BORDERLANDS is a disappointing film as it’s barely funny

Borderlands (English) Review {2.0/5} & Review Rating

Director: Eli Roth

Borderlands Movie Review Synopsis:
BORDERLANDS is the story of misfits trying to save a girl with unlimited powers. Roland (Kevin Hart), a mercenary soldier goes rogue. He kidnaps a teenager Tiny Tina with the help of Krieg (Florian Munteanu), a prisoner in the same facility where Tina is kept. Atlas (Edgar Ramírez), a powerful corporate magnate contacts Lilith (Cate Blanchett) on planet Cytherea and asks her to locate Tina, his daughter. Lilith agrees and arrives in Pandora, which is also her home planet. Here, she bumps into a robot, Claptrap (voiced by Jack Black), who has been mysteriously programmed to wait for Lilith. Claptrap helps Lilith to locate Tina. Lilith meets Tina and realizes that she doesn’t want to go back to her father. Meanwhile, the private army of Atlas called ‘Crimson Lance’ arrives to take away Tina. Lilith joins hands with Roland, Krieg and Claptrap to save Tina. Soon, they realize that Tina might have crucial information to access the ‘Vault’, the source of unlimited power. What happens next forms the rest of the film.

Borderlands Movie Story Review:
Eli Roth’s story is promising. However, Eli Roth and Joe Crombie’s screenplay is cliched and reminds one of several films in this space. The dialogues are okay and some of them even get eclipsed by loud noise. It’s strange why PVR Inox Pictures hasn’t started providing subtitles when almost all the other studios do so.

Eli Roth’s direction suffers on account of an unexciting script. He handles the scale and grandeur well and a few scenes do stand out like Lilith and Tina meeting for the first time, Roland taking the car from the land of piss etc. The twist in the climax is unexpected.

On the flipside, the film gives a déjà vu of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, MAD MAX, DUNE etc. The character of Claptrap looks very much like Wall-E while Krieg seems to be a mixture of Groot of Drax from GUARDIANS. The other major issue is that there’s very minimal humour. Lastly, the character development is weak.

Borderlands Movie Review Performances:
The performances save the film to some extent. Cate Blanchett plays the lead part with aplomb and looks cool while doing action. Ariana Greenblatt shines and plays the difficult character with ease. Kevin Hart and Florian Munteanu are decent. Jamie Lee Curtis (Dr. Patricia Tannis) doesn’t have much to do in terms of performance. Edgar Ramírez is okay. Jack Black tries to raise laughs but is let down by the dialogues.

Borderlands music and other technical aspects:
Steve Jablonsky’s music is functional. Rogier Stoffers’s cinematography is neat. Daniel Orlandi’s costumes are appealing. Andrew Menzies’ production design is unimaginative. The VFX and action are top-class. Julian Clarke and Evan Henke’s editing is fine.

Borderlands Movie Review Conclusion:
On the whole, BORDERLANDS is a disappointing film as it’s barely funny and also because it looks similar to GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, MAD MAX, DUNE etc. At the box office, it’ll struggle despite the Cinema Lovers Day offer.