Borderlands Could’ve Been Worse
Borderlands is the latest film at the butt of cinemagoers’ jokes, along with Harold and the Purple Crayon if anyone was even slightly passionate about that one. Being described as laden with bad acting, directing, and action sequences all topped off with ho-hum box office returns in its opening weekend, Borderlands adapts the titular video game to the worst of its ability. Even early on, the film was notorious for its troubled production. The most infamous “fun fact” the movie’s production has to offer is that Eli Roth’s direction and changes were so polarizing that screenwriter Craig Mazin refused to have the film on his record, crediting his contribution to the alias of “Joe Crombie”. Now that the film has released and everyone is calling it worse than Madame Web of all things, we had to check it out to see if that much really was true.
It wasn’t.
Listen, Borderlands is definitely one of those “nothing” movies. It feels uninspired—ironically, too, being an adaptation—the writing has issues for sure, and a lot of the direction feels messy and all over the place. If you’re looking for problems with the film, you’ll definitely find them, whether or not you’ve actually indulged in or are a fan of the Borderlands series going in. But aside from that, there’s nothing in the film that feels like it actively harms the medium or genre and how far both have come. Madame Web was special in that absolutely NOTHING about it was working. For people who love to see absolute trainwrecks at the theater, its release was a dream come true. What’s special about Borderlands, weirdly enough, is that it ISN’T special. It’s a bad movie, but not unwatchable in the way some of the more recently shunned releases have been.
In spite of its sloppy direction, the palette of the movie can be pleasant to look at, which is a good explanation for how the movie as a package feels. Interesting to look at, but boring to watch. Some of the characters’ motivations, even that of the main cast we follow, aren’t as clear as they should be for a film where all these rogues are together for a reason. Adding onto that, it’s not entirely entertaining watching the main cast’s interactions, as they’re not written to have the chemistry required for film like this where a bunch of morally grey strangers band together against a much bigger evil. James Gunn’s original Guardians of the Galaxy had it figured out, as well as his take on The Suicide Squad (the standalone follow-up to the similarly titled original that ALSO couldn’t do much right). It’s not like it’s an easy task to pull off, especially when most of reviewers’ comparisons to a group that does this dynamic better usually comes down to comparing to Gunn’s work. What I find hard to believe, though, is that Craig Mazin’s script didn’t do this a whole lot better.
A lot of this film felt rushed and troubled, from the CGI to the marketing to the line deliveries, we could definitely go on. After how mediocre a lot of the other loadbearing terrible films were this past year, though, it’s hard to say this one breaks the mold. It’s just a generic action movie that doesn’t do anything all too inventive or impressive that you could probably just throw on if you need something to watch. Again, you’ll find problems no matter if you’re actively looking or not. But with the reputation the film has already accrued, it’s pretty hard to go in expecting anything anymore if you happen to find it on digital in the future, or in the bargain bin.
Borderlands is now playing in theaters worldwide.