When the movie sits in developmental hell for a decade and a half sometimes it is better to cut your losses And say face rather than continue with a movie that can only be described as a cinematic tsunami.

 It’s been almost 15 years since the Borderlands video game franchise was at the height of its popularity. The first game that was released in 2009 sold about four and a half million copies by the time Lionsgate decided that they were going to move forward with a film project to bring the video game to life.  Given Hollywood’s long history of trying to create movies based on video games, Mini could tell from the jump that this is not going to end well.

Between 2015 and 2018 the Borderlands film saw a multitude of riders and directors jump on and off of the project that from the outside looking in shouldn’t have seen the light of day. By the time filmmaker Eli Roth was attached to be a part of the movie,  a little event called COVID-19 happened which further caused delays in irritation for the studio looking to make this film.

Most of this film was shot back in 2021 Under COVID guidelines for the movie to be held up an additional two years before a series of reshoots were ordered and here we are in the year 2024 and the film is finally seeing the light of day. But even with a 120 million production price tag attached to this movie you can tell that Lionsgate did not have much faith in what they were releasing in theaters and after watching the film you can tell why.

 Borderlands begins with the character of Lilith,  a rogue Bounty Hunter who has been tasked with returning to her home planet of Pandora to find the missing daughter of the wealthy power player Atlas. As Lilith returns to the planet she reluctantly Partners up with a talkative robot named Claptrap who assists her in her journey to find a young girl named Tina.

When she finds the girl,  Lilith discovers that she may have bitten off far more than she can chew as she is not the person who wants the girl and whatever perceived value is attached to her. Adding a miscast group of characters who have about As Much Chemistry as sodium and water, And you have a 2-hour Sci-Fi Action comedy that could go down as one of the biggest waste of time that 2024 has to offer.

There’s no better example of the soullessness that consumes Hollywood than the latest film from Lionsgate entitled Borderlands. It doesn’t take much time to realize that whatever Studio executive greenlit this project thought that somehow they were going to make money by profiting off of the name of a popular video game series well having any idea about what the game they were trying to create in the first place.

Borderlands is a movie that doesn’t feel authentic for a single second of its runtime.  The movie comes off as a bunch of A-list Hollywood actors cosplaying at Comic-Con about a video game franchise they know less than little about. The best thing about this film is the bright and colorful scenery that the film brings to life via a crap ton of  VFX and a blue screen But the shiny colors only achieve keeping audiences awake 15 minutes later than they would fall asleep.

Despite being an accomplished award-winning actress, Cate Blanchett Is horrendously miscast as the lead character of Lilith. But no one in this film is cast properly,  Kevin Hart is another person who is out of place in this film playing the character of Roland, Ariana Greenblatt is laughably terrible as Tiny Tina, and the list goes on.

For a movie that relies on the chemistry of its team, this is a team-up devoid of personality and charisma. The acting in this film comes off as the actors took three bullet points of the character descriptions and decided to create their personalities as the film went on. No aspect of this movie builds any kind of emotional connection with its audience meaning that if there is anyone in your theater watching this film they will take the time to catch up on a power nap and then be invested in anything that they’re watching on screen 

To call Borderlands a rip-off of Guardians of the Galaxy would be an insult to the Marvel Cinematic Universe even in its current form. As much as a good portion of the blame has to go on Eli Roth you have to ask yourself how much input did he have in this disaster of a movie that was at least 13 years in the making. 

Except for Sonic the Hedgehog,  video games in Hollywood do not result in a positive outcome. Borderlands is yet another example of how these two mediums cannot coexist with one another. If you are a fan of the franchise you’re better off dusting off your old PlayStation 3 and playing the original game for a few more hours rather than wasting your money and time to go see this soulless Hollywood effort masquerading as a summer blockbuster.

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