critics find Borderlands to be a derivative, style-less, action flick that’s impossible to emotionally invest in and harkens back to the dark ages of video game adaptations. That’s a pretty bleak description, but is there any silver lining here? Is there anything that gives Borderlands even the slightest bit of merit in the eyes of critics? As it turns out, yes. Miraculously, some feel there are some bright spots in what appears to be one of the biggest cinematic misfires of 2024.

Well, so far, pretty much the only positive is the portrayal of Lilith by the historically excellent in just about everything Blanchett.

Though she finds the character’s writing a bit lacking, Beyond the Trailer‘s Grace Randolph likes what Blanchett does with the Lilith role: “I got a kick out of Blanchett starring in a movie like this – and doing a great job!” Danny Leigh agreed in his Financial Times review, calling Blanchett’s charisma one of the few “faint, stubborn signs of something more interesting” in the movie. “Sadly, Borderlands is an unworthy vehicle for [Blanchett’s] swaggering performance,” added Screen Daily‘s Tim Grierson.

A long road to the Borderlands

Borderlands‘ road from the gaming world to Hollywood is a long one. Talks of the games being adapted date back to 2011, though, evidently, progress on such a creative endeavor was slow. Leigh Whannell was initially said to be handling writing and directing duties, Aaron Berg and Oren Uziel took a crack at the script, and at one point the film was envisioned as R-rated. Eventually, Eli Roth was selected as director, casting began in 2020, and after over a decade in development limbo and weeks of reshoots under director Tim Miller, Borderlands has become a viewable reality.

On paper, Borderlands seems poised to become a hit. Roth and Miller are seasoned directors, and they led a stacked cast consisting of such A-listers as Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Jack Black. Once trailers and promotional images arrived, however, not even the presence of game staples like Lilith (Blanchett), Krieg (Florian Munteanu), and Claptrap (Black) and some of Pandora’s signature imagery could dispel the notion that the adaptation looked underwhelming and uninspired. All early impressions have done little to counter those feelings.

At the end of the day, these critic reactions only comprise a small portion of folks who have seen and will see Borderlands. Time will tell if their critiques of the movie are widely-held, or if it will find its footing with general audiences as it kicks off its theatrical run. Sadly, Borderlands has severely struggled when it comes to selling tickets so far, so we’ll have to see if people even bother going to see the movie to form an opinion on it.