Borderlands

A bounty hunter returns to her home planet to find a special girl in Borderlands. Lilith (Cate Blanchett) is a disgruntled bounty hunter who is hired by powerful tech CEO Atlas (Edgar Ramírez) to recover his daughter Tiny Tina (Ariana Greenblatt), kidnapped by Crimson Raiders turncoat Roland (Kevin Hart). Lilith returns to her home planet of Pandora, where the worst of the worst travel to find a mythical vault created by an alien race called Eridians. She is greeted by the robot Claptrap (Jack Black) and quickly discovers that Tiny Tina has teamed up with Roland and her Psycho protector Krieg (Florian Munteanu) to open the vault. With the help of the scientist Tannis (Jamie Lee Curtis), Lilith reluctantly joins Roland’s group to find the keys that will open the vault.

Borderlands Synopsis

Borderlands is a science fiction comedy adventure film written and directed by Eli Roth (Death Wish, Thanksgiving), based on the popular series of video games developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K Games. The film stars Cate Blanchett (Tár) as the bounty hunter Lilith, who left her homeworld Pandora as a child, following her mother’s (Haley Bennett) death. Lilith returns to the planet on a bounty-hunting mission and ends up reluctantly teaming up with a vault-hunting group that includes Lilith’s target Tiny Tina, along with Roland, Krieg, and Tannis. The group receives assistance from bar owner Moxxi (Gina Gershon) and has to stay one step ahead of Roland’s former group the Crimson Raiders led by Commander Knoxx (Janina Gavankar).

My Thoughts on Borderlands

For those who have played the original video games that Borderlands is based on, Eli Roth does provide a great level of detail. This includes Lilith starting off her Pandora adventure on a Vault Hunters tour box and being dropped off in the starter town of Firestone occupied solely by the robot Claptrap. Of course, from this point onwards, the film will have to differentiate itself from the video games, which are open-world role-playing FPS “looter shooters.”

Probably the biggest criticism that will be levied towards Borderland, especially from those completely unfamiliar with the original video games, is that Eli Roth has produced a shameless rip-off of Guardians of the Galaxy. Those criticisms wouldn’t exactly be unfounded, since there is undoubtedly a similarity between the two films. Probably the biggest criticism I would have would be the hiring of Eli Roth, who has been predominantly a horror director for most of his career, to direct a big-budget science fiction blockbuster.

In some odd way, the fact that Eli Roth is directing Borderlands echos the hiring of James Gunn to direct Guardians of the Galaxy since Gunn also had his start directing horror films and working for Troma. I would say that Eli Roth is competent enough with his big blockbuster debut. It helps that he has a pretty stacked cast to work with including Cate Blanchet, who along with Claptrap voice actor Jack Black, previously worked with Roth on the 2018 family horror/fantasy film The House with a Clock in Its Walls. The ensemble cast of Borderlands is rounded out by Kevin Hart, Edgar Ramírez (Wasp Network), Ariana Greenblatt (Barbie), and Jamie Lee Curtis.

When it comes to the discourse surrounding film adaptations of video games, Borderlands will probably end up being one of the better ones. However, I am not sure how accessible the film would be to those outside of the film’s fanbase, who may justifiably write the film off as a Guardians of the Galaxy rip-off. Either way, Borderlands is worth checking out.

Trailer for Borderlands