Yesterday I watched Borderlands; and I quite liked it to be honest! Directed by Eli Roth, and starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, and Ariana Greenblatt, and based on the video game series of the same name; Borderlands is a science fiction action comedy set on the fictional planet of Pandora (not that one), and follows a Vault Hunter called Lilith, who is searching for a strange girl, with an explosive fascination! When it comes to movies based on video games, the needle can go one of two ways. Good or bad, although most of the time…they are bad. Everyone once in a while though, one will come along, that is actually pretty good; shame it’s not the case for Borderlands, although it does come pretty close. I am a huge fan of the Borderlands games (although I have yet to play number 4, as I’m worried it might cause my brand new PC to explode). The 2D like aesthetic is really cool, the setting is interesting, and the mix of Action RPG and FPS creates a really dynamic experience.
The film though has some issues. Whilst it does get a few things pretty spot on, like the characters, the world design, the action, and the mythos (although it does mess around with some of the more established lore), nearly everything else, is pants. The opening act is rather borring, filled with blink and you’ll miss them moments, so be prepared to rewind a lot. The comedy only really takes off after Claptrap appears, and the film’s ending is patched together with Hollywood cliche’s. The execution is poor basically. It struggles as a film. If it were a TV show, there would have been more of an opportunity to really explore the world, characters, or at least find a way to get Angel in (seriously, where was she?). But it only really fails in the story aspect, as all the things Borderlands are really enjoyable. Plus they made the right decision when they decided that Motörhead‘s Ace of Spades would be great music for a fight scene!
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