A young Tina (played by Ariana Greenblatt) has spent her time hiding out on the planet of Pandora trying to avoid her father’s countless bounty hunters. After discovering his employer’s real intentions, a soldier named Roland (Kevin Hart) ends up joining forces with Tina in an effort to keep her safe. That is until Lilith (Cate Blanchett) takes the assignment, heading back to Pandora and tracking Tina down until she, too, joins the protection party. All of them are on a quest to find a mysterious “vault” that people have spent their lives searching for.
There is zero reason why a film that boasts a lineup featuring Academy Award winner Curtis, Academy Award winner Blanchett, future Academy Award winner Greenblatt and Golden Globe nominated Jack Black should be this bad. Matter of fact, BORDERLANDS is set up for success. It’s got a killer cast, it’s origins are in a massively successful video game franchise and the weapons are really cool.
Yet nothing works.
The script is elementary at best — if you had a vehicle breaking just in time to hang off a cliff, the ancient joke “you and what army?” as a zinger and an awkward maniacal laugh on your BINGO card, you win! — there’s zero situational creativity and the CGI is so poor at times that the film looks unfinished. Furthermore, it’s a convoluted story that expects the audience to react emotionally but doesn’t establish the characters well enough to allow that. Maybe, if you’re familiar with the video game series it’s easier to make those leaps but, when you spend nearly $120 million making something, there’s a natural expectation to appeal to general audiences as well. Director Eli Roth failed at getting those people up to speed.
With this cast and its roots being from a strong IP, BORDERLANDS shockingly finds itself in the ballpark of MADAME WEB for the worst theatrical release of 2024. Blanchett, Greenblatt, Hart and Curtis really seem to believe in the project but, somewhere in post (and in the writer’s room), the project let it’s actors down. A colossal failure, this will go down as one of the biggest bombs of the decade, having cost about $120 million but only grossing $17 million in it’s opening week with no prayer for any kind of positive momentum.
JKG SCORE: 3.5
Untitled Film Project 