While has participated in the worlds of Gearbox Software and 2K Games’ Borderlands for hundreds of hours, He finds the structure of the game very addicting as it entails exploration, teamwork and pursuit of new weapons that are used to mow down hordes of enemies for fun (shown in there and there, among others). We’re not saying that there is a shortage of dry repeating cycles in these games as in any game made in the framework of “loot farming,” implying search for self worth gear, after all no, but the character of Claptrap, Mad Moxa, Tiny Tina, Handsome Jack, all of whom present in these games, are just impossibly cute and unforgettable. The central setting the planet Pandora is inhabited by the creatures reminiscent of dragons and equally insane, mask wearing, Mad Max: Fury Road styled crazy people. Combine that with a fresh design and some clever narrative with punchlines and twists which seem to borrow the feel of proper old school slapstick and vaudeville for a good measure. Imagine Mel Brooks blended with George Miller.
With that being said, the view that Eli Roth’s overwhelming Borderlands left me with the view that it can only now be able to ruin this wonderful franchise that has a lot of potential and solemnity to its name.
The games’ mechanics or any ideas that can entertain us have not been left unspoiled in what may be the most uncreative and the most irrelevant movie that was filmed ages ago and should perhaps be left unreleased forever. Perhaps even for eternity.
Cate Blanchett, who made this before TAR and before Roth makes Thanksgiving, just to give us an idea of how long this has been collecting dust, plays the title role as Lilith, one of the most popular characters dominating the game. This time around, Lilith is a bounty hunter who was recently contacted by employees of the successful Atlas (Edgar Ramirez) who has a fare for the gun talking thug. When the heroine of the story, Lilith, is tempted by the sum that Atlas is ready to pay her for his cooperation on the project, I could only smile and figure out that perhaps Blanchett was paid extremely well to perform in an extremely ridiculous and irreversibly low end image.
Your mission is to rescue Tina (Ariana Greenblatt), an Atlas’ daughter taken hostage by a rogue soldier turned kidnapper named Roland (Kevin Hart), who escaped to Pandora with her and a “Psycho” called Krieg (Florian Munteanu). She is believed to be the Key that can at Pandora, get access to the vault that has spawned a business of treasure seekers.
Upon reaching the planet of Pandora, Lilith bumps into a robot called Claptrap, who’s breathlessly voiced by Jack Black, and I guess is considered the ‘funny’ character. Which, of course, would suggest that this film has some genuine humor. Wrong. Only long talking. Die-hard gamers of the series will recognize a few other characters such as Moxy (Gina Gershon) and Tanis (Jamie Lee Curtis). Some sources suggest that Scooter and Hammerlock are also seen. However, if you don’t pay attention to them, you can miss them. I must have not been focused on them.
Lilith, Roland, Tanis, Claptrap, and Krieg are clearly a variation of the Guardians of the Galaxy, as a group of misfits on another world who have to put their different skills together to save the day. But Roth and Joe Crombie’s script is simply not interested in fleshing out these characters. Blanchett is such a good actress that she manages to sell some parts of this defiantly ridiculous screenplay with a smile, but Hart at times appears to be quite bored, possibly caught up in the reshoots which were responsible for a lot of the delays in the release of this film.
On that note, the script for “Borderlands” was once attached to Craig Mazing, the brilliant creator of “Chernobyl” and ”The Last of Us,” however he has distanced himself with the film now after the reshoots. When a picture gets that much chaotic treatment, one tends to expect to see some bits and pieces of the original structure, yet even that game is hard to play here. It isn’t hard to picture a Mazing version which has a bit more of love and care put into the intricate details of the world building theme, but so precious little of that has made it to the ending cut.
One of the reasons it doesn’t succeed in that department is that Roth, a director I have defended a couple of times with regards to the horror genre, is incredibly bad when it comes to directing action. They are what they are when the film bursts into gunfire, to describe such sequences as chaotic would be a courteous understatement. Perhaps cinematographer Rougier Staffers and/or editors Julian Clarke & Evan Henke do bear a bit of that burden, but the fight sequences are downright awkward in their execution. There’s no way to fit the pieces together, or care about what really happens in the action, because they are edited to conceal the action’s geography. This may be seen as very nitpicky, however an action video game movie should at least offer some satisfaction to its audience in the violence that involves guns and punching. This movie contains a grating lack of any striking action sequences. That’s right, none.
Video games for decades were considered to be cursed art forms, but all that changed in the recent past. Many video game movies have seen some success depending on whether they target the critic or average movie goer. Adaptations don’t work, until they do and the success received by adaptation of The Last of Us and Super Mario Movie suggests that everyone will try to adapt video games in the film format. And as I continue to sing along to songs that I have heard in other games while playing Borderlands, I can’t help feeling this overwhelming sense of love and fear for Eli Roth’s vision of Elden Ring. Tears almost welled up.
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