The first wave of reviews for Borderlands are in (right in time for the movie's theatrical debut later today) and it appears Lionsgate and Eli Roth have an absolute stinker on their hands.
We have a wide range of verdicts from the trades, entertainment outlets, and even gaming websites; thus far, none are positive and those projections of a $15 million opening weekend are likely to now plummet.
The Hollywood Reporter's review is light on praise and states, "It’s conceivable that longtime fans of the video game might get more out of Borderlands, but I wouldn’t count on it. At one point, Claptrap returns to operational mode after a heavy-weaponry assault and says, 'I blacked out. Did something important happen?' Not in this movie."
Empire's 2* review concludes by saying, "A botched Guardians wannabe that isn’t half as fun as you’d hope from the punky sci-fi promise of its video-game source material and the presence of Blanchett at the top of the cast list." Total Film awards the same score and concludes, "The Gearbox title gamers loved has spawned a frenetic and disorderly shambles they’re likelier to loathe. Claptrap? You said it."
IGN was no more forgiving and a 3/10 rating is accompanied by, "Borderlands is a catastrophic disappointment that plays like hacked-to-pieces studio slop, betraying everything fans adore about Gearbox Software’s franchise in derivative, regrettable taste."
We have another 2* score from Digital Spy and a declaration that, "Borderlands feels like it could have been an outrageous bombastic romp. Instead, it's more of a trudge through a noisy desert with some cosplayers."
"That semi-sanitization suggests Roth was not the right person to make what Lionsgate...or even what he...ultimately wanted," IndieWire writes. "If granted permission to bring his signature sadism to these infamously batshit characters, Roth could have delivered his 'Mad Max: Fury Road.' Instead, restricted by standards that seem equally unlikely to please preteens, he was left holding a bomb."
Gaming sites are no more forgiving, with GameSpot calling Borderlands "unremarkable" and Push Square dubbing it "really bland" and "narratively limp." VG247 delivers the ultimate insult with a 1* review and a comment that "The Borderlands movie exists simply to exist."
Unsurprisingly, as we write this, Borderlands has a 0% score on Rotten Tomatoes based on 24 verdicts. Many more will be counted over the coming days, but with a start this bad, we'd be shocked if it manages to get out of single digits.
This is a record-low score for a video game adaptation and Borderlands may well rank among the worst-reviewed movies this genre has ever produced.
Starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Edgar Ramirez, Ariana Greenblatt, Florian Munteanu, Gina Gershon, and Jamie Lee Curtis, Borderlands is based on the video game Borderlands created by Gearbox Software and published by 2K. Eli Roth directs the movie from a screenplay he penned with Joe Crombie.
As noted, the movie arrives in theaters on August 9.