Close Menu
  • Login
  • Support Us
  • Newsletter
  • News
  • Features
  • Interviews
  • Reviews
    • Video Games
      • Previews
      • PC
      • PS5
      • Xbox Series X/S
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Xbox One
      • PS4
      • Tabletop
    • Film
    • TV
    • Anime
    • Comics
      • BOOM! Studios
      • Dark Horse Comics
      • DC Comics
      • IDW Publishing
      • Image Comics
      • Indie Comics
      • Marvel Comics
      • Oni-Lion Forge
      • Valiant Comics
      • Vault Comics
  • Podcast
  • More
    • Event Coverage
    • BWT Recommends
    • RSS Feeds
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
Support Us
But Why Tho?
RSS Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube
Trending:
  • Features
    Marvel's Spider-Man Secret Lair promotional image

    Get a Look At the Secret Lair x Marvel’s Spider-Man Superdrop

    09/08/2025
    Starseeker: Astroneer Expeditions gameplay still

    Starseeker: Astroneer Expeditions Is All About Adventure (with Friends)

    09/08/2025
    Chord in Persona 5 The Phantom X

    Now Is The Perfect Time To Jump Back In ‘Persona 5: The Phantom X’

    09/05/2025
    Cosmic Spider-Man card details

    [EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW] The Spider-Man Set Gets A 5-Color Legendary Spider

    09/02/2025
    Lee Corso from College Football GameDay in EA Sports games

    EA Sports Always Understood Lee Corso’s Legacy

    09/01/2025
  • Indie Games
  • K-Dramas
  • Netflix
  • Apple TV+
But Why Tho?
Home » Film » REVIEW: ‘Borderlands’ Makes You Loathe the Video Game That Spawned It

REVIEW: ‘Borderlands’ Makes You Loathe the Video Game That Spawned It

Prabhjot BainsBy Prabhjot Bains08/08/20244 Mins ReadUpdated:08/08/2024
Borderlands 2024 But Why Tho 1
Share
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Reddit WhatsApp Email

Eli Roth’s Borderlands is a throwback in all the worst ways. On the heels of projects like The Last of Us and Fallout, the hit-or-mostly-miss director catapults us back to the mid-to-late 2000s, an era where video game adaptations like Doom and Alone in The Dark sorely misunderstood what made their source materials so rich and deserving of Hollywood treatment. Yet, Roths’s approach to Borderlands takes it a step further than the likes of Uwe Boll, with each of its one hundred excruciating minutes forcing gamers and non-gamers alike to be actively disinterested in the video game it hails from.

With its glowing, synthetic colour palette and cast of oddballs and outlaws, Borderlands desperately wants audiences to believe it has a personality. But none of it rises above a thin coat of paint. One that’s easily scratched off to reveal a cast of characters duller than the weightless explosions and chases they take part in. From urine-spraying monsters to secret superpowers, Roth smears everything across the screen to elicit a response that never comes. In the process, he also crushes any inkling of originality his adaptation might have had.

Get BWT in your inbox!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest and greated in entertainment coverage.
Click Here

Get BWT in your inbox!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest and greated in entertainment coverage.
Click Here

Borderlands follows Lillith (Cate Blanchett), a bounty hunter who’s tasked with finding teenager Tina (Ariana Greenblatt), the daughter of the universe’s most powerful man, Atlas (Edgar Ramírez). As part of the gig, Lilith is forced to return to her home planet of Pandora, a barren wasteland full of crazies and mercenaries looking for an ancient alien vault. She soon forms an unexpected alliance with Roland (Kevin Hart), a former soldier for Atlas, the obsessed Dr. Tannis (Jamie Lee Curtis), the monosyllabic Krieg (Florian Munteanu), the wisecracking robot Claptrap (Jack Black), and the explosive Tina herself, whose alien bloodline is key to unlocking the coveted vault.

The screenplay, co-penned by Roth and Joe Crombie, takes a page out of every team-centric adventure film but thoroughly lacks the type of varied and eclectic identities they’re built upon. Roth gives us caricatures in place of characters, overdone archetypes that remain so fixed in time they undergo zero change by the time the credits mercifully roll—unless it’s a forced on them during an undercooked, third-act epiphany.

From a shoehorned chosen one, to a boring hulking brute, to a grating comic presence, Roth runs the gamut of stock characters, giving us a group of heroes that feel just as interesting and developed as the nameless henchmen they gun down.  Borderlands attempts to ape contemporaries like The Guardians of the Galaxy but wholly lacks the human touch to render it the least bit relatable or engaging.

Borderlands (2024)

As a result, Roth unintentionally becomes the rare filmmaker to accurately reflect the video game experience on the silver screen, by capturing what it feels like to select the bland, default model on the character creation screen. It’s an effect heightened by the sheer lack of chemistry between its ensemble, who, instead of playing off each other, glibly react to one another’s mannerisms.

It’s why much of Borderlands feels like glorified cosplay, where capable performers like Blanchett and Curtis, merely take position and feign emotion to get a nice group picture. Hart especially feels unattuned to the needs of an action star, labouring to separate himself from the countless icons from which his performance is shoddily carved.

Borderlands also struggles to function as a serviceable action experience. Gunshots lack impact, and explosions pack the devastation of a heavy punch. Many of Roth’s set pieces resolve themselves, often as an inconsequential sacrifice or a head-scratching pivot into superhero territory. Borderlands is full of never set up or even paid-off moments, indicative of an experience that can’t wait to get it over with.

Some sequences do threaten to engage but are quickly undone by comedy that aspires for the lowest-hanging fruit. Borderlands takes all of three minutes to make a joke about Hart’s short stature and doesn’t evolve past overused quips like “Take it easy on the merchandise.”  Borderlands humour is eye-rolling at its best and irritating at its worst, primed to dumbfound audiences with how out-of-touch and dated each gag feels.

Borderlands constantly traps audiences between apathy and agony, either wearing us down with its lifeless, tropey cast of characters or frustrating us with its potential greatness. There exists an alternate version of Borderlands, that puts its promising sci-fi sandbox to use with far more original characters. But it’s unfortunate that the story Roth chooses to tell, results in an all-new low for the video game adaptation. At least Uwe Boll’s films gave us something to snicker at, Borderlands makes us loathe the video game that spawned it.

Borderlands Releases in Theatres on August 9, 2024.

Borderlands (2024)
  • 2/10
    Rating - 2/10
2/10

TL;DR

Borderlands constantly traps audiences between apathy and agony, either wearing us down with its lifeless, tropey cast of characters or frustrating us with its potential greatness.

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Email
Previous ArticleREVIEW: ‘The Influencer’ Struggles From The Jump
Next Article Skybound Games and 11 bit studios To Release Frostpunk 2 PC Special Edition
Prabhjot Bains
  • X (Twitter)
  • Instagram

Prabhjot Bains is a Toronto-based film writer and critic who has structured his love of the medium around three indisputable truths- the 1970s were the best decade for American cinema, Tom Cruise is the greatest sprinter of all time, and you better not talk about fight club. His first and only love is cinema and he will jump at the chance to argue why his movie opinion is much better than yours. His film interests are diverse, as his love of Hollywood is only matched by his affinity for international cinema. You can reach Prabhjot on Instagram and Twitter @prabhjotbains96. Prabhjot's work can also be found at Exclaim! Tilt Magazine and The Hollywood Handle.

Related Posts

The Long Walk (2025) film review promotional image
9.5

REVIEW: ‘The Long Walk’ Is The Most Heartfelt And Heartbreaking Stephen King Adaptation

09/11/2025
Natasha O’Keeffe in Whitetail
6.5

TIFF 2025: ‘Whitetail’ Is An Intimate View Of A Woman Stuck In Time

09/10/2025
Love Brooklyn
6.0

REVIEW: ‘Love, Brooklyn’ Rests on Pretty

09/10/2025
Park Jeong-min in The Ugly
7.0

TIFF 2025: ‘The Ugly’ Is A Harsh Exercise In Self-Reflection

09/09/2025
No Other Choice
9.0

TIFF 2025: ‘No Other Choice’ Delivers a Bleak Vision of Capitalism

09/09/2025
Molly Lewis in Whistle
8.0

TIFF 2025: ‘Whistle’ Is A Breath Of Fresh Air

09/07/2025

Get BWT in your inbox!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest and greated in entertainment coverage.
Click Here
TRENDING POSTS
The Long Walk (2025) film review promotional image
9.5
Film

REVIEW: ‘The Long Walk’ Is The Most Heartfelt And Heartbreaking Stephen King Adaptation

By Kate Sánchez09/11/2025Updated:09/11/2025

The Long Walk is a brutal watch. Equally heartfelt and heartbreaking, it’s one of the best adaptations of Stephen King’s work.

Black Women Anime — But Why Tho (9) BWT Recommends

10 Black Women in Anime That Made Me Feel Seen

By LaNeysha Campbell11/11/2023Updated:12/03/2024

Black women are some of anime’s most iconic characters, and that has a big impact on Black anime fans. Here are some of our favorites.

EA Sports FC Icons Match promotional image from Nexon News

2025 Icons Match Returns With Football Legends Bridging The Pitch And Video Games

By Kate Sánchez09/03/2025Updated:09/03/2025

NEXON has announced the return of the ‘2025 Icons Match,’ a live event that brings a full roster of legendary players to the pitch.

Gojo Jujutsu Kaisen - But Why Tho (2) Features

Everything To Know About Satoru Gojo

By Kate Sánchez09/07/2023Updated:02/16/2025

Satoru Gojo is the heart of Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 — now, heading into Cour 2, here is everything you need to know about the character.

But Why Tho?
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest RSS YouTube Twitch
  • CONTACT US
  • ABOUT US
  • PRIVACY POLICY
  • SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER
  • Review Score Guide
Sometimes we include links to online retail stores. If you click on one and make a purchase we may receive a small contribution.
Written Content is Copyright © 2025 But Why Tho? A Geek Community

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

But Why Tho Logo

Support Us!

We're able to keep making content thanks to readers like YOU!
Support independent media today with
Click Here