Borderlands is a disaster. And while it might not singlehandedly undo the goodwill built up around recent video game adaptations – specifically television’s The Last of Us and Fallout – it’s dragged us back to a time when studios used to make these with all the grace and acuity of a drunk person attempting to place a 3am chicken nugget order.
The first mistake here may have been to even try to adapt Borderlands. Granted, it’s one of the bestselling franchises of all time, and its snarky take on the intergalactic, dystopian western is distinctive and well-known in its own right. But it’s also not a series you’ll regularly hear praised for its storytelling – take the controller out of the audience’s hands and put Hostel’s Eli Roth in the director’s chair, and all you can then do is simply bear witness to a series of profoundly unlikeable characters on a journey to achieve something we’ve been given no reason to care about.
It’s a worst-of-all-worlds situation. Lore is delivered with straitlaced, Zack Snyder-esque solemnity, as we’re introduced to the far-future planet of Pandora, an untamed territory where corporations and fortune seekers search out the contents of a hidden vault built by an ancient race known as Eridians. It can only be unlocked by a daughter of Eridia destined to do so. Oh, yes, there’s a prophecy in this one.
When Tiny Tina (Ariana Greenblatt), daughter of CEO Atlas (Edgar Ramirez), is kidnapped by former mercenary Roland (Kevin Hart), a bounty hunter named Lilith (Cate Blanchett) is hired to retrieve her from Pandora. In time, a ragtag crew is assembled, complete with the muscle (Florian Munteanu’s Krieg), the brains (Jamie Lee Curtis’s scientist Tannis), and the irritating robot (the Jack Black-voiced Claptrap).
Denne historien er fra August 09, 2024-utgaven av The Independent.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra August 09, 2024-utgaven av The Independent.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Carse justifies England faith as the archetypal bold pick
If you won a boxing match after your opponent continually punched themselves in the face, how much credit can you take?
Tenacious Diallo the key to Amorim pressing machine
Old Trafford has not seen anything like this before.
Gold King Cole packs the Bridge with merry old souls
In the 83rd minute, the ball rolled to the feet of Cole Palmer in a bubble of space outside Aston Villa's box, and the crowd snapped to attention.
Vibrant Anfield marks the changing of the Guardiola
There was a lull in the noise, a break in the Anfield atmosphere, when a defiant chant emerged from a corner near Stefan Ortega’s goal.
What is so daunting about Spain's new data checks?
Q You have written about the new “red tape” for visitors to Spain. So, as well as your usual passport details you will give a contact number, address and email. Not exactly the Spanish Inquisition, is it?
Sectarian clashes claim at least 130 lives in Pakistan
At least 130 people were killed in deadly sectarian clashes in Pakistan's northwestern Kurram district in spite of a tentative ceasefire, days after gunmen opened fire on a convoy of vehicles carrying Shia Muslims, local officials said.
Coalition government likely in Ireland as count proceeds
Fianna Fail say decisions on power-sharing for another day’
How Syria's forgotten war is back on the world's agenda
Many believed the country was lost in an unsolvable conflict, until everything changed in a matter of days, writes Bel Trew
Assad regime scrambles to halt Syrian rebels’ advance
Civilians reportedly killed by Russian and Syrian airstrikes
Mother of poisoning victim says she knew she would die
Lawyer Simone White succumbed to the effects of methanol while backpacking in Laos with two of her childhood friends
