Rating – * (1/5)
It is perplexing to think that despite having the worst possible track record with video game-to-movie adaptations, why are filmmakers still resorting to that? It isn’t to insinuate that one shouldn’t keep trying but having a better blueprint and investing genuine time to understand what might work would be a better option. Or else you end with an end product like Borderlands.
The film, adapted from the game of the same name starts off on the wrong foot when it tries to be wise-cracking piece about a girl, a seemingly giant corporation, a bounty hunter, and a planet film of junk. The problem isn’t that this sounds preposterous but the problem is that neither does the film take itself too seriously nor does it be an indulgent mess that is incredibly funny – it tries to be in between and that’s when it becomes a huge problem.
To the film’s credit, most of the humor directed through Claptrap, a buffoonish robot does land and provides occasional chuckles but in no time, it gets irritating and repetitive. You have to give all brownie points to Jack Black for being able to infuse some life and character to Claptrap with his comic timing but that’s about it.
How can you take a legend like Cate Blanchett and make a mockery out of her Lilette. It isn’t that Blanchett isn’t given all the tropes you expect a leading movie character to have but the trajectory and treatment is just too boring and too predictable. Blanchett’s Lilette says ‘I am in a shithole’, when she arrives in Pandora – we don’t know if that was indicative of something.
Director Eli Roth has managed to stamp his signature style of filmmaking in every frame but unfortunately, not in a good way. The film does deserve some credit for being able to produce quality visual effects (mostly) in half the budget that the much bigger films get more often that not. The emotional curve that the film hopes for you to catch on is just etched extremely poorly and it just keeps feeling more and more banal never having you invested in the intended emotion.
It doesn’t help that Tiny Tina resembles every other mischievous infuriating teenager we encounter every other day and apart from the final few moments, there are barely any redeeming qualities. It was a refreshing call to have Kevin Hart not play another loud black man there for comic relief but he is also not provided with much gravitas to be able to do something about it. A wasted Jamie Lee Curtis, and even more wasted scope for fun and madness could have meant to a wild ride to remember but instead it ends up being a messy mayhem that somehow just keeps getting worse and worse.