Coming off of one of the best years for video game movies with offerings like The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Gran Turismo and Five Nights at Freddy’s, the scene seemed all but set for projects like Borderlands to crush the 2024 movie schedule, especially with a cast that includes Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Ariana Greenblatt, Jamie Lee Curtis and more. However, fans were given pause when it was learned the adaptation wouldn’t carry an R-rating, and those fears seemed to be warranted, as Eli Roth’s Borderlands has opened to a single-digit Rotten Tomatoes score and some pretty brutal comments from critics.
It definitely wasn’t a great sign for the movie adaptation of Borderlands when first reactions called it “repulsive dud.” As the sci-fi action comedy hits theaters on August 9, the movie holds a 6% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Let’s see what critics are saying, starting with CinemaBlend’s review of Borderlands. Eric Eisenberg rates the film just 1.5 stars out of 5, saying it was naive to ignore all of this film’s red flags, because it is “a total mess.” He explains:
Borderlands is a really bad movie. It’s a weird thing to be bashed over the head with constant exposition while failing to get a comprehensive idea of the world that is being established, and the only thing that ends up being more undeveloped than the story is the ensemble of characters – none of whom can even be called two-dimensional because that would be giving them too much credit. Its sensibilities are juvenile, its aesthetics are plastic, and there isn’t a solitary stretch during its 102 minute runtime when it accomplishes something creative or absorbing.
Neil Smith of GamesRadar speaks to those red flags in his assessment — giving the movie 2 stars out of 5 — and warns fans of the video game that they may loathe this adaptation. Smith says:
Eli Roth’s caper has taken three years to reach us, had its reshoots entrusted to another director (Deadpool’s Tim Miller), and has a co-writer in Joe Crombie who appears to have no other credits. Small wonder it feels so messily chaotic, with cheap-looking FX and dodgy matte work adding to its woes. ‘Feel free to applaud’ Hart quips at one point after driving an APC through the skull of a gargantuan, tentacled monster. Sorry Kevin, but the only applause Borderlands deserves is a slow handclap of derision.
Alison Foreman of IndieWire grades the movie a C-, saying the choice to make Borderlands a PG-13 movie and hire Eli Roth to do so resulted in a film that both betrays the hyper-violent video game that fans will be looking for and is still probably too mature for the younger audience who might enjoy the shallow story. Foreman writes:
Borderlands looks and feels like a studio mismanaging its coveted IP. The irony there is plain bordering on painful when you remember that the through-line to the extensive Borderlands narrative is anti-capitalism. We know Roth can brutally lambast the rich (hello again, Thanksgiving) and The House with a Clock in Its Walls tells us he can work outside his wheelhouse for a younger audience. But Borderlands sees him do neither thing well, instead resulting in the definitive worst film of Roth’s career and another strike against AAA games brought to the big screen.
Aaron Neuwirth of We Live Entertainment is one of many critics saying Eli Roth seemed to be going for the Guardian of the Galaxies misfit vibes. However, the critic says this project suggests no work was put into making the movie “funny, memorable, dramatically compelling” or interesting in any way. Neuwirth gives it a User Rating of 4, writing:
Whether or not [Roth] was outmatched for a sci-fi/action movie with a modest blockbuster budget, as the co-writer of the film as well, he seems to be relying a lot on the film getting by through zippy energy and amusing cast banter. Sadly, that’s just not what’s taking place on screen. Instead, so much of the film feels like it’s going through the motions of this kind of story, which would be fine if it were self-aware enough to call out its cliches. Instead, aside from some sarcastic narration beats, Borderlands takes the lore and the stakes surprisingly seriously while being convinced its mild quips are killing with the crowd.
Another Guardians comparison comes from Matt Donato of IGN, who rates Borderlands an “Awful” 3 out of 10, calling it “a catastrophic disappointment” and a “hideous-as-sin recreation.” Donato writes that it’s an “inexcusably dull, one-dimensional chore of a movie [that] captures none of the creative chaos, exploration, or action-packed hilarity of the games that inspired it.” Yikes! And he continues:
Borderlands is an abysmal waste of a beloved franchise that takes a kooky band of murderous misfits and drains the life out of their first adventure together. Eli Roth is no James Gunn, and this film has none of the lovable lunatics, awe-striking sci-fi visuals, and out-of-this-world storytelling of Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy. The hyper-stylized flair of the Borderlands games is replicated only on the most superficial level, and with a PG-13 rating, all the limb-severing gore, dirty-minded humor, and uniquely deranged themes are replaced by recycled blandness geared toward mass marketability. It's the worst-case-scenario Borderlands movie that goes against everything Borderlands stands for as a series – a miserable failure.
From these and other critics’ reactions, it seems Borderlands may not end up on anybody’s list of best video game movies, but if you’re interested in seeing what Eli Roth’s latest movie is all about, you should definitely feel free to check it out and draw your own conclusions. The movie is in theaters now, and be sure to check out what other upcoming video game adaptations are in the works.
