It looked as if video-game to entertainment adaptions had finally cracked it. After years of truly awful adaptions, the animated Super Mario movie was an absolute delight, then The Last Of Us and Fallout showed that it could be done. Alas, it seems as if Borderlands may just be taking things back to square one.
The reviews were embargoed for the Eli Roth-directed adaptation of the game, and now we might understand why. Wowsers, they are grim! On Rotten Tomatoes, Borderlands has a rare perfect 0% score. That puts it in Jaws The Revenge territory.
On Metacritic, Borderlands is currently the worst-reviewed film of the year.
Remember, this stars Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Gina Gershon, and Jamie Lee Curtis. This is not a small film. It had a $120 million budget. It was shot three years ago but was delayed by the various headwinds Hollywood has been wrestling with.
Here are a couple of notable quotes from reviewers:
“Is Borderlands the worst film of the year? It’s definitely in contention — so laughably bad, in fact, that it feels like being catapulted back to a time when video game adaptations were a byword for mediocrity.”
Vicky Jessop, London Evening Standard
“It’s impressive how Roth can elicit the poor quality of 2000s video game adaptation energy yet somehow forget the discernable sense of fun or style that made even those terrible movies stand out.”
Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture
“When done right, such biting self-parody can serve to excuse tired storytelling. Alas, Borderlands arrives so close on the heels of Deadpool & Wolverine that it feels like a belly flop to that film’s cannonball.”
Peter DeBruge, Variety
“The definitive worst film of Roth’s career…”
Allison Foreman, Indiewire
“Borderlands is the worst kind of bad movie; the type devoid of any offbeat quirks that could propel it to a second life as a cult classic, feeling insufferable and overlong at a brisk 102 minutes because of its sheer lack of originality.”
Allstair Ryder, AwardsWatch
Borderlands is out now, and expected to crater magnificently at the box office.