One of my fondest gaming memories of the Xbox 360 era was playing Borderlands 1 and 2 online with my friends. Those games were two of my most played online games during that era. I also played a lot of Borderlands 3 all be it not as much and I freaking loved the awesomeness that is Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. I am trying to explain that Borderlands is a series I am very familiar with and fond of and I was excited when I heard there was going to be a movie.
How to Download Borderlands (2024 film)
Borderlands was released on August 9, 2024. You can expect to be able to download or stream the film from a digital platform 45 days later. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and check the availability.
The Movie Review
Then the production started and things started to get weird. Hey, I love Kevin Hart, but when I heard that little Kevin Hart was playing Roland I thought that was so odd. Then they pulled me back in with Jack Black voicing Clap Trap which I thought was great casting. Then I read how the actress who plays Tiny Tina based her performance on Harly Quinn from Suicide Squad rather than Tiny Tina from the video games! However, I liked the idea of Cate Blanchet being Lilith.
With reshoots, delayed release dates, and just very little positive stuff coming out, Borderlands the movie seemed doomed to fail pretty much right from the start. It is a real shame too as this series has a ton of personality and some great characters and if done right it could be a great movie. The thing is, Borderlands is not complete garbage and it is far from the worst movie I have ever seen, but man this could have been so much better!
Plot Overview
The basics of the plot are quite simple. Lilith is the leader of a group of bandits, mercenaries, hunters, or whatever you want to call them and they need to find this vault before the villains do. I feel like Borderlands is a movie that was intended to be a rated R type of movie and then they changed their minds. The reason I say this is that it is so weirdly edited like there are chunks of a scene missing or even whole scenes missing. Perhaps they had to edit stuff out to get it down to the PG-13 rating?
Would an R-Rated Version Be Better?
To be fair, if they were to release a Rated R or some kind of Eli Roth directors cut of Borderlands I would be interested to check it out. I say that because you have no idea how much I wanted to like this movie. Even right up to the intro, I was trying to talk myself into that this could be pretty good and all the reviews were wrong! Perhaps my expectations were low so it would actually be fun.
A Talented Cast Underutilized
I hate to say it, but pretty much all the negativity about Borderlands is right. Sure the movie has a very talented cast, heck, Cate Blanchet and Jamie Lee Cutis have won Oscars! Yet, it is like they did not want to be here, to be honest, that is more on Cate Blanchet which sucks to say as I love Cate Blanchet, but she just did not work as Lilith and I am not sure what she was going for, but it comes across like she was phoning it in.
Action and Comedy: Hit or Miss
Borderlands does have some pretty cool and fun action scenes and some of the comedy did make me smile and laugh, as did the various references to the games. However, the editing as I said before is rather choppy so that does affect even the most exciting action scenes. Plus, the dialogue is super goofy and that is coming from someone who loves the more strange and odd stuff that the Borderlands series has going on.
Final Thoughts
It sucks how this one turned out. Borderlands had the potential to be so much fun, but they really botched this. I would not say it is the worst movie I have ever seen and I can hand on heart say that there were some moments I liked. It was decent at best and just cringy at worst. As I said before, I would be very interested to see if there is some kind of director’s cut for this and if that makes a difference to how good the movie is.
