Borderlands is a fantastic game series that’s been around since 2009, in fact, it’s going to be 20 years old this October. While similar games were made prior, Borderlands was the first looter shooter as we know it today, and all 3 mainline games are considered some of the best in the genre. Even the story-based spinoff Tales from the Borderlands is considered one of Telltale Games’ best (not New Tales though, it was bad and not even Telltale’s work), and the D&D-inspired Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is generally enjoyed. That’s why it felt all the worse when a film “adaptation” was confirmed on February 20th, 2020, and especially when it was released on August 9th of last month. There are a number of things that made Borderlands (2024) a stale, unoriginal, unfaithful film, which is what will be discussed here.

Beforehand, I felt it was important to give the film some credit where credit is due. Jack Black, while being closer to himself than the original David Eddings or even Jim Foronda, did an alright job portraying Claptrap in the film. Out of all the actors, he and Krieg (Florian Munteanu) sounded like they had fun playing the character at the very least. As well, the sets and costumes were generally well-designed. The locations were often quite different than their in-game counterparts, and while it was absolutely a mistake to make this live-action, the artists did a good job in somewhat keeping the style of the games. The costumes were also well made and about what you’d expect, not entirely accurate to one design but certainly fitting for the characters, namely Krieg’s and Lilith’s.

First, its setting is not based on any one Borderlands game, not even any one plot point. They cherry-picked characters from the first two games, such as Lilith and Roland from the first, along with Krieg and Tiny Tina from the sequel. They also created characters for the movie, like the antagonist Atlas and his subordinate Commander Knoxx, but they’re easily forgettable, especially Knoxx. They couldn’t even keep pre-existing characters the same, the main character Lilith and the plot device they call Tiny Tina are unrecognizable in their story, while complex characters like Roland and Claptrap are just Kevin Hart and Jack Black playing themselves honestly. The closest to a faithful adaptation would be the psycho Krieg, but that’s too generous a term for how watered down his character is. The locations are more often from Borderlands 2 like the Sanctuary and Caustic Caverns, but there are some from the first game like the Arid Badlands and (an unrecognizable adaptation used for one toilet humor gag) Piss Wash Gully.

Even if Borderlands was not faithful in the slightest to a singular game, a good story and dialogue might have done it justice, but there was none to be found. While the first game didn’t have much story, Borderlands 2 has the best one aside from Tales from the Borderlands, and Handsome Jack could’ve been a wonderful main villain. Instead, we get this generic treasure hunt to get to the Vault, with unfunny “humor” and boring action along the way. Lilith is just an annoyed, stubborn bounty hunter for the majority of the movie until she learns she’s a Siren, a powerful superhuman who can open the vault (which is literally the first thing players learn about her in the games). After this revelation, she suddenly cares about her team members and defeats the big bad Atlas in the vault he treasured so much.

Tiny Tina, another of the 2 characters with development in the story, isn’t a crazy orphan teenager wanting to avenge her family this time. Instead, she’s the lab baby of Atlas and the DNA of ancient aliens who built the vault… for some reason. Cate Blanchett is a good actress, she just played a boring main protagonist. Similar applies to Ariana Greenblatt, she’s a great child star but what little we got of Tiny Tina’s psychotic nature felt forced, to little fault of her own of course. These are only some of the inaccurate moments in the film, everything from the Infinity Pistol to the vault itself was changed in one way or another.

I don’t want to talk about the dialogue for too long, it was just plain and cliché. I’m not willing to rewatch the movie to verify, but I do believe I remember a few. “Is that all you got?”, “We’ve got company!”, “Don’t die on me!”, along with an “I told you so,” moment. It also had the least compelling sacrifice/last words in a long time, which for better or worse was a fake-out anyway. Earlier I mentioned that Tiny Tina’s psychotic nature was forced, and that’s how it is for all the psychos unfortunately. Krieg’s outer self is known for many fan-favorite lines, but one of his most iconic was stolen, changed, and made lamer by some random psycho. Instead of how he talked in the games, Krieg just sounded like any generic meathead or fantasy orc, which was a genuine disappointment.

Overall, this movie was just a mistake stuck in the oven for too long. It doesn’t hold the love for the franchise that Borderlands fans wanted, it holds little appeal for general audiences, and it can’t even create likeable characters or an enjoyable story. Theaters dropped the film after less than a month, and it’ll be forgotten that quickly for the few people who watched it. There is some good news for Borderlands fans though, a 4th game was revealed around a month ago at Gamescom! Let’s just hope that it’ll be a much better addition to the series than this film.