If The Last of Us (96% & 8.7/10) and Fallout (94% & 8.0/10) show how great game-to-screen adaptations can be, then Borderlands seems to be doing the exact opposite this week.
The critics’ embargo on the Eli Roth-directed adaptation was lifted this morning, and after counting 24 reviews, the film achieved a very rare feat on critics website Rotten Tomatoes: a perfect 0% rating (with an average rating of 3.3/10).
It currently has a score of 32/100 on Metacritic – making it the fifth worst film of the 298 films that have appeared in the website’s database so far this year.
There, the film is only beaten by “Madame Web” (26), the sequel to “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey” (27), Chris Pine’s “Poolman” (29) and “Garfield – The Movie” (31), thus landing in the worst place. Here is a selection of critics’ quotes:
“In her chameleon-like career, Cate Blanchett has taken on many guises – but never before has she had the chance to be a gun-toting, tough-guy action star. Unfortunately, Borderlands is not a worthy medium for her swaggering portrayal.” – Tim Grierson, Screen
“Is Borderlands the worst film of the year? It’s definitely in the running – and it’s so ridiculously bad that you feel like you’ve been catapulted back to a time when video game adaptations were synonymous with mediocrity.” – Vicky Jessop, London Evening Standard
“When done right, such biting self-parody can serve to excuse a dull narrative. Unfortunately, Borderlands follows so closely on the heels of Deadpool & Wolverine that it feels like a belly flop on that film’s cannonball.” – Peter DeBruge, Variety
“Definitely the worst film of Roth’s career and another blow to AAA games on the big screen.” – Allison Foreman, Indiewire
“Because the characters remain one-dimensional – little more than cartoonish gamer avatars – we’re never really interested in their survival or their quest to be the first to get to the vault.” – David Rooney, THR
“Borderlands is the worst kind of bad film; the kind of film without any of the unusual bells and whistles that could give it a second life as a cult classic, and which, at a brisk 102 minutes, feels unbearable and too long due to its sheer lack of originality.” – Allstair Ryder, AwardsWatch
“It’s impressive how Roth can mimic the poor quality of the video game adaptations of the 2000s while forgetting any discernible sense of fun or style that made even those terrible films stand out.” – Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture
“It’s just disappointing that the source material has so much more to offer in terms of its layered characters and complicated themes of trauma and survival than the film is interested in or unable to address.” – Taylor Gates, Collider
The poor results were not unexpected, as the film was shot over three years ago on a $120 million budget and had a number of problems along the way. The film is expected to gross only about $10 million to $13 million in its opening weekend starting Friday.
