User reviews

Whoever let this get re-written and re-shot into PG13 hell should kicking themselves. It needed to be as deranged as the video games. What happened?? This could have been awesome but we got Jumanji without the Rock. (The Rock would've made this worse to be honest.) What I can give it a 4 for is the world-building, action sequences, effects, costumes and props. Not even Cate and Jamie-Lee could breathe life into some of the innane dialogue. Not even Jack Black's cheap CL4P-TP laughs were enough to add another star. I wanted to like this movie but I will stick to playing the games. Unless we somehow magically get that R-rated cut, write this one off.

So right up front I'm HUGE borderlands game fan. Always have been. Now with that in mind I came in with certain expectations. And I'm going to give you an honest review.

First the casting, I thought it would be dreadful, but to my surprise even though it wasn't the best casting, the actors did an amazing job playing their respective characters. Having said that the ones I would change out are Tina, Moxie, and Roland. They all did their thing, and it was good for them no doubt, but sadly they were not the right casting for those particular roles.

And here's how you can tell. Tina in this movie is a kind of lost girl with explosives, but you get this sense that she kind of needs protecting, and in the game it was completely the opposite. Even the bandits wouldn't mess with her because she was so wildly deranged. That insanity is her defining trait, not having it killed the character. Moxie was more sexy than badass in the game, in the movie the sexiness took a huge backseat and the problem with that is that it IS her personality. You can't just change that in a character. Which brings us to Roland, I love Kevin Hart. And he did a great job portraying Roland, but here's the thing Roland was a completely different physique and completely different personality in the games. He was way more serious, and that's not Kevin's forte, of course it's not, he's a comedian. So like I said, those are just bad casting choices.

Now onto the actual movie, the story was... well not the version of the story we had in the games, which is weird because you know the established fanbase wants that story right? It doesn't have to be the same exact one but it has to be close and this one wasn't it. Now even all of this I can forgive, but what I can't forgive is the PG-13 garbage. Borderlands games are a hardcore rated R+ genre, you absolutely can't change it to PG-13, gut the script to have stupid lines that don't go at all with the scenes and expect anyone to like it. It doesn't work.

6/10 Great acting, mediocre casting/plot, terrible writing. PG-13 rating sunk it.

If Zoolander 2 and Dragonball Evolution had a baby, and this baby had a baby with Son Of The Mask, the Borderlands movie would still be worst than this abomination.

It's a shame that cash grab is all that is motivating Lionsgate to create movies as this film is a giant insult to a beloved FPS franchise with a large and dedicated fanbase.

1) 100% of the casting is wrong.

2) Characters and already based lore were completely changed without any logic.

3) Comedic and gorey M-rated content was replaced with cheap PG-13 poop jokes. The whole point of Borderlands is guns. That kill. PG-13?!

When Sonic movie's trailer was released and the world was shocked and reacted negatively to the design of the main character, Paramount listened, delayed the release and redesigned Sonic from scratch. This cannot be said about Lionsgate with the giant middle finger they keep raising to all Borderlands fans.

I am a HUGE Borderlands fan, but despite how Claptrap looks and the world, there's nothing that would make you scream Borderlands. If you expect the worst movie, you will be dissapointed with a weird but overall fun aftertaste, but if you want to watch this because you are a Borderlands fan, you will want to pitchfork whoever made this, and it's even more shameful since Borderlands games have story, but nothing exceptional. It should be filled with dark humor, or just be true to the games, hell even if they would've done a "SHOOT ME IN THE FACE!" reference I would've gave a 6, but there's nothing. This won't make anyone buy the games, this movie will make people avoid them. Atleast it looks good, and with all the Cinema experience it'a tolerable. I don't want a Sequel, so don't give money to adaptations such as this movie, where the very thing they want to adapt is non-existent besides like some looks.

Had the opportunity to watch it early and boy did I regret accepting it. As a long-time fan of the *Borderlands* game series, I had high hopes for this movie adaptation. Unfortunately, it misses the mark in nearly every way. The plot is riddled with clichés, completely lacking the quirky, dark humor that made the games so unique. The characters feel like hollow imitations of their in-game counterparts, with little of the depth or charm that fans would expect.

What's worse, the movie strays far from the source material in a way that feels disrespectful to the original story and its fans. The iconic chaotic energy and vibrant world-building of Pandora are replaced by generic action scenes and uninspired dialogue. Instead of feeling like an immersive dive into the *Borderlands* universe, this film comes off as a shallow, lazy cash grab that misses the essence of what made the games special.

For true *Borderlands* fans, this adaptation is a major letdown. Save your time and revisit the games instead. If you want to a watch a good video adaptation watch Fallout or The last of us!

Oh come on - it's not that bad! True, there isn't an original thought in it's hundred minute duration and it does look like a very poor relation to a video-game, but it's "Mad Max" meets "Buck Rogers" vibe just about entertained me. It's all about "Lilith" (Cate Blanchett) who is a renowned bounty hunter charged by gazillionaire "Atlas" (Edgar Ramirez) with finding his kidnapped daughter "Tina" (Ariana Greenblatt). Thing is, she's already been rescued by "Roland" (Kevin Hart) and is in no great rush to return to the loving arms of daddy. Whilst trying to track her down, "Lilith" encounters the true star of the film - the robot "Claptrap", a sarcastic pile of scrap who decides to help out whether she likes it or not, so off they go a-child-hunting. Yep - it proceeds exactly as you'd expect, except for the frankly bamboozling contribution of Jamie Lee Curtis (and her red glasses) who does look like she's enjoying herself on set but, like Blanchett, is just a complete fish out of water as the banal dialogue and set-piece combat scenes pass the entire project into the hands of the CGI developers. This is nothing at all special or memorable, just a predictable action enterprise that takes "Robot Wars" to the desert, but if you aim low and take it in the spirit it's clearly intended then it's a perfectly watchable summer adventure.

This adaptation strips everything that was fun about the Borderlands games.

The plot is as generic as they come. Even the 'shocking twist' was laughable.

The jokes mostly don't land. Clap Trap is amusing but nothing to write home about.

Most action scenes are completely unwarranted and seem to serve the short runtime or the absence of plot.

Most of all it seems as though the only that was kept from the original games are the character names and locations.

Not try to gatekeep here, it's just a bad movie. It doesn't hold up even on it's own. So people who came to see the movie not knowing what its about are bound to be disappointed.

I really enjoyed playing the games and when I watched the trailer I was really sceptical about it. Probably like most people. But I didn't judge until I watched it.

This movie has plenty of unused potential. There are some pretty bad things about it - but in the end and in general it is pretty good. It's for sure NOT BAD like everyone is trying to force you to think. It's clearly made for funs because there's a lot of stuff that wasn't explained but if you played the games, you catch these references easily and they're nice addition to the overall experience.

I can recommend it. If you want action movie that is easy to process then that's it. Adjust your expectations and just enjoy what's delivered instead of actively searching for "bad stuff". Enjoy the good stuff because there's a lot of that there too.

Plot

An infamous bounty hunter returns to her childhood home, the chaotic planet Pandora, and forms an unlikely alliance with a team of misfits to find the missing daughter of the most powerful man in the universe.

Cast

Blanchett, Hart, Curtis, Greenblatt, Munteanu, Gavankar, Black, Ramírez. Nobody can say it doesn't have a great cast! And surprisingly and very out of character made by Eli Roth! (Though it doesn't feel like it).

Verdict

Borderlands was doomed straight out of the gate, and where would I even begin in explaining why.

I mean for a start video game adaptations almost always fail. Why? Because generally they're made by Hollywood folks who aren't gamers, so it's not loyal, it misses the target audience and it simply isn't what it was intended to be.

Next, the casting. I mean are you serious? This is some of the most confusing baffling casting in the history of the industry and lets look at why.

Kevin Hart as Roland? Rolland is a tough guy big muscular soldier. So they cast diddy little Hart? Who thought that was a good idea. He to his credit does his best here, but it just doesn't work.

Jamie Lee Curtis as Tannis? Just why? She's 25-30yrs too old to be in that role and her presence in the movie is so minimal she contributes absolutely nothing anyway.

Blanchett? Again, too old. And let me be clear she's a fantastic actress and I would consider myself a fan, but she was badly miscast here and as much as she makes the most of it this was a poor choice and should been a role taken by someone in their 20's or even 30's, not 50's.

And Tiny Tina? To her credit Greenblatt was great here in her role. But that role is NOT Tiny Tina. Did the writers even play the games for a moment? That was not Tiny Tina in the slightest and shouldn't be considered so.

So what with the video game curse and the offensively bad casting the movie was DOA, though to its credit they at least made a trailer that I thought looked like it could be at least half entertaining. Alas you seem to be able to do that with any movie these days because Borderlands isn't half entertaining, in fact I'd argue it's a tenth at best.

You see it's your bog standard American Hollywood formulaic CGI laden no brains and all flare foolishness. You'll predict every single scene with absolute ease and hate yourself when it the credits roll for wasting 90 minutes of your life on something which you can with confidence say you could have done better yourself.

In my opinion Borderlands isn't bad for the reasons I keep hearing but make absolutely no mistake it's bad.

Rants

One of the biggest complaints I keep seeing/hearingis that it's too cutesy, that it should be more violent, that the creators had clearly never played a Borderlands game because if they had it would be R rated. My response to this, WHY? I've played every Borderlands game and I have no idea why people are saying this.

The borderlands games....

Sex, none.

Nudity, none.

Bad language, minimal Violence, it's cartoony cel-shaded graphics with minimal blood. It's one rung up the ladder from Fortnite!

So no, the movie shouldn't have been R rated because the games most certainly aren't!

The Good

Big flashy colorful, all the things that keep your attention Most of the performances were actually good despite the poor casting Quite a few great nods to fans of the games

The Bad

Awful casting The ending was dire Too formulaic.

As someone who knows nothing about the video game I enjoyed this movie.

It seems many haters compare it to the game, but that usually happens - that Hollywood changes the source material for all kinds of reasons. Personally, when I go watch a movie, I expect to be entertained; and that it not be total garbage.

No it was not, and I was already wondering about a possible sequel.

There is more than enough to continue the story line from what happened in this movie; especially with things that took place. It would be silly not to.

To all the haters: Get over it.

All in all, I was thoroughly entertained.

I dont know how people can rate it a flat 1, but since it got alot of hate the rating isnt really what it should deserve.

Main thing i dont get how they want to adopt a mature 18+ game where most of its core is the vulgare language and dark humor to a pg13 film it really is missing alot of points on that aspect.

Considering this, you get the reason why they made this movie "for the next generation of gamers that are around the age of 13". To bring them into the franchise.

So it is an alright movie for a evening at home while drinking with friends and have a couple of laughs and not take anything to serious.

If you take it to serious you might not like it, however your Kids might really enjoy it.

A movie that pretends to be a game. Imagine that you are playing Borderlands for Lilith, but you cannot control her - it's the same thing. The aged, strong and independent Cate Blanchett waves her fists, tumbles, shoots endless rounds of ammunition, in general, everything is according to the laws of an interactive game, but the film is not a game. The script was adapted for a teenage audience and simplified everything so much that it is difficult to finish watching it... not everyone is able to watch it, or rather, not only everyone can watch it, few people succeed. I couldn't watch the rest of this movie, I wasn't interested, I wasn't having fun, everything was formulaic, self-repetition and borrowing.

Welcome to The Borderlands. The borders of mediocrity, that's it.

A long time ago I was in an Irish bar and someone offered me a job. "Fast cars. Red necks. Explosions." That were the details. And here we are, 12 years later, finind out they really meant "Poor CGI. Actor too old for the roles. Blowing up."

Borderlands have been a beloved franchise cherished by millions, myself included. And not only cuz it they were amazing games (except for 3, maybe), and it has become a sad memory and the idea of something that could have been great.

I never liked Kevin Heart. Now I despise him.

I won't give details about the movie, you have an idea on how it's going to be. And you are absolutely right.

I'm giving 2 stars only because Kate is a godess.

Eli Roth once again proves that he has talents of trying to desperately make gritty, bloody, crazy, edgy, and non-serious movies but ultimately ends up being a slob, annoying, and dreadful experience as it feels like his movies are for pure shock value and edginess, in the worst way possible. Once again, it's a movie that quite misses the point of what made the games really good as this movie, despite some solid production designs and costumes, its messy writing, poor character engagement, and mixed performances doesn't really do a good service.

Roth really tries hard to make this movie feel epic and insane but it all just comes off tedious and annoying at the end. Its approach on the humor, atmosphere and character dynamics lack the charms of the games and is filled with messes and messes. The casting, despite performances being trying, really feels miscasted.

I think it's time for studios to learn how to make a good video game movie by watching Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

There was so much wrong with this movie. The acting was off (wrong casting choice). It was not funny! The script was so boring and unrelatable. Hard pass on this movie.

Cate Blanchett's acting was a little too extra. These characters had no depth so it was hard to relate or even root for them. I thought it would be a bit like Guardians of the Galaxy, unlikely allies working together to save the universe... but nope, it was just more like people who ran into each other and had no choice but to go with it.

Also what was the bloody point of the vault? The ending didn't go over any of this, they just had a weird party.

I really wanted to walk out but stayed for the movie ticket price.

Its a decent enough adventure comedy, more "inspired" by Borderlands than an adaption.

It seems to sort of aimed at a Deadpool type of action comedy, but failed as it is quite kid friendly action. I think this movie would have benefited from going the total R rating route.

You sort of know what kind of movie it is going to be when Kevin Hart comes on screen, with jokes and attempts at comedy that are not exactly there..and that you've seen a thousand times before.

So the movie would probably also have benefited from someone other than Kevin Hart in the role.

Would i "again" view this at the movies? No.. but it is a good and enjoyable action comedy, to watch at home.

The only part that was interesting in this movie is claptrap's lines, which were cheesy most of the time.

Absolutely mediocre live action adaptation. Movies like these should be exciting and unique, with a one of a kind twist that's newly introduced to the series. You as a director have so many characters and depth to work with in this universe, Yet the director decides to use the most generic and repetitive plots. It goes without saying that the acting in this movie was good (although lacked a bit of depth to the characters personalities imo) and the resemblance of the actors to their original counterparts were not all as accurate as it could've been. Overall, Such a shame to see this coming from a franchise this big.

People are acting like someone rewrote the Bible or something. Geez. Okay, so first I'll lay down my Borderlands nerd cred so as to be allowed to have an opinion: I played Borderlands when it came out, obsessively. All the DLC's, Platinum trophy, etc. Then Borderlands 2 came out and there went my social life for a few more months. Played the Pre-sequel but wasn't quite as OCD-triggering. But I blamed the game less than just not really caring about video games so much anymore (they don't really mesh so hot with work, girls, life). I'd stopped playing games by Borderlands 3 but doesn't appear to apply to this movie much anyway.

So I've established that I enjoyed the video games and the world and invested hours and hours of my life. I enjoyed the snarky humor and repetitive carnage. Fun stuff. That being said, there's really no case to be made for the Borderlands lore or a beloved IP. The games are about scrounging around on a planet-sized scrap heap while gunning down psychopaths in barbed wire codpieces and constantly plowing thru weapons and perks to maximize your destructive capacity. It's a fairly loose criteria, which the movie follows. It's not the most awesome sauce result but it's not like they went and massively changed a lot: Lilith isn't a transsexual android and they're not trying to reverse the effects of global warming on Pandora, or similar changes that get many red states hackles up. It's just...violent but not bloody violent. Ooookay.

So I guess my big question to the naysayers is, "what were you expecting that u didn't get?" The movie looks right. The characters, the playable ones, never had an over abundance of personality. There's lots of violence and shooting. No loot hunting but I can't imagine that any way but utterly boring on screen:

"Damn this gun rules!!! Pow pow. Oh look, a crate. What's in here? A SLIGHTLY BETTER GUN THAT RELOADS 1.2secs FASTER? Holy turdballs!! I'm gonna take it and throw this old one on the ground, then I'm going to rearrange my backpack for 5mins... damn, this is some exciting cinema!!"

There's been a ton of complaining, much of it preemptive to actually seeing the movie. Most all of the complaints are upset about what they got but very short on what should've been. All seems to amount to "it should be funnier and bloodier." But it's not. It's just like any other video game to movie.. except they actually got a lot right. I'd say more than most games that transistion to film. But no no, gotta go on another Captain Marvel jihad cuz some cinematic widdle feelings have been offended. There's TONS of movies with jokes and blood. They're called horror movies and they do get old but go to town. If that's your main priority than you should be fairy easy to please (unless people are just being churlish and obstinate as a reflex... which is probable).

Now there are some valid issues. Kevin Hart is miscast. He does fine I guess it's just not the right dude for the part. Pretty much any game with multiple character classes will have a generic soldier/warrior and they're usually a tall average dude. They could've gotten Micheal Jai White for waaaay cheaper and had more cash for a decent villain (Edgar Ramirez wasn't that bad actually but he didn't bring much either). Hell, this might be one of the extremely few roles that would've been better with Eric Roberts. But we got Kevin Hart. Oh well, it could've been Tracy Morgan so cut your losses.

No, it's not very gory but that never really stood out to me while watching it. I get some people are craving the old ultra-violence but it gets old fast. Desensitizing. No one seems to care that Lilith's gun has infinite ammo. I guess cuz the game does that so it's okay?

My biggest issue is the ending. That's where the two directors annd the Eli Roth vs. Studio stank really shines. I don't know what happened before but there's several shots of Jamie Lee Curtis looking up at the climactic action and just awkwardly describing what's happening. Seems pretty clear they changed whatever originally happened then plugged in some reshoots with her going, "oh wow, look up there at blah blah. This means yadda yadda is happening!" Smooth.

Claptrap was fine, just kinda wasted. The Psycho is a psycho, whatever. Tiny Tina is lame but I don't recall her being super cool in the games. Though it's been years since I played them and things often look better in retrospect. Perhaps others are going off fond memory: like how "everything Star Wars sucks now cuz it's not as good as (insert whichever one they first saw as a kid). It's called growing up, don't blame the laser swords in space movie.

All this backlash might actually help. I didn't really care about this movie at first. Then all this awful stuff came out. Then after that people actually saw the movie and more negative feedback. By then I had sub-zero expectations, figured I'd watch it for kicks and was able to somewhat enjoy it. Doubt I'll go out of my way to watch it again but I'd rather rewatch this than many other worse movies that didn't get inundated with a storm of nasty predictions/opinions (depending on whether they hated the movie before they actually saw it, if ever).

I don't rate anything on here I haven't watched, and completed. If you want to punch out of a movie after 40 grueling minutes that's totally fine. But rating the whole thing without seeing it feels lousy. Same with rating higher to compensate for perceived over-negative ratings. It's entertainment, not a moral crusade. Go play the video game more if u want that experience. The pacing and overall dynamics of the story are totally different between the two mediums. Pointing out how yet another unoriginal movie isn't that great is about as clever as pointing out that poo stinks. Thanks for your guidance oh wise ones. This is a just another meh action movie, but not nearly as bad as the majority I've seen the past decade.

I'd be very interested in a directors cut. Kevin Hart would still be a little off but otherwise all the pieces are there, which is more than can be said for many other films.

Of course it's gonna have a low score. When I first saw the trailer, I know it's going to be terrible. It's not even disappointing, it's straight up garbage.

I'm a huge fan of the Borderlands series with Borderlands 2 being my favorite one. I still adore the series, even Borderlands 3. I played countless hours of all of them, with Borderlands 2 I spent the most time on.

I was interested when a Borderlands movie was announced. I was thinking it was going to be one of the best video game adaptations alongside Mario, Fallout, Edgerunners and Sonic (I know I'm crazy).

But I was wrong. Movie is just... bad. If anyone asked me what's my top 10 worst video game movies of all time, this is one of them.

It was a fine movie I had a good time there was no cringe moment no bad acting maybe the ending was rushed but overall the hate for this is mind boggling guess there are too many superior beings out there who wants something out of this world if this was made in the 90s no-one would've complained but now everyone thinks it's cool to make hate everything.

That what happened with this one it wasn't a bad movie but some geniuses on internet said it's horrible made some trolling videos bout it and people believed it cuz that how we are now our own personal opinions don't matter we just do what others does.

It was a relatively nice scifi adventure action movie.

It won't win any awards for best acting, best screenplay or anything else. But it was an entertaining movie, perfect Friday entertainment if you don't have sky-high expectations. It's a fairly short movie with a very straightforward story, which in itself can be quite nice all movies should be 3 hours long these days, but they really don't all have to be.

So no, not the best movie I've seen, but far from the worst. I was entertained, okay acting, the script is what it is, lots of action and adventure, . Especially good was the aesthetics that they got just right and the environments. A solid six in the rating.

Wow so many missteps for what has got to be the worst movie of the year so far easily, the characters are all so bad and ruined, the story is just so bad, feels so artificial and completely suffers from a PG-13 rating, every actor is basically just reading a script, not even Kevin hearts is even remotely funny, and not even remotely like Roland, no organic or remotely enjoyable banter or anything to make them seem like a team, this movie needed a hard R rating, because maybe there could've been real humour from crazy deaths, blood and viscera, and actual banter and fun in relation to that but instead it's just so bad, one extra star because Claptrap was okay, voice sounded a bit off but at least tried to be funny but couldn't carry the entire movie.

This movie had alot of potential going in. The games have a patchy story line but it had enough to build a wonderful crazy action packed bloodbath of a movie with enough creative room for SOME changes to tighten it up. However that was not the case they tossed all the source material out the window and gave you HOT SMOKING GARBAGE. The acting was good but everything about that story is trash. The only thing that should be in that vault are the writers and whoever gave this dumpster fire the green light to put out.

Claptrap was on point for the most part for sure a accurate character, Fire Hawk was so poorly written that they might as well just made it someone else completely her attitude was close but everything els about her was a bust aside from how she looked, Tina was not nearly crazy enough even in her youth she was absolutely bananas so they barley scratched the surface with that.

The rest of the characters were kind of on point but over all this movie should have never seen the light of day.