The new Borderlands movie is out and it looks like the video game curse is back with a vengeance. It's got a 9% on rottentomatoes. 49% with audiences which is still terrible. The trailer gives me mixed feelings. It looks like it could be silly mindless fun but probably gonna be a dumb story with bad pacing and jokes that fall flat. Although I did chuckle after Tiny Tina refused to roll up the window.

I think the actors all look decently like their counterpart characters except I can't get used to Claptrap's voice by Jack Black. Nothing wrong with Black but Claptrap doesn't have the distinct robotic voice that we all know and that's seared into our brains. Black just sounds like he's doing a voice for an animated movie.

Also making it PG-13 is stupid. The games were rated M for a reason. You know it's not going to have any of the over-the-top blood and gore like in the games. Violence and language are going to be toned way down. The jokes are gonna be sanitized. It should have been an R movie.

I really wanted Borderlands to be a good movie but it looks like it's yet another awful adaptation.

3 months ago*

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Will you watch it?

View Results
Hell yea!
No it looks really bad
As a fan of the games I suppose I will but it doesn't look great
I like the games but don't want to see this movie
Never played the games but I'm still interested
Never played the games and I don't care
I won't watch it solely because of Claptrap's voice

I will watch it because it is fantasy/sci-fi and will judge it solely on it's own merit and not against the video games or worry about other people's opinions. I don't think I will be disappointed. I certainly have not been with The Witcher, Fallout or Halo. The Witcher might be somewhat lacking with the recast but oh well. I thought it was amusing to see him as one of the Wolverines in the new Deadpool movie, the Cavillrine. lol

3 months ago
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I'll probably watch it too but I'm expecting very bad things

3 months ago
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Right? I actually really like the Halo series. I have been watching it 100% on it's own merits and not comparing it to the game and, in fact, I like it more than the game. People get so hung up on comparisons and nostaligia. My mum who has never played video games, watched Halo with me and loved it too.

3 months ago
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When the biggest complaint about Halo was "NOOOOOO! He can't take his helmet off evvvvvver" after the obligatory "ugh the Asian teenager should die", I guess it was pretty fair to say that complaints were a little irrational.
Season 2 felt like a step back because they lost most of their budget, changed showrunners and tried to please people who will never be pleased but the last few episodes were pretty good.

3 months ago
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I actually didn't get to see Season 2 yet. I have my final exam on Monday. Then I'm going to binge watch a whole lot of stuff I missed out on.

3 months ago
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Sending you good vibes then. For the exam, not for the binge ;)

3 months ago
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Haha! Thank you!

3 months ago
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I haven't seen the movie. I have played the original Borderlands, twice, and both times I thought it was unremarkable. For the life of me I don't get the appeal.

3 months ago
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Borderlands 2 is where the series shines. The original did get boring in places and is the only game in the series I didn't finish. Maybe try the 2nd one.

3 months ago
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Yes it did not really stand out for me either. It's kind of like Halo, heavy on action but not a lot of depth. The Halo series adds a lot of depth which I like. With Borderlands you just run around collecting things with bigger numbers to do bigger numbers to things with bigger numbers. To be fair I guess that's the core mechanic of most RPG's.

3 months ago
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Borderlands 1 is a looter shooter with a side of gun porn, the story is barebones so yeah a lot of people didn't really get it. BL2 is good, decent story and cool NPCs to go along with the same gameplay as 1. Apparently you enjoyed the gameplay since you played it twice, so I would say check out 2.

3 months ago
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Deservingly so. Even from the trailers and casting choices alone it was a piece of steaming crap.
I Iove the games and played all of them up until Tiny Tina Wonderlands (didn't appeal to me) and that diarrhea they called "New Tales from the Borderlands" (I'd rather eat a rotten roadkill skunk and down it with beer than play it).

3 months ago*
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As was expected by this trainwreck of a movie. A look at the trailers alone showed you that this will be a disaster. They have ruined the Borderlands movie franchise before it even started

3 months ago
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3 months ago
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Unfortunately, as most game adaptations have shown by now, writing is where things are going very bad. Why? Producers think they can pay for a franchise that's successful and gamers will just go see anything without caring it's crap.
They just don't invest in the writing because they think we don't care. And that's how all the games with some of the best stories have been reduced to flimsy action flicks with no soul, from Assassin's Creed to Tomb Raider and Prince of Persia. So ofc franchises like Borderlands which are mostly just mindless fun in the first place didn't stand a chance.

Now when they really want to tell a story and bring on real writers, you get Fallout and The Last of Us. Maybe they will learn the difference from the success of these shows. One can hope.

3 months ago
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Eli Roth is a hack. How is it possible that people still watch his films?

3 months ago
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I remember watching Hostel and thought it was ok. Don't think I've watched anything else by him. Can you imagine if someone like James Cameron directed Borderlands?

3 months ago*
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Can you imagine if someone like James Cameron directed Borderlands?

I can't remember the last time I liked anything directed by Cameron (oh yeah I remember, it was back when he was still married to Kathryn Bigelow) but I don't think it would be much different. Probably a lot more hype.

3 months ago
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So you didn't like True Lies, Titanic, or Avatar? I think James Cameron is a fantastic director and has made some of the most memorable and iconic movies and characters in film. He knows how to make a good action movie. Borderlands would have undoubtedly been 1000% better if he directed it.

3 months ago
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So you didn't like True Lies, Titanic, or Avatar?

I didn't. Actually I hated them. True Lies gets a pass as one of the most unambitious by the numbers action movies I have ever seen but it's popcorn entertainment. Titanic and Avatar are overhyped SFX reels with soap level writing.

I think James Cameron is a fantastic director and has made some of the most memorable and iconic movies and characters in film

He did. Back when he was married to Kathryn Bigelow.

Borderlands would have undoubtedly been 1000% better if he directed it.

I think Borderlands would have undoubtedly been 1000% better if my gf's youtuber nephew directed it.

3 months ago
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Well wikipedia say Bigelow was married to Cameron for only 2 years, 1989-1991. Cameron released two movies during that period – The Abyss (1989) and T2 (1991). T2 is a masterpiece but The Abyss, while a good movie, is not one of his best efforts imo. So if you're implying that Bigelow was something of a "muse" to him, it would only apply to T2. It wouldn't include T1 or Aliens which are definitely part of that iconic history.

I thought True Lies was great. I don't think it was trying to be unique or ambitious. I saw it as a classic action spy movie with lots of over the top violence and humor. A fun ride that was well made and acted.

3 months ago
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T2 is a masterpiece but The Abyss, while a good movie, is not one of his best efforts imo. So if you're implying that Bigelow was something of a "muse" to him, it would only apply to T2

Respectfully, I think the Abyss is vastly superior to True Lies or Dancing with Smurfs, sorry, Avatar but to each their own.
I'm not implying she was a muse to him. I'm implying she worked with him on those but was not credited because spouses never really do get their credit.

Terminator 1 was actually pretty ludicrous and leagues below T2. The plot makes no sense and the direction is below par.
Aliens was pretty good although not really groundbreaking in terms of direction. Not like Alien was even though it was more fun in a pop corn kind of way.

3 months ago
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True Lies, Titanic, or Avatar

Bad examples, I think you wanted to say The Terminator, T2 and Aliens. Those 3 movies were masterpieces.

3 months ago
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Yea Fluffster was referring to movies made when Cameron was married to Bigelow. I only included movies that were made after they divorced but should have included T1 and Aliens as that was before they were married.

3 months ago
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personally i liked everything until Avatar. his fixation with this franchise boggles my mind.
their just easy to digest stories in a different setting.

in any case, you should never give an adaptation to Roth, Zombie or Paul WS...i would be hard pressed to find a worse match.

3 months ago
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We had Uwe Boll though. :)

3 months ago
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we are saving Boll to play Hitler in the Wolfenstein New Colossus movie adaptation

3 months ago
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I'm genuinely curious of it, will watch it when available for "free" (on an already paid streaming service) or for you know... free :P

3 months ago
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3 months ago
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I've watched. This is a bad movie, and as much I like bad movies, this one is bad

3 months ago
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Did they get anything right from the games?

3 months ago
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Probably most of the character names

3 months ago
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Are you ok with spoilers? If not, think that the movie is to the games like the the play in The Ember Island Players is to Avatar: The Last Airbender

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3 months ago
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That is probably a bad comparison. The Ember Island play was hilarious. One of the best recap episodes I've seen.

3 months ago
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Yeah, is hilarious to us, the offworld spectors. Think about how the characters felt watching that.

3 months ago
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Pretty sure Toph loved it :P And Sokka also did enjoy it quite a bit.

3 months ago
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^^^

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3 months ago
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The Ember Island Players was a work of art.
gave us flashbacks of all the important bits without having to watch scenes again.
always hate flashbacks in anime LAST TIME on the thing you just watched or watched last week
NEXT TIME heres 5 spoilers!!!!

3 months ago
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"LAST TIME ON DRAGON BALL Z, GOKU AND FREEZA SAT THERE MAKING CONSTIPATED GRUNTS FOR 30 MINUTES WHILE ONLY 2 MINUTES ACTUALLY PASSED IN THE LAST 10 MINUTES OF PLANET NAMEK'S EXISTENCE!!!!!!"

3 months ago
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3 months ago
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I happened to see the review by IGN a day or two ago and even they gave it only a 3 out of 10 😆
https://www.ign.com/articles/borderlands-review-cate-blanchett-kevin-hart-jack-black

3 months ago
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The trailer already gave off a horrible impression from its jokes and certain awful casting choices, but it's still very likely that eventually I'll end up watching it out of morbid curiosity and afterward will pretend the movie was never made.

Voted for "I like the games but don't want to see this movie" because it feels the closest. I don't want to see the movie, but I often end up too curious for my own good and waste my time regardless. :P

3 months ago
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Just saw it with my friend, I feel like I know less about borderlands after seeing it. Really bad and that girl was so annoying. Claptrap was the only decent part.

3 months ago
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since the writing of the games sucks already I doubt the movie is better lol

Also movies in general nowadays are 90% of the time not worth watching

3 months ago
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How is Jack Black Claptrap - isn't he meant to have a more posh voice?

3 months ago
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Claptrap posh? You must be thinking of someone else. Jack Black is a fine voice actor but he can't mimic the unique Claptrap voice because it's been heavily tweaked by processing. Since it's just a voice they should have used the same sounding one from the game.

Here's a comparison: https://youtu.be/xT3dHDoIDzg?si=qLXFsp1yH5Clsa5M&t=47

3 months ago
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GASP! Dang it, I just saw a spider on the wall! Eeek! >.<
...Oh, right, played Borderlands 2 for over 800 hours. Never touching this movie.
Ugh, it left a stain...

3 months ago
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Did not expect much from Eli Roth anyway

3 months ago
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I must say I was pretty happy when I heard Cate Blanchett was involved and then I read Eli Roth was involved and my heart sank a bit but I tried to stay hopeful. Then I saw the trailer that looks like a bad commercial for hair products and I just gave up on the movie.
The news that reshoots were in progress with Tim Miller at the help did nothing to renew my confidence...

3 months ago*
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knew it would be bad from the trailers
huge fan of jack black
didnt like him as bowser or what i saw of claptrap
plan on hate watching it when its free well playing videogames and not paying attention, yarh
deadpool 3 has been the only movie ive been looking forward to off watching the trailer in a long time.
they nailed that movie.

3 months ago
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They should have had Uwe Boll direct the movie. 🤣

3 months ago
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you don't even need an audience, movie so cheap it practically paid itself

3 months ago
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I don't think we can name it "the video game curse" anymore.
The issue is that they put actors and directors in place who have no love or knowledge about the source material.
Feels like it was a thing they had to do for whatever the reason.
Should have put for example Taika Waititi in charge of an IP like Borderlands. Give him the licence to go wild and weird with it at least it would be a niche movie then but undoubtedly entertaining.

3 months ago
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After what he did with Thor: Love and Thunder, I don't trust him as much as I did after Ragnarok

3 months ago
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I dont blame you there. Love and Thunder was a weird one in all the wrong ways.
But then again Jojo Rabbit was amazing so I still give him the benefit of the doubt to make a "passable" Borderlands flick.

3 months ago
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Hell no. Fuck Taika Waititi. He has destroyed enough movies and franchises already

3 months ago
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The is only one man, that can safe us: Uwe Boll

Just kidding :D

3 months ago
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:D
Save us if that happens.

3 months ago
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Knowing that Kevin Hart is in it is more than enough to avoid it

3 months ago
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I've played the original Borderlands ages ago and that's about it so I don't really care for this movie either. I've seen the trailer the last few times I've been at the cinema and it already looks kinda lame and way toned down. But I don't think it's "the video game curse", it's just that producers see a successful video game franchise and think they don't need to put any effort into making the movie good because "the fans will watch it anyway". And also, don't try to make it something it isn't. If a game is bloody, make the movie just as bloody. Hell, an R-rated Borderlands movie would've probably been a lot better. Stick to what made the game so good and your movie will be good as well. Toning something down for younger audiences never goes well when the source material isn't supposed to be for kids.

3 months ago
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Borderlands 2, Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep and Tales from the Borderlands (by Telltale) was peak Borderlands to me. After that nothing even comes close. The movie is just an obvious cash grab without a soul.

3 months ago
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It was bound to happen. First they should have picked a different entry in the series. There is nothing spectacular about Borderlands 1 IMHO and not enough character depth. They should have merged it with Borderlands 2 and the original Tales from the Borderlands. Handsome Jack is one of the best game villains and should have been the centerpiece.

And then they decided of all things to make it a comedy. They should have taken a semi-serious approach at least and kept the humor with only Claptrap so its not overpowering. He is mostly just an annoyance in the series anyway. Also should have taken longer with actor selection and development, made prospective actors play all the games and study the source material.

You don't make a cake by tossing all the ingredients in a bowl and baking. This was a quick cash grab devoid of love and attention...and it shows.

3 months ago*
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I never played the games (except Tales from the Borderlands) but I'm still interested for 2 reasons: I liked the story from the game I played, and I want to see how bad it is.

3 months ago
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good reasons!

3 months ago
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