It was only a subject of prison term before a picture show likeBorderlandscame along . In recent years , Hollywood has become increasingly invested in the concern of adapt democratic video game properties into raw , potentially moneymaking films and TV shows . This trend has , somewhat surprisingly , produced a few genuinely fun and exciting adaptations , including HBO’sThe Last of Us , Amazon’sFallout , and even — to an extent — last year’sThe Super Mario Bros. Movie . Those three titles , in exceptional , have done a lot to resurrect both critics and viewers ’ confidence in the lineament of the future project that may come from Hollywood ’s current video game delirium , so it ’s only fitting thatBorderlandsthreatens to take all of that confidence away again .
The new movie fromThanksgivingdirector Eli Roth is a clunky , lumber mass of lifeless filmmaking , jambon - fisted authorship , and — bad of all — unearned confidence . It is a 104 - moment - retentive , self - satisfied smirk with no teeth , an uninventive merger of video game and sci - fi movie tropes that mistakes work fun of its many , groan - cause clichés with real ingenuity . There is nothing young or fresh to be constitute inBorderlands , except perhaps the discovery that there really are some movies too disastrously messy for even an actress of Cate Blanchett ’s caliber to find her style through .
Despite being put in an alternate , presumably sprawling galaxy , Borderlandstakes place largely on the fictional desert major planet of Pandora . As Blanchett ’s cerise - hairy bounty hunter Lilith explain in the motion-picture show ’s stiff opening narration , Pandora was once rule by a knock-down foreign race known as the Eridians , but the only tracing of them that now continue on the satellite is a divination that speaks of a succeeding “ daughter of Eridia ” who will have the great power to unlock an ancient , legendary Eridian vault . It ’s believed that say vault could help oneself bring successfulness back to Pandora , which is why it has become a field of study of obsession not only for its aboriginal occupants but also off - satellite vault hunter and megacorporation executive who stargaze of using its contents to expand their own , already immense reticence of power and riches .
It is one of these executives , an arrogant tech chief operating officer named Atlas ( Edgar Ramírez ) , who seeks out Blanchett ’s Lilith early inBorderlands . After interrupt her up-to-the-minute bounty mission , Atlas offers Lilith a life-time - changing amount of money in exchange for tracking down his daughter , Tina ( Barbiestar Ariana Greenblatt ) , who go missing on Lilith ’s home major planet , Pandora , weeks ago . It does n’t take Lilith long to do just that , but her mission is complicated by the presence of Roland ( Lift‘s Kevin Hart ) , a former soldier who abduct Tina in the hope that doing so would slow down Atlas long enough for him and his crew to find and open Pandora ’s vault first . A couple of explosive misapprehension and confrontations later , Lilith find herself reluctantly give chase along with Roland , Tina , and the other two members of their squad : a crazed masked hatchet man name Krieg ( Florian Munteanu ) and Dr. Patricia Tannis ( Jamie Lee Curtis ) , a vault - obsessed friend of Lilith ’s late female parent .
The turns thatBorderlandstakes from there are all predictable and gallingly easy to see coming after only a few minutes of observe the film . That matter is n’t helped by the fact thatBorderlandsfeatures some of the worst dialog of any movie released this yr . Its screenplay , which was originally written byThe Last of Usshowrunner Craig Mazin before he understandably had his name removed from it , now counts Roth and Joe Crombie ( a rumored pseudonym of Mazin ’s choosing ) as its co - writers . Even those auctorial credits seem incorrect , though , becauseBorderlandsultimately feels like a sorry , taped - together assortment of studio notes , on - set musical theme , and post - production “ fixes ” that does n’t come close to anything resembling an actually satisfying Hollywood smash hit .
The film has no sensation of advancing momentum or rate . It feel less like a legible adventure story and more like a 40 - hour video game that has been snub down to a two - hour collage of just its cutscenes and quicktime events . Roth and editors Julian Clarke and Evan Henke speed up and slow down the film at a charge per unit that is downright confound — skip over major sections of lineament development and mankind - building while still trying to mob in define pieces and minor narrative detours that cease up jutting out like ill - fitting puzzle pieces . At one full point shortly after Lilith ’s arrival on Pandora , Blanchett ’s voice - over returns to explain how she flow into a group of thieves that she had to take precaution of on the major planet before ultimately go a move on … all while watcher watch her do precisely that in an action sequence that feel like it was chopped down from its original two - second length to 10 seconds . Minutes later , Lilith comment that she ’s spent two weeks on Pandora and has n’t had any luck receive Tina yet , but it feel before that communication channel is delivered like only one day has passed .
The picture ’s choppy , thwarting pace preventsBorderlands ‘ cat from doing anything of existent worth or substance with any of their characters . Greenblatt and Blanchett both seem , at least , concerned in exploring the mutually exclusive sunglasses of Lilith and Tina ’s standoffish yet secretly lovesome - hearted personality , but they ’re not leave the space to do that byBorderlands ‘ old-hat writing . Blanchett ’s turn , accordingly , come across as more of a free burning pose than a sodding operation , while Greenblatt is depart with small more to do than titter and skip as she throws explosive at her and her friends ’ various enemies . Unfortunately , none of the pic ’s other performing artist fare any better , with Hart flush it once again despite his dependable exertion to pass as a convincing action fighter . He is n’t aided in that section by Roth . The director ’s one determine artistic trait — his signature tune , joyously gruesome eye — is missing fromBorderlands , which yield it just as stylistically two-dimensional as it is narratively slow .
With its desert , postapocalyptic landscape painting and neon - colour sets , Borderlandswears its sci - fi and fantasy inspirations openly on its arm . While the plastic film may borrow major elements from disparate source likeMad Max : Fury Road , Star war : Episode IV — A New Hope , Atlantis : The Lost Empire , andDeadpool , though , you ’d be better off watching any of those movies instead . Borderlandsis , quite simply , a travesty of epic proportions , a misfire that goes so deeply haywire that apparently every one of its limbs gets blasted off . All that ’s left is its face , which continue frozen in the same self-satisfied smile in the desperate hope that it can convince you there ’s more go on under its surface than there is . But there is n’t anything to be found beneathBorderlands ‘ coloured exterior — not an original idea or compelling artistic pastime in visual sense , permit alone a heartbeat .
Borderlandsis now playing in dramatics .
