After being in the works for the better part of a decade, Eli Roth’s Borderlands movie is set to release in 2024 but leaves plenty of reasons to be worried. The movie adaptation of the popular video game franchise should have plenty of potential with it being such a unique IP, however, there are some worrying signs the movie could end in failure. With work on the movie beginning as early as 2015, it has taken a long time for the film to finally get a release date. When it does finally come out, it may not reach its potential.
Behind-the-scenes issues and delays are among just a few of the factors as to why the Borderlands movie could face trouble. It has been plagued with problems, some minor, some major, but they all add up to an overall rocky production. The video game franchise has generated over $1 billion in sales and as such, the Borderlands movie assembled a star-studded cast. This is all part of the problem though, as even such a talented cast looks to be detrimental to the movie’s chances of success. With issue after issue seemingly arising for this movie, here are eight reasons to be worried about Borderlands.
8 The Borderland Movie’s Cast Doesn’t Match The Characters
One of the big things that makes Borderlands work is its humor, therefore hiring someone known for their comedy roles like Kevin Hart makes sense. The problem is that Hart is playing one of the more serious characters in the game who very seldom makes the player laugh. Kevin Hart’s preparation for his role as Roland has required plenty of dedication, but it simply doesn’t seem to be the right role for him. Likewise, Jack Black has shown his voice acting talent playing Bowser recently, but there is no logical reason to not go with Claptrap’s in-game voice actor for the role.
Jamie Lee Curtis and Cate Blanchett are both Oscar winners, making them add extra star power to the cast. While no one can question their talent, once again they don’t look on paper to be great fits for the characters they’re portraying. There is always potential for surprises and their range could allow them to nail the role, but they certainly wouldn’t be the names that come to mind to play these characters for those who are familiar with the games. No matter how many talented actors are involved in the project, they must pull off unique and memorable characters, and there will be high expectations on the Borderlands movie cast’s shoulders.
7 The Controversy Surrounding Craig Mazin’s Involvement In The Borderlands Movie
One of the big stories surrounding the movie was Craig Mazin’s involvement. Mazin is best known for writing Chernobyl and co-writing HBO’s The Last of Us, which is the sort of resume that would help put a lot of faith in Borderlands writing. Unfortunately, though, despite being rumored to have dropped out of the project, Craig Mazin revealed he was never involved with the Borderlands movie to begin with. This sort of controversy surrounding the movie hasn’t helped an already supposed turbulent production. Borderlands certainly could have benefited from his writing and while it could still be good, this is a bad sign for the movie.
6 The Borderlands Movie Has Been Delayed Until 2024 (3 Years After Filming Wrapped)
With the movie wrapping filming in 2021, the expectation would be for the movie to have been released by now; this is not the case. A delay has pushed Borderlands back to 2024, a somewhat worrying future for the film. Deadpool director Tim Miller was called in for reshoots for Borderlands. This isn’t uncommon for big blockbusters, but given it happened well after filming was complete and will cost the studio more money, it isn’t a positive sign either. Even after all this has taken place, the movie is still yet to have a trailer which raises questions as to why so little has been shown of the project.
5 The Movie Is Ignoring The Best Parts Of The Borderlands Game
Part of what makes the game stand out so much is its personality. The first-person shooter genre is oversaturated, but Borderlands adapts this, essentially creating its own subgenre of looter shooter. Finding unique weapons with vastly different gimmicks is a huge part of the game, something the movie will likely feature as a gag at most. Likewise, the games have great stories, but their hilarious and memorable nature comes from side quests that have little focus on the overall narrative. It will be difficult for the movie to focus on these aspects while creating a coherent story. Condensing a 20+ hour game into two or three will undoubtedly harm the film’s quality.
4 The Borderlands Movie Hints At Major Game Story Departures
It appears the movie will focus much more on the story than some of the gameplay mechanics, yet the story doesn’t appear to be following that of the games. The Borderlands movie could already have a villain problem as the series’ main antagonists Handsome Jack and Commandant Steele are nowhere to be seen. Regardless of whether they follow closer to the story of the first or second game, the main villains aren’t cast. Florian Munteanu also suggested his portrayal of Krieg will be different from the game’s version and the film takes place in a different universe to the games, creating more questions around the story.
3 Eli Roth’s Past Movies Don’t Fit The Borderlands’ Tone
Eli Roth is best known for his horror films, making him a strange choice to direct Borderlands. There are a lot of elements that help make these games work, gore and violence are part of that, but not horror. The games are known for being hilarious, focusing largely on humor, but are never scary. Picking a horror-associated director for this style of movie is ironically funny but may backfire massively. Roth may be able to surprise everyone and nail the tone of Borderlands, however, it feels like there were probably much more fitting candidates to direct this film based on the game’s tone.
2 Live Action Doesn’t Suit Borderlands’ Game Style
Borderlands’ distinct art style separates it from most other games, and it doesn’t suit a live-action movie. Just by looking at the hand-drawn art style, it is easy to differentiate Borderlands from almost any other game on the market. Turning this into live-action takes much of the charm away as it’s near impossible to replicate this style in real life. It will be impressive if they can pull something like this off, but there is little to suggest it will look anything like the games. This takes away the connection from the Borderlands movie to the video game and could quickly turn it into another generic video game adaptation.
1 Recent Live-Action Video Game Movie Adaptations Have Been Risky
Live-action video game adaptations have had a mixed range of success. The likes of Sonic The Hedgehog performed well while something like Detective Pikachu also reviewed mostly positively. On the flip side, there have been a whole host of failures like the Resident Evil and earlier Mortal Kombat movies, and even Uncharted has mediocre reviews despite performing well at the box office. Action games don’t tend to do so well cinematically due to it being difficult for movies to improve on the in-game action. This is why a live-action Borderlands makes little sense and is worrying regarding its potential performance.
