Borderlands
Dustin Chase
I’m not sure why director Eli Roth is still being allowed to make motion pictures with a resume of duds like “Thanksgiving,” “Hostel II,” and “The House with a Clock in its Walls,” starring Cate Blanchett and Jack Black. This $100 mil CGI-heavy film based on a video game most have never heard of is a smorgasbord of seemingly discarded film concepts from “Mad Max,” “Star Wars,” or “Guardians of the Galaxy.” The script is written in the language of 12–15-year-olds, the target audience for the first-person shooter game, and offers little for any other demographic. With “Tar,” an acting highpoint in Blanchett’s distinguished career, “Borderlands” is a low point and a smudge on her filmography.
An all-powerful ruler named Atlas (Edgar Ramírez) has hired international bounty hunter Lilith (Blanchett) to rescue his daughter Tina (Ariana Greenblatt), who is being held on the planet Pandora. No interest in ever returning to the trash dump of a wasteland she once called home, Atlas offers her more money than she can resist. Smarter than most she encounters and more sarcastic than the rest, Lilith arrives on Pandora greeted by the obsolete robot Claptrap (Black), maybe the most annoying object in all galaxies. It turns out Tina isn’t kidnapped. Instead, she is a piece to the mysterious vault that people have been killing each other to try and find for years. Lilith just wants to complete the mission and get off the planet but ends up making friends she never knew she needed.
"The most entertaining aspect of 'Borderlands' is Blanchett getting her Tomb Raider on. Blanchett rarely takes on a project she isn't all in on."
The most entertaining aspect of “Borderlands” is Blanchett getting her Tomb Raider on. Blanchett rarely takes on a project she isn’t all in on. From the weapon handling, flame-throwing, and even her eventual X-Men‘s Jean Grey-like transformation, she is at least compelling to watch. However, all the characters, including Lilith, are all unlikable and irritating. Black’s vocal diarrhea and Greenblatt’s unbalanced behavior add to an already chaotic universe that rushes from one discardable scene to the next. Jamie Lee Curtis arriving mid-movie doesn’t make things much better, and neither does Gina Gershon in a couple of scenes.
Borderlands is yet another reminder of why video games shouldn’t be adapted into feature films. There are endless examples of failures and few success stories. Roth’s work behind the camera is seldom original. His defeats as a filmmaker span both major releases and indie films. There may be no universe where an adaptation of “Borderlands” works, but the effort involved here is subpar at best. With admirable visual effects and middling
stunt work, there is very little “Borderlands” offers that you can’t find much improved somewhere else.
Final Thought
Borderlands is bland land in the hands of Eli Roth and a stain on Cate Blanchett's filmography.