Borderlands - Eli Roth

Agent Coulson

The latest video game adaptation

Directed by Eli Roth staring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Edgar Ramírez, Ariana Greenblatt, Florian Munteanu, Gina Gershon, and Jamie Lee Curtis.

The trailer for the trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0ARyXUATnE

johnny_ultimate

Stuck in post-production hell for several years. Directed by Eli Roth. Writer (Craig Mazin) has removed his name from the film. Based on games with humour that is more annoying than funny.

Expectations are set suitably low.

Luna84

Great games but can it transform to cinema who knows. Guess we will find out.

~Rebel~

Looks very much like they're trying to dial into the James Gunn 'The Suicide Squad' tone, but I have zero faith in Eli Roth managing to pull off that sort of balance of character, performance, and comedy. He's about as ham fisted as they come. A particularly bad sign that a decent writer is so actively distancing themselves from the project.

pixelburp

Impossible to tell from the teaser but if this copies the tone of the game's humour it's gonna be widely hated by about 20 gazillion people. The fact the writer has disowned the project is itself an alarm bell - suppose now Mazin is all respectable he wants to decouple himself from something like this.

Homelander

Don't get me wrong, Cate Blanchett is amazing, but seriously, struggling to understand why they'd cast her in that role.

I guess it won't matter to audiences who haven't played the games but horrible choice in my opinion for that character.

Beric Dondarrion

Never played the games but seeing as Eli Roth's name is all over this it's going to be a definite no from me.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121797340#Comment_121797340

Don't get me wrong, Cate Blanchett is amazing, but seriously, struggling to understand why they'd cast her in that role.

Something like this, I wonder is she doing it for her (gran)kids' amusement?

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121797872#Comment_121797872

She does often pick unusual or more comedic roles. After all she was Hela in Thor Ragnarok.

It is strange casting though. But then again, Kevin Hart as Roland sticks out far more when it comes to strange casting. Feels like someone told the casting director to hire the guy from Central Intelligence and Jumanji, and the casting director said "I know just who you mean", and now no-one wants to address the mix-up.

EoinMcLovin

https://youtu.be/4kMDBeE4zNM?si=yUqQmIKOatytkRMb

___

Agent Coulson

Oh yeah that looks woefully bad.

Penn

And thus ended the recent streak of decent game-to TV/movie adaptations...

johnny_ultimate

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121797872#Comment_121797872

Both Blanchett and Jack Black worked with Roth before on The House With A Clock in Its Walls before, so there's a relationship there at least that goes part of the way towards explaining the unusual casting.

And hey, if a crappy film like this helps her justify her next Tár, more power to her.

Luna84

I think it looks good.

Agent Coulson

As Michael Caine said about Jaws 4

I said 'I haven't seen it but I've seen the house it bought my mother and it's marvelous

Actors have lots of reasons to take roles.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121798080#Comment_121798080

She does often pick unusual or more comedic roles. After all she was Hela in Thor Ragnarok.

This seems several steps down from the MCU, which at least has a patina of respectability, structure and coherence.

As to the trailer? Fooking hell that was so very bad. None of the comedy landed and it's so plain: they really, really want to be Guardians of the Galaxy, with a dash of The Suicide Squad.

Oh and I bet 5 bucks Handsome Jack appears in the mid credits scene.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121799146#Comment_121799146

Well according to Randy Pitchford, Guardians benefitted from Borderlands and Borderlands benefitted from Guardians.

https://twitter.com/IGN/status/1760364285677515244?s=19

His basis for the claim? He once did a panel with James Gunn and Gunn knew what Borderlands was.

“I don't think it hurt. It's funny, we started this process before Guardians, the films were made. And I actually did a thing once with James Gunn who wrote and directed the Guardians movies,” Pitchford recalled, possibly referring to their panel appearance together at E3 2017. “And I don't want to take him out of turn, but he knew about Borderlands. So I think there's actually probably mutual influence and I think that's awesome.”

Such twaddle....

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121799234#Comment_121799234

Bwahahaha.

What a fantasist. I imagine Gunn is probably too much the professional to counter Pitchford's total nonsense trying to make a tacit claim to Guardians' tone.

nachouser

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121799009#Comment_121799009

I read years ago that James Caan referred to "Mickey Blue Eyes" as "Christmas presents."

JP Liz V1

It is like a mix of Fury Road, The Fifth Element, Riddick and Guardians of the Galaxy with added Kevin Hart as Kevin Hart

silverharp

that looks horrific, I couldnt even make it to the end of the trailer

pjohnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121798080#Comment_121798080

My headcanon now is that this is how Kevin Hart will land all his jobs now.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121807564#Comment_121807564

There has to be people out there who like Hart though, right? He keeps getting hired so clearly there is research and polling showing some audiences love to see him.

I wonder when he'll have his inevitable "I want to be taken seriously, here's my prestige dramatic role" moment.

Homelander

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121798080#Comment_121798080

It's nothing to do with genre, for me it's just her age. The character in the game is about 25. And making it even worse, rather than reinvent the character as older, they seem be dressing and styling Cate Blanchett as if she were decades younger.

It just looks awful in my opinion, like bad cosplay.