Borderlands (2024) | Film Review

If there is one thing a critic dreads more than all else in world of film reviews, it is dissecting a movie popularized in another medium and now transported to, as Scorsese loves to proclaim, “the cinema”. Legions of fans already have their minds made up as to exactly who should be cast, which story they should tell, how the jokes will land. It is nearly an impossible task, because we must weigh the film on its own merits, not the expectations of millions of others. How was the movie that we actually saw, what was the intent of the filmmakers and storytellers, why did they cast whomever they cast. Video game adaptations are notoriously fickle in this respect, and they even extend to an insanely bonkers concept like we now have with Eli Roth’s Borderlands.

First off, Borderlands is not The Last of Us (whose showrunner Craig Mazin was once attributed as a writer here). There are no heavily dramatic themes or deeply traumatic childhood or parental woes to overcome. If there is weeping, it should be because you just tossed a grenade into the center of your team and now everyone is taking turns trying to get you killed. No, the game is a looter-shooter – meant to be played with your personal squad of miscreants – which revolves around insane hunters searching for treasure and performing numerous quests complete with an endless variety of munitions to do so. As John Wick would say, bring me guns, all the guns. Oh, and I am definitely a fan of these games.

The film iteration of Borderlands plucks the nuts-and-bolts of the game and attempts to wrap them up in a cheeky, Guardians of the Galaxy-style repackaging of unlikely heroes on a mission. Lilith (Cate Blanchett) is our lead heroine into this world, a bounty hunter of the highest repute and the lowest of concern for others. An obscene offer arrives from Atlas (Edgar Ramírez), the Elon Musk of global domination, and Lilith decides to pull the old cliché out of her holster of a bounty hunter taking a job for all the wrong reasons. This poor choice of tracking down Atlas’s daughter, Tiny Tina (a delightfully devious Ariana Greenblatt), returns Lilith to her sworn-off home planet of Pandora.

Pandora is a George Miller fever dream, a vast wasteland populated with derelicts and psychos all racing to survive while looting riches from anywhere possible. As Lilith treads along on her main quest, she joins forces with Roland (Kevin Hart), one of Atlas’s soldiers who has sworn to protect Tina; Krieg (Florian Munteanu), a lunatic driven mad by obsessive treasure hunting who has also found himself under Tina’s wing; and Claptrap (Jack Black), an R2-D2/C3PO mashup of rapid-fire one-liners who ends up being Lilith’s technician in tight spots. They also pick up a few side quests involving Tannis (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Mad Moxxi (Gina Gershon) along the way as they change course to locate a mythical vault that can somehow change the course of the galaxy.

Yes, if you are an avid fan of the games, the casting is probably not how you pictured these characters. Again, film is a different medium, and in that art form, are there many filmmakers who would turn down Oscar winner Cate Blanchett from wanting to put her own wink-with-an-edge spin on Lilith? Or box office titan Kevin Hart dialing it down as the stoic Roland? Comedic genius Jack Black amping it up? Eternally beloved Jamie Lee Curtis expanding her genre entries? Taking one’s personal expectations out of the casting, Borderlands confidently boasts a stellar cast willing to play in this audacious sandbox.

Does it reach its full potential? No, absolutely not. Borderlands deserves a tighter script and more inspired direction. It also demands an R-rating, expanding on insanity, witty dialogue, and exploding limbs, where director Eli Roth thrives. That said, the cast is engaging throughout (seeing Blanchett have a bit of fun is an easy highlight), and the film zips by at a relatively easy pace. The obvious attempt at that Guardians of the Galaxy magic is a solid approach for this material, even if it is not Eli Roth’s specialty. Unfortunately, the characters do need a bit more time to cook to truly flesh out that family-of-misfits feeling the film is desperately aiming for.

All things fair and despite not quite hitting those lofty goals of a Guardians repeat, Borderlands still manages to remain an enjoyable ride throughout the majority of its runtime. The plot and plight are relatively simple; it’s really about the idea of do you enjoy spending time with these lunatics as they murder and plunder with gleeful abandon? I sure did. Not everything needs to achieve high-art, and these games are fantastically ridiculous as well, so it fits this world.

If you are heading to theaters this weekend searching for a perfect replication of your favorite game, you might find yourself slightly disappointed. But if you leave fan-casting at the door and just want a fun time laughing and nudging your friends, Borderlands is an enjoyable romp.

Listen to our full podcast review of Borderlands on this episode of The Hollywood Outsider podcast: