Movie Review: Borderlands

After getting off to a very rocky start, movies and TV shows adapted from video games have finally reached a point of respectability. The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Sonic the Hedgehog franchise have proven very successful at the box office, while Fallout and The Last of Us have become highly acclaimed television series. Even the lesser efforts like Uncharted have avoided being out and out stinkers like some of Hollywood’s original attempts at this material. It was only a matter of time then before there was another misstep, and unfortunately for the very talented people involved, Borderlands has proven to be it.

The film opens with mercenary soldier Roland (Kevin Hart), breaking into a prison of some sort to rescue Tiny Tina (Ariana Greenblatt), who is being held there by her father, Atlas (Edgar Ramírez), the owner of one of the galaxy’s most powerful corporations. During the attempt he inadvertently frees a “Psycho” named Krieg (Florian Munteanu) who is all too easily convinced to assist in the mission, and who is inexplicably portrayed as more sweet than psychotic.

We are then treated to some clunky exposition as we meet bounty hunter Lilith (Cate Blanchett), who is stopping by a favorite tavern on her way to turn in a prisoner when her break is interrupted by Atlas and his goons. Unmoved by their entreaties she quickly dispatches with all but one of them and finally listens to Atlas’ request: He wants to hire her to “rescue” Tina from her kidnappers on the seedy planet Pandora. Lilith refuses until offered a very, very large sum of money, which convinces her to go.

Upon arriving on Pandora, she is quickly greeted by the very irksome robot Claptrap (voiced by Jack Black), who was programmed to help her upon her arrival on the planet decades earlier by an unknown benefactor. Lilith begrudgingly allows him to tag along, largely due to his ability to easily locate Tina on the vast world. Once they do, she finds that Atlas also has his vast army hunting for the girl and that his intentions aren’t as innocent as she was led to believe. She quickly switches allegiances and agrees to help Roland keep Tina safe, and so they set off to speak to Dr. Patricia Tannis (Jamie Lee Curtis), who should be able to help them open the secret vault hidden on the planet by the ancient Eridians and put a stop to Atlas’ evil plans.

There are things to like about Borderlands. The entire cast is clearly having fun with the material, which helps quite a bit, especially given how uninspired the screenplay often is. Blanchett in particular really seems to relish the opportunity to play something so against type so it’s a shame she wasn’t given some better dialogue to work with. The action sequences are lots of fun, barring the occasional moment of sloppy CGI, and the movie does improve as they become more numerous. The sets and costumes are also very impressive, effectively capturing the look of the games and making them feel real. If any parts of this movie are worthy of awards, it’s these.

As I mentioned though, the script is often borderline terrible. There is far too much exposition, often for things that don’t even really need explaining. The attempts at humor are more likely to induce cringing than laughter and the big “twist” is painfully obvious well in advance of its reveal. Eli Roth and cowriter Joe Crombie are perhaps a little too successful at making Claptrap annoying, while also failing at truly endearing any of the other characters to us, with everyone coming across more like a walking attitude than a person. Still, it’s far from the worst movie ever made, or even just this year, and the final third is enough fun to elevate things at least a little bit. It feels like there actually is a good movie in here somewhere, it’s just a shame it was never able to really come together. ★★