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.

pixelburp

Still looking like absolute rubbish. It really, really wants you to think of GotG

https://youtu.be/Icnysn53neU?si=F-0Luws2ROHhtbk0

RobbingBandit

Should have been a TV show instead

RobbingBandit

Fallout was epic

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122421855#Comment_122421855

Yup… if it wasn't written and directed by Eli Roth I might hold out some bit of hope for something playful and fun, but that fella has the sensibilities of a frat boy who thinks he's a lot edgier and smarter than he actually is.

TheIrishGrover

Christ Almighty that looks like hot garbage.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122422743#Comment_122422743

TBH, you kinda described the games themselves but at their best they were saved by its writer Anthony Burch having just enough charm behind the dumb-as-rocks humour to make it work. And emphasis on the "just enough" part there 'cos of course what the games had the movie won't is … well, gameplay. It was much easier to ignore the comedy-drivel when one was busy playing the damn video-game; a whole movie where you're kinda stuck listening to it? Oh boy.

eightieschewbaccy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122424293#Comment_122424293

Also the games mechanics were a big draw for me, it was actively satisfying restarting it with a more powered up character. Plus that coop mode. Not exactly translatable. 😂

Hande hoche!

I'm intrigued by this on a train wreck level. Never played the game but looks memorable for all the wrong reasons.

El Duda

https://twitter.com/TheMovieBadger/status/1821562712809202153

Oh dear

AMKC

I went and seen it Monday. It was OK

I never played the game either. However you could clearly see there was parts that were very badly directed or acted. At the beginning there is a part and its very badly done. Some of it is good do and there are a few laughs in it. The last 30 minutes is actually very good I enjoyed that part a lot.

There is a nice twist in the story too. I figured it out quick enough. Overall I would say it is an average movie. Not the worst movie I have ever seen. In fact that " Kind of Kindness" film was worse pure muck that film. This is way better than that.

At least this is fun. I would watch it again just not in the Cinema again.

Penn

No bigger sign of failure for a video game movie than Uwe Boll throwing digs at it.

https://twitter.com/UweBollRAWUSA/status/1822800146628784521

sonic85

I seen this last night - there was me and one other person in the screening which I found mental. This thing will definitely be a financial disaster.

The movie itself was pretty poor but I went in with extremely low expectations and that served me well. It had a good cast but they were all sub par - I think they knew at the time of filming this was gonna be a stinker! Jack Black raised a few chuckles but for me that was the one bright spot in the whole thing.

The cgi was absolutely brutal for the most part. There was a good bit of money thrown at this but you'd be scratching your head wondering where did it go because it definitely isn't up on the screen.

The "twist" was laughable really. You could see it coming a mile off and I'm not sure what it was supposed to achieve.

Reading that back to myself it sounds like I hated it but that's not really true - I've seen much worse crap. In saying that - I'll probably never watch it again

SuperBowserWorld

Maybe it'll become a cult classic.

CastorTroy

I see this has been released digitally already.

Wonder how that works. Like is there some kind of deal already in place that it gets released digitally if it doesn't make a certain amount by a certain date?

Agent Coulson

That actually might just be the wrost moive I have ever watched.

Homelander

Really, really bad movie. Coming at it from the game adaptation side, it's terrible, up there with the worst of them.

The casting is abysmal, I like Cate Blanchett but she's literally decades too old. Kevin Hart as Roland.....not even going to bother commenting. Jack Black was decent enough as Claptrap.

Plot is horrible, and as expected the movie suffers from turning a super violent, crass game into a PG movie.

As a movie in itself, supposing you've never seen the games, it's also just awful. The casting is still terrible, the action scenes are unbelievably generic and badly handled, and the whole thing feels rushed without any definitive moments.

Be interested to know what hand studio interference had in this. Eli Roth originally shot it as an r rated movie, it was reduced to PG and there were reshoots by another director.

The writer also demanded his name be removed from the credits.

Whatever the reason, an absolute disaster. It's every bit as bad as made out to be, and then some. I couldn't give it anything above 3/10.

Cordell

Against my better judgment and driven by boredom I gave this a go: 4/10, mediocre crap. I can't understand how, with 2K/Gearbox and Randy's involvement, they could do such a great disservice to the games' fans while also not doing anything good for the rest of the audience. Why retcon the setting and backstory just to allow for a middle aged Lilith? Why not use one of the game's biggest assets - ridiculous fun guns? With the money they paid Cate Blanchet and Jamie Lee Curtis to headline a film that neither of them is suitable for they could have made a much better job with a much better cast.

silverharp

oof

DiscussingFilm@DiscussingFilm ‘BORDERLANDS’ ends its theatrical run with $31M.Budget was $115M.

https://twitter.com/DiscussingFilm/status/1835054339817083186

Cordell

Their biggest defenders, besides literal children, are self-proclaimed fanatics who based their enjoyment on how many times they could point at something they recognized. So, if you’re interested in doing this for an hour and forty minutes, then Lionsgate’s Borderlands was made for you.

No, it wasn't. I recognized a lot of things from the games, but they weren't how they were in the games. Maybe, just maybe, if they did made them as they were in the games they would have fared much better with the fans.