The Borderlands movie lands on the border between good and bad
polygon.comSay what you want about Borderlands, the venerable Gearbox Software game franchise about treasure hunters on the ruined alien planet of Pandora — it lives up to its title. Borderlands games find the places between places, whether that means the border between traditional roleplaying systems and skill-based shooter mechanics, or the border between good humor and gimmick.
Like many other game series of its size and age, this franchise is a relentless crosser of unlikely lines. Borderlands has been a narrative-based Telltale point-and-click adventure, a top-down iOS strategy game, and a high fantasy adventure. But with Lionsgate’s movie adaptation Borderlands, directed by Eli Roth and starring Cate Blanchett (Tár), Jamie Lee Curtis (Everything Everywhere All at Once), Kevin Hart (Jumanji), Jack Black (The Super Mario Bros. Movie), and Ariana Greenblatt (Barbie), the series tries to cross a frontier that has left even the biggest, baddest video game franchises stranded in the wastelands.
Yet even here, Borderlands has found the place between, which is impressive, but unfortunate. Borderlands the movie isn’t particularly good, but improbably, it isn’t particularly bad, either.
Blanchett anchors the movie as Lilith, a cynical bounty hunter who accepts a job from the head of Borderlands’ perennial corporate overlords, Atlas. It’s too lucrative to pass up, even though it’ll take her to the one place in the galaxy she never wants to see again: her homeworld, Pandora. (While Borderlands’ plot is bespoke, its lead roles are all characters lifted from the games.)
A few twists and turns of allegiances later, a momentarily allied group of misfits comes together, including runaway demolitionist Tiny Tina (Greenblatt), her protector Roland (Hart), eccentric scientist Tannis (Curtis), and Jack Black as Borderlands’ mascot, Claptrap the extremely annoying robot.
Borderlands isn’t a smart movie, but it isn’t meant to be. Roth and co-writer Joe Crombie are much more interested in
Read more on polygon.com
