While video game adaptations are historically among the worst sub-genres in all of movies, their reputation has started to improve in recent years thanks to films like The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Sonic the Hedgehog, and especially TV shows like The Last of Us. It almost felt like video game adaptations were becoming respectable for a minute there!
The release of Eli Roth’s Borderlands may do something to swing the pendulum back in the other direction. Shot way back in 2021, this film based on a popular action series, features material reshot by a director other than Roth, and its original co-writer (Craig Mazin) reportedly took his name off the film in 2023. In other words: It’s not exactly arriving in theaters with lofty expectations.
It’s not arriving in theaters with great reviews either. With the first wave of critics reporting back about the film, it currently sits at a 4 on Rotten Tomatoes, with over two dozen reviews already filed on the site, most from reputable magazines and newspapers. Not a 40, a 4. Not a great start…
Here’s a sampling of the almost uniformly bad reviews so far:
Alison Foreman, Indiewire:
The definitive worst film of Roth’s career.
Tim Grierson, Screen International:
[Blanchett] so easily outclasses everything around her that Borderlands is that rare would-be blockbuster where you wish the main character could get her own standalone feature, just so she can escape this meagre adventure.
David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter:
At one point, Claptrap returns to operational mode after a heavy-weaponry assault and says, “I blacked out. Did something important happen?” Not in this movie.
Clarisse Loughrey, The Independent:
The film’s sacrilegious treatment of place and character will likely send its fans into a white-hot rage, while it remains simultaneously impenetrable and incomprehensible to the casual viewer.
Barry Hertz, The Globe and Mail:
An embarrassing affair for even the most hardcore of gamers.
READ MORE:10 Rotten Movies on Rotten Tomatoes That Are Actually Good
Dan Jolin, Empire:
It’s sloppily assembled, too, smacking of nervy, too-many-cooks post-production. Scenes are routinely cut short (sometimes mid-punchline), with a few others apparently beginning mid-beat, giving the film a grindhouse feel in all the wrong ways.
Chris Bumbray, JoBlo.com:
Borderlands is to Guardians of the Galaxy and (another movie it seems heavily patted after) Fury Road, as Solarbabies is to The Road Warrior. Heck, that’s an insult to Solarbabies because at least that movie was fun.
Taylor Gates, Collider:
I admittedly know very little about special effects in that regard, but even I felt the climactic battle looked rather cheap and dated — not a great sign.
Ed Douglas, The Weekend Warrior:
The movie is barely entertaining and it just isn’t even remotely funny.
Jonathan Sim, ComingSoon.net:
Borderline unwatchable.
But hey! What does literally every critic but one who’s seen the movie so far know? If you love the games, you might just need to see it and decide for yourself. Borderlands opens in theaters everywhere this weekend.
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Gallery Credit: Emma Stefansky