Borderlands, it’s a good movie which doesn’t deserve the hate that it does. Yes there are some flaws , yes there are some stuff that could of been different, and the story could of also been on something more relevant and the fact that the film is a 12a with pretty much zero blood, no guts no gore like we see in the games and the fact that people have questioned is the cast actually the most suited despite the age gaps? With all this in question it was a good film.What some people fail to realize is you can turn off the gore settings in some of the games too!

I’ll try to avoid posting many spoilers as I don’t want to ruin anything to major so if you haven’t seen the film yet then please avoid reading as there will be some ( I’ll try not too) As a huge borderlands fan which i’ve been playing since the first game came out way back in 2009 playing this , all the dlc to the first game, and of course 2 & 3 with all the dlc and how could you forget the pre sequel. I’ve not touched the tales of the borderlands but as a big fan of the series this movie was a big risk as it’ll either be good or really bad which the initial scores were pretty savage but after not reading or seeing any spoilers until i’ve seen the film i can safely say that it’s pretty good!

What I think annoys people is the fact that it doesn’t really follow the plot to any of the games, i’ve never read the book so I can’t comment on that but if you pretty much have the mindset of this film is a seperate timeline to the games then that’s’ where it gets good. I definitely see inspirations from 1 2 even 3 in this film, some minor stuff like props, and weapons to the personalities of the characters are a mix of some we all know and love!

Spoiler warning time as i”ll be talking about some scenes to show what I mean exactly.

With the characters there is loads that aren’t in the film and with the timeline i’m guessing this takes place before borderlands one as lilith pretty much meets everyone for the first time and with the iconic bus scene and hearing the locations from one filled me with joy , that and seeing marcus made me laugh!

Through the film we go through more iconic locations which you discover in one and two even three! Remember parts of borderlands 3 we start in pandora and return to some locations along with the claptrap dlc in the pre-sequel . It might annoy people as it won’t look exactly like the games but the fact it looks similar but just way bigger or more crappier because Pandora is a shithole they’ve done well!

Carrying on with the details each characters design and cosmetics are also pretty much spot on which i’m very happy with from the main characters to the psycho’s the crimson raiders even the npc’s all this is a critical factor of the first thoughts of the film when you watch the trailer and thats right before you see the characters personalities which some cases it could of been improved but a lot of the times it’s pretty spot on.

I think one of  my favorites has got to be Jack black because just like in Borderlands 3 when they changed the voice of claptrap and I still can’t properly deal with it Jack actually did a spot on job and it wasn’t two obvious it was jack a lot of the time. With the rest of the characters this is when people will agree or disagree even hate because of the age gap but you need to keep in mind this movie isn’t working on any stories in the games. There’s adaptations/inspirations but that’s’ where it ends. There were several scenes which could have been improved but the shoot out at the start of the film where Lilith meets tiny Tina even right before the shootout it was ace! The humour and the chaos was great and another example is when the crimson raiders chase the gang all the way to the thresher area and roland takes out the giant bad boi thresher it would have been perfect if he said catch a ride!

There’s many more scenes, even voice lines which were just perfect, there is many more i can write but i’ll be here all day! Carrying on with personalities I think that the Atlas CEO  (Egdar Ramirez) who is one of the main character has a similar personality to Handsome Jack now hear me out, he starts of so sorry and concerned for his daughter tiny tina he just wants to find her but “Major Spoiler alert” Tiny Tina was created by Altas with some alien dna and believes she’s part of the key to open the vault which the other bits get out and he becomes more obsessed with wanting to find the vault. This reminds me of handsome jack because he was good then became evil and obsessed with the vault and has an actual daughter who can open the vault. Illuminati confirmed! 

Again the timeline is so different in this film even Tiny tina has a different story as she does have an actual family but her parents got killed by raiders which would have pissed a lot of fans out there.  At the start of the film Roland meets Tina for the first time too as is there to rescue here and for fans Tina idolizes in borderlands 2 where they meet so to see them meet for the first time and have no bond was kinda sad but that shortly stops as they become best mates shortly after!  Krieg is such a simple character but has a major impact not only for this film but in the game as his character is magical and the dlc you have where you go into his mind makes you love him more and Florian Munteanu did an ace job!

With age being one of many criticisms in this film as both Cate Blanchett ( Lilith) & Jamie Lee Curtis ( Tannis) This is another key factor to the film.Both of these women did an amazing job. Stop thinking about how they are too old to be them. The film is set in a different timeline; they both slayed it! 

Coming to the end of the film which has more plot twists and some more spoilers  and more chaos in the big battle where lilith finds out she’s a siren after a trip down memory lane and lives up to her firehawk status which she gets in BL2 which finding her ultimate power thus kicking the crimson lance and atlas as what was the sweet cherry on the cake is when they come to the vault which they did a great job visualising it and seeing a glimpse of the hentai alien monster tentacle demon thing which is the final boss fight in borderlands 1 pretty much completed it for me. Yes I know the boss is called the destroyer but it sounded more funnier to say that.

To summarize this film, it doesn’t deserve the hate that it gets, there are scenes that could of been better but overall there were many amazing scenes, the story isn’t as bad as people say and yes some of the casting isn’t perfect but this is a film adaptation on a different timeline that we all know.  Just sit back and enjoy the film as a standalone thing. Would I watch this again? Absolutely.