More than three months since its scheduled release, “Borderlands” has been made available to the general public. Directed by Eli Roth, the movie is an adaptation of a famous video game series created by Gearbox Software. With a wide array of well-known figures, including Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and Jamie Lee Curtis, the movie depicts the planet of Pandora in an unexpectedly graphic light.
Synopsis.
The Plot revolves around Lilith (Cate Blanchett), an outlaw with a decent amount of fame and a lot of unanswered questions about her history. She is forced to come back to her home planet named Pandora which happens to be the most chaotic planet in the universe. This is also where she finds a mission to extract the daughter of Atlas (Edgar Ramirez), who happens to be the mightiest businessman across all galaxies. To carry out this mission, she interacts with a band of misfits including Roland (Kevin Hart)- A one-time high-end Elite Mercenary, Tiny Tina (Ariana Greenblatt)- A pre pubescent girl who is obsessed with explosives, Krieg (Florian Munteanu)- Tina’s crazy but strong bodyguard, Tannis (Jamie Lee Curtis)- A somewhat weird and mentally unstable scientist, and Claptrap (Jack Black) who is a persistently positive robot. They all set off across the dangerous terrain of Pandora where they encounter a variety of enemies including head hunters, extraterrestrial life forms, and large scale private military corporations, all while unraveling numerous mysteries that have the potential to change the world order.
Cast & Crew
- Director: Eli Roth
- Screenplay: Eli Roth, Joe Crombie
- Producers: Ari Arad, Avi Arad, Erik Feig
Main Cast:
- Cate Blanchett as Lilith
- Kevin Hart as Roland
- Jack Black as the voice of Claptrap
- Jamie Lee Curtis as Dr. Patricia Tannis
- Edgar Ramirez as Atlas
- Ariana Greenblatt as Tiny Tina
- Florian Munteanu as Krieg
- Gina Gershon as Moxxi
Production and Release
The film’s development was done in a reverse order as it was being developed in the August of 2015 by Lionsgate Films. To cut the long story short, it took about four years for Lionsgate to come up with the final video, as they started filming in the early phases of 2021 in various locations including Hungary and in several studios located in the United States. Because the game series had a unique and distinct art style, production spent a lot of time and resources recreating the surrounding environment of Pandora using practical effects and CGI. When it came to the opening of Borderlands, the movie became one of the most popular and discussed films of the era as its $115 dollar production budget earned $30.9 million.
Critical Reception
Surprisingly, Borderlands, however, received quite the opposite from the viewers as it was critically bashed and under grossed it’s production cost.
And even critics cite it as sterile, “an action film with no action or comedy but instead drama,” the film on Rotten Tomatoes possesses a rather poor standing.
It had a really good cast yet somehow they couldn’t translate the magic of the game series into the film portraying, to the disappointment of the fans and critics.
Themes and Analysis
The Borderlands universe can be classified as a sub-genre consisting of the themes of found family, outlaws, and redemption. Following this, Lilith’s arrival on Pandora and subsequent integration into a rather unconventional and ragtag group conveys the significance of faith and trust in the dire situations. It brings to the audience’s perspective the very evils of greed that capitalism breeds along with the exploitation of resources, real world problems that look even worse through the fog of a dystopian backdrop.
The adaptation takes itself lightly from time to time and focuses on fast action sequences and comedic timing, something that has become emblematic of the video games. The comic relief was poorly integrated into the film along with the action which resulted in a poor mesh of the two. Certain portions of some sequences demonstrate this type of interdependence, while others fail to do so and I suspect that some fans of the original game series will not be completely satisfied with the film.
Conclusion
Borderlands (2024) seems to wish to preserve the anarchic spirit of the video game franchise, while trying to tell a coherent story, and does feature very talented cast members and good visual effects. However, the film has received criticism due to the feeling of inconsistency between its story and its humor. For the franchise’s followers as well as newcomers, Borderlands at least has some valuable debauchery set in the bizarre universe of Pandora with its hottest personalities and greatest action scenes.
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