Coming off of one of the best years for video game movies with offerings like The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Gran Turismo and Five Nights at Freddy’s, the scene seemed all but set for projects like Borderlands to crush the 2024 movie schedule, especially with a cast that includes Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Ariana Greenblatt, Jamie Lee Curtis and more. However, fans were given pause when it was learned the adaptation wouldn’t carry an R-rating, and those fears seemed to be warranted, as Eli Roth’s Borderlands has opened to a single-digit Rotten Tomatoes score and some pretty brutal comments from critics.
It definitely wasn’t a great sign for the movie adaptation of Borderlands when first reactions called it “repulsive dud.” As the sci-fi action comedy hits theaters on August 9, the movie holds a 6% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Let’s see what critics are saying, starting with CinemaBlend’s review of Borderlands. Eric Eisenberg rates the film just 1.5 stars out of 5, saying it was naive to ignore all of this film’s red flags, because it is “a total mess.” He explains:
Neil Smith of GamesRadar speaks to those red flags in his assessment — giving the movie 2 stars out of 5 — and warns fans of the video game that they may loathe this adaptation. Smith says:
Alison Foreman of IndieWire grades the movie a C-, saying the choice to make Borderlands a PG-13 movie and hire Eli Roth to do so resulted in a film that both betrays the hyper-violent video game that fans will be looking for and is still probably too mature for the younger audience who might enjoy the shallow story. Foreman writes:
Aaron Neuwirth of We Live Entertainment is one of many critics saying Eli Roth seemed to be going for the Guardian of the Galaxies misfit vibes. However, the critic says this project suggests no work was put into making the movie “funny, memorable, dramatically compelling” or interesting in any way. Neuwirth gives it a User Rating of 4, writing:
Another Guardians comparison comes from Matt Donato of IGN, who rates Borderlands an “Awful” 3 out of 10, calling it “a catastrophic disappointment” and a “hideous-as-sin recreation.” Donato writes that it’s an “inexcusably dull, one-dimensional chore of a movie [that] captures none of the creative chaos, exploration, or action-packed hilarity of the games that inspired it.” Yikes! And he continues:
From these and other critics’ reactions, it seems Borderlands may not end up on anybody’s list of best video game movies, but if you’re interested in seeing what Eli Roth’s latest movie is all about, you should definitely feel free to check it out and draw your own conclusions. The movie is in theaters now, and be sure to check out what other upcoming video game adaptations are in the works.