Borderlands coming to the big screen
- Thread starter Paladin
- Start date
Since he's in the tag line, but NOT on the poster: jack black will be playing clap trap: and will carry the ******* movie. It's already worth seeing.
Oh... oh wow.
Yeah, so... I rescind parts of my previous statement. Jack black is going to ******* carry the movie... but I don't think it will help. At least I was right about him being clap trap.
Yeah, so... I rescind parts of my previous statement. Jack black is going to ******* carry the movie... but I don't think it will help. At least I was right about him being clap trap.
Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch....
www.rottentomatoes.com
Borderlands | Rotten Tomatoes
Lilith (Cate Blanchett), an infamous bounty hunter with a mysterious past, reluctantly returns to her home, Pandora, the most chaotic planet in the galaxy. Her mission is to find the missing daughter of Atlas (Edgar Ramírez), the universe's most powerful S.O.B. Lilith forms an unexpected...
www.rottentomatoes.com
I suppose in the right hands, it could have ended up like Guardians of the Galaxy. I've always gotten the same vibe from the Borderlands games that I got from those movies, a mix of try-hard quirky humor and supposedly-ironic dudebro energy. Personally I find that vibe hard to stomach at the best of times, but clearly it's a big hit with a lot of people.
The background rumblings were that Eli Roth had a much harder, R-rated, film when he filmed most of it 3 years ago. One of the stunt coordinators basically said they filmed a LOT of violence that got cut (Decapitations, dismemberment, etc). Then Tim Miller came in and directed extensive reshoots and further meddling brought the film down to PG-13. Which is hugely ironic given the games have all been rated M.
I think a hard R-rated film might have at least been more…interesting? But I can’t see anyone having an interest into seeing what Eli Roth might have had in mind for an R-rated Borderlands film at this point to justify a second release…unless it is mostly done in terms of post production.
Anecdotally, this feels similar to what happened with 2004’s Exorcist prequel: Morgan Creek meddled and created “Exorcist The Beginning” featuring Renny Harlin retooling and reshooting to modify Paul Schrader’s complete “Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist” into something the execs felt was more marketable. ETB was a critical and commercial failure, while Warner Bros released Dominion a few months later to more positive reviews.
Given the dramatically higher budget a film like Borderlands has, I don’t have faith Lionsgate is going to justify the cost of even an “extended version” on home viewing. Unless, again, the original cut was largely complete.
I think a hard R-rated film might have at least been more…interesting? But I can’t see anyone having an interest into seeing what Eli Roth might have had in mind for an R-rated Borderlands film at this point to justify a second release…unless it is mostly done in terms of post production.
Anecdotally, this feels similar to what happened with 2004’s Exorcist prequel: Morgan Creek meddled and created “Exorcist The Beginning” featuring Renny Harlin retooling and reshooting to modify Paul Schrader’s complete “Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist” into something the execs felt was more marketable. ETB was a critical and commercial failure, while Warner Bros released Dominion a few months later to more positive reviews.
Given the dramatically higher budget a film like Borderlands has, I don’t have faith Lionsgate is going to justify the cost of even an “extended version” on home viewing. Unless, again, the original cut was largely complete.
Buy? I’ll take a rental at $6 just out of the curiosity
FWIW, this winter’s big geek flop, Madame Web, can now be purchased on iTunes for $8, or rented for $4. So I’m guessing if Lionsgate follows Sony’s lead on big budget flops, you might get that $10 price point by the holidays lol
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The miscasting alone had me thinking that the movie was going to flop. It felt like they tried to rely on star power over who was actually right for the roles. And they should have rolled for a Deadpool rather than the generic PG-13 “safer” bet.
That said, you can tell critics alone won’t enjoy the games humor, let alone see it translated into the film here. One of my YouTuber reviewers was actively hating on Claptrap for making Jack Black so unlikable completely missing that that is exactly what the character is. But even so what works for the games won’t always work out for the movie. You can’t deny that Borderlands has a very twisted and disgusting sense of humor and seeing that in realism is a bit much.
That said, you can tell critics alone won’t enjoy the games humor, let alone see it translated into the film here. One of my YouTuber reviewers was actively hating on Claptrap for making Jack Black so unlikable completely missing that that is exactly what the character is. But even so what works for the games won’t always work out for the movie. You can’t deny that Borderlands has a very twisted and disgusting sense of humor and seeing that in realism is a bit much.
Okay, I lied. I bought it at $24. In my defense, my student aid disbursement hit and I have some extra. Don't judge.
It is. . . . . nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be. It's not a great movie, by any means, but it's a decent enough action flick with a Borderlands skin overlay. It's not a gross misinterpretation of the game, the characters are alright, the action was fun. It really isn't bad.
It could be so much more, it could have been so much better, yes absolutely. But it's not like Justice League bad. Hell, I'd put it over Boy Kills World.
I really do think a Borderlands movie could work. Cate Blanchett made for a visually dead on Lilith and her sarcastic, halfway checked out tone really does work for a pre Crimson Raiders Lilith. Jack Black does Claptrap right. He's a sarcastic asshole of a robot, just like in the games. Though why they didn't just have the same guy voice him, I'll never understand. Ariana Greenblatt is a perfectly acceptable Tina. I'd have liked to see a bit more craziness, but the love of explosives is there and the stuffy bombs are just as fun in the movie as they look in the game. Krieg looks good, but is underwhelming. Kevin Hart is really the biggest issue here. He plays Roland well for the most part, but he's just so damn small.
Really, the script needed a couple more rewrites, but it was close. It's a fair enough take on the game world, changed for movie sensibilities. And it is going to make for some good drunk movie fodder.
It is. . . . . nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be. It's not a great movie, by any means, but it's a decent enough action flick with a Borderlands skin overlay. It's not a gross misinterpretation of the game, the characters are alright, the action was fun. It really isn't bad.
It could be so much more, it could have been so much better, yes absolutely. But it's not like Justice League bad. Hell, I'd put it over Boy Kills World.
I really do think a Borderlands movie could work. Cate Blanchett made for a visually dead on Lilith and her sarcastic, halfway checked out tone really does work for a pre Crimson Raiders Lilith. Jack Black does Claptrap right. He's a sarcastic asshole of a robot, just like in the games. Though why they didn't just have the same guy voice him, I'll never understand. Ariana Greenblatt is a perfectly acceptable Tina. I'd have liked to see a bit more craziness, but the love of explosives is there and the stuffy bombs are just as fun in the movie as they look in the game. Krieg looks good, but is underwhelming. Kevin Hart is really the biggest issue here. He plays Roland well for the most part, but he's just so damn small.
Really, the script needed a couple more rewrites, but it was close. It's a fair enough take on the game world, changed for movie sensibilities. And it is going to make for some good drunk movie fodder.
This video explains what went wrong pretty well. They didn't even have a finished script before they started shooting, apparently expecting a whole movie to emerge miraculously out of the editing room. Funnily enough it reminds me a lot of modern game development, where they'll just wing it until either something coherent comes together from constant iteration, or they run out of time and money and have to kick whatever mess they have out the door.