The first Borderlands movie reviews are in, and they don’t hold back

thesixthaxis.com:

The first reviews for the Borderlands movie have dropped, and critics have not held back in their critiques of this latest video game adaptation, describing it as “a botched Guardians wannabe” and that it comes with “wildly miscast actors and an impenetrable script“.

Borderlands releases in cinemas this week, from today (8th August) in the UK and from tomorrow (9th August) in the US.

There’s just a few dissenting voices in these early critic reviews, which has left the film with a Metacritic rating of just 33, and it seems that any real positivity stems from Cate Blanchett’s performance as Lillith. “Blanchett knows exactly what movie she’s in, and she seems to be having the time of her life,” said ScreenRant on the way to the 7/10 highest score, while Collider gave it a 5/10 and called it “a fun ride, but a bloated cast and breakneck pacing don’t allow it to reach its full potential.”

And it’s the potential that other critics felt let down by. Variety cited the film’s predictability and a “tamer-than-expected take” on the game series, BleedingCool said there are “No emotional depths, stakes, or convoluted plot worth speaking of,” and GameSpot said, “that’s what happens sometimes when a movie spends four years in post-production being repeatedly reworked–over time, everything gets sanded down into nothingness.”

There’s plenty more reviews out there, but almost all of them lay into the long-in-production film.

The film was in development for a good few years and was announced way a back in 2015. Eli Roth was in the director’s chair for the Borderlands movie, his filmography includes the likes of Cabin Fever, the Hostel films, The Green Inferno, Death Wish, and The House with a Clock in its Walls. The film was completed some time ago, but Tim Mller was brought on board to reshoot some scenes.

The cast includes Jamie Lee Curtis as Tannis, Cate Blanchett as Lilith, Ariana Greenblatt as Tiny Tina, Jack Black as Claptrap, Kevin Hart as Roland, Edgar Ramirez as Deukalian Atlas,