565: Borderlands / Letterboxd Reviews / Top 10 Video Game Movies

[Henry Faherty]:\nI don't know why it's so hard to make a good video game movie. I really don't understand why there are so many failures. There are a few good ones, but I feel like and maybe it's a studio issue. They hire the wrong people. They try and focus on the wrong things. I don't know, but it is one of the most inconsistent and makes me have the most pessimistic view of upcoming adaptations because you never know. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Film Buds podcast. This is episode number five hundred and sixty five, and my name is Henry. This time, I'm going to be tackling the video game movie from late twenty twenty four Borderlands, and then I will be counting down my top ten video game movies of all time along with doing letterbox reviews, of course, and all the normal stuff. So thanks as always for being here. Please rate, review, subscribe, like, all that good stuff, and thank you very much for doing that. I decided to do this movie as opposed to others because for one, I think since it didn't do very well financially or in any way, it's a little less covered at this point than others around the same time, and I like Eli Roth. And I feel like for better and for worse, there's a lot to say about it. So let's go ahead and get into the review of Borderlands. And we do have a clip, so take a listen. Miss Lilith, can you grab my badonkadonk? \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nYou what now? \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nI love it when bounty hunters drop by. Time to make it free with your body parts. Alright. Borderlands came out in late twenty twenty four, as I said, is written and directed by Eli Roth. Stars Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Edgar Ramirez, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ariana Greenblatt, Florian Montano, Jack Black. And the synopsis is an infamous bounty hunter returns to her childhood home, the chaotic planet Pandora, and forms an unlikely alliance with a team of misfits to find the missing daughter of the most powerful man in the universe. So when this one was announced, I was pretty excited not because I had played the games, which I have only played bits and pieces over the years, And I actually did interview the composer of the majority of the games on my other podcast, the Music Buds, so you can check that out if you want to. But the overall concept is just kind of in my vein. It's apocalyptic, it's out in the desert, it's a mix between, like, Mad Max and Suicide Squad, Guardians of the Galaxy, that kind of thing, so it just naturally fits the aesthetic that I like. Eli Roth is someone who is not a filmmaker for everyone, which I think he knows that too. He's very much a gorehound director, very bloody and campy. But with films like Hostel, he did sort of reboot the torture porn subgenre, and I've seen now all these movies to date. And for anyone who is familiar with Eli Roth, this video game, this franchise seems like a natural fit for him. Like, okay. That was, like, an unconventional choice, but I think that was smart to hire someone like him. He at least has a discernible style. He's not just a jobber. But upon its release, it got atrocious reviews. It bombed at the box office, like I mentioned, but I was still hopeful. I wanted to go in with an open mind and maybe not defend it to the tenth degree, but I hate it when these online trends get into these, like, hate trains, basically. And if something gets terrible reviews, people just love to trash it in every possible way. That's not what I do. I hate that. And this was my second time watching it. Overall, it's not a good movie. I don't think it's horrible, but I see why people have picked it apart. You know, it's very easy to just pull a thread and it all crumbles. However, some good things I liked. I thought aesthetically, some people say it looked ugly. I don't really agree with that. Eli Roth's style has never really been truly beautiful, but I think his style works for the visual style of the world. So I thought it looked alright. I thought the costume design was very strong. The look of Cate Blanchett with the fire orange red hair. Jack Black's character, the robot, maybe is a little obnoxious, but I found him funnier than not most of the time. Ariana Greenblatt was by far the best part of the cast. Not to say that the other performances of the main squad were bad, but she by far had the most energy and the most room to just be wild and crazy because even someone like Cate Blanchett was kinda toned down for the most part, and one of the biggest problems by far is the script. And if you've seen other Eli Roth movies, typically for me, the script is almost always one of the worst parts because he writes his own movies, and it's only ninety minutes. That is probably one of the shortest live action video game adaptations ever, and I don't understand that. The budget was, I think, around a hundred million dollars, and I am guessing some of that went to the cast or a good bit went there. But if you're gonna make the first movie in a franchise, like a big franchise, you need to go all out. This should have been a two and a half hour \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nsprawling epic that got into every bit of the world that, \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nyou know, introduced all these characters, which it kinda does, but not for very long. And it feels like the moment that this actually starts to get going when they get on this journey and they get into these dark, crazy underground parts of the world or into these big action sequences, it's almost over. We're an hour and ten minutes in now. We have about twenty minutes left without the credits. That's crazy. So that made the whole thing feel so empty, so rushed, really hard to follow. I had no understanding of the different plot points, the different technologies, and all the different Borderlands jargon that they were bringing up, and I know that's partly on me. But there have been a lot of other video game movies that I haven't played the games for that I've been able to follow very easily. I'd be curious to see if there's any players out there of that game that were able to follow it, but for me, no. I really couldn't no matter how hard I tried even on rewatch. But what's even worse is I don't care that much about the plot generally, but when you have nothing else going on and you have no time for character development, interesting conversations of ideas or whatever else it might be, I can't help but focus on that. One performance that and I don't totally blame him because I have seen him in a lot of other things that I like at least decently, but I thought Edgar Ramirez was terrible. He was a terrible villain, knew nothing about him. The look of the character with the digitized face, a lot of the time looked really bad visually and not in a over the top cartoony way. Just felt very shoddy. And I love a good villain, and so when the villain sucks in a movie like this, it's a big problem. \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nAnother thing with Eli Roth, even though \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nhe has a lot of strengths, one thing that he cannot do very well at all is big action. If you look at the house with a clock in its walls, there's not huge action in that, but whenever there's a lot of chaotic motion in that movie, it's hard to follow. It's not that engaging. And in this, unless it was probably the only one that I thought was alright, was the underground fight with the mercenary barbarian guys. And that whole visual style of this, like, almost purge esque barbarian group, that felt very Eli Roth. But the big chase sequence towards the beginning when they get Ariana Greenblatt's character and then the final climactic fight, I was phasing out, did not care what was happening. I was not following the characters. I just was kinda saying, I'm ready for this to be over. Let's get back to \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nnormal conversation because at least that I can get into. \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nOh, and also the movie is PG thirteen, which almost all Eli Roth movies or the better ones are r rated because he can go all out. And then the games themselves, from what I've seen, are very violent. So the violence in the movie is that much more watered down. I don't inherently fault the studio for saying we need to do this PG thirteen, but why not lower the budget then and make it r? You know, some kind of middle ground because there's really no chance for ambitious risk taking in terms of the storytelling or anything along those lines Jamie Lee Curtis was an interesting choice for the movie She's fine in it, but I think everything that she's saying is complete nonsense. I know she said she's a gamer, if I'm not mistaken, which is interesting, but no matter what background she may have, the way she delivered those lines and the way that they are written did not work. I thought that the market sequence when they're trying to stay disguised and then Gina Gershon pops up, love her. I really liked that character and wish there had been more of that. And I guess I can say I was never bored. You know, I know some people hate it so much that they're just saying everything was bad about it. I don't think that. You know, I was still marginally entertained, and it's still in its own weird little world. I would be more than happy to watch a second one or even a TV show if they got a better script and just an overall better production team for this. Because if you look at something like Fallout, the Amazon show, that was done so well. It made its own story. It was able to flesh out the world, you know, and was engaging for people who had both played the games and those who didn't. Oh, and I didn't mention Kevin Hart. I, in general, I don't like Kevin Hart that much. I find him to be kinda grating. He was okay in this. He was very toned down, but there wasn't a lot to the character that made up for that. But he was okay. I don't think he was that bad. The score was pretty decent, I think, and then the soundtrack was okay, a little too generic, though. That one is a heavy two and a half out of five. Alright. Let's get to some Letterboxd reviews of Borderlands. And for any Letterboxd users out there, the rating for this movie, the average rating is one point five out of five, which is one of the worst overall ratings I've seen on a movie in a long time. And as always, if you wanna have your reviews read of any movie, you know, whether you're a Letterboxd user or not or just you do a blog or anything, let me know. I'd be happy to read it. Try to keep it to three to four sentences if you can. So Robbie Cooper gave it a half star and says, more like boredom lands. The amount of money wasted on this film could have fed an entire nation. Let that sink in. You're not wrong. Damien gave it four stars and says, as the only person in the theater on a Saturday afternoon, I was worried this was terrible, and nobody bothered to tell me, but it's fantastic. After a decade of ponderous, pretentious, and frankly boring sci fi like Dune and Star Wars or stupid needlessly convoluted superhero epics, this is a joy to watch. Gina Gershon does a Mae West impersonation for heaven's sake. It's the only fun sci fi adventure film since Tremors. Buddy O gave it two stars out of five and says, every aspect of this movie screams uninspired fan film. It's missing everything that makes Borderlands such a fun experience. When Claptrap said, quote, unquote, zero percent. Woah. We never see that, end quote. He was talking about the Rotten Tomato score. \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nLast one, Jerd, spelled in all caps, j e r d, gave it three and a half out of five and says, \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nI hope the smelly gamer bros cry about it. No, really. Hashtag not all men, but the guys next to me were whining and smelled awful. So there you go. Please, again, you know, let me know your letterbox reviews or reviews of any kind. Would be happy to read them on the show. And if you are new to the show because of these reviews being read, please make sure to give a subscribe and rating review, all that. Alright, let's end off with my top ten video game movies of all time. Now this top ten list, there are, I'd say, no great masterpieces, \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nyou know, it's that weak of a genre. \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nThere are a lot of ones that I defend or maybe like more so than others, and maybe some, and this will be maybe hot takes for some, but it's still a genre that I will pretty much always go and see whether it's a movie or TV show. I'm always curious to see what they can do, and if you have a way to comment, let me know your top five, top ten video game movies in the comments. Number ten, Pokemon Detective Pikachu. Not a great movie by any means, but I grew up loving Pokemon. I played it all the time. I had all the cards, and so getting to see a lot of iconic Pokemon on screen for the first time in this way was pretty cool. But the main issue with the movie is the story is so threadbare, and I didn't mind Ryan Reynolds as Pikachu. I kind of prefer him more as a voice actor anyways, but I thought the lead actor was pretty bland, and so it really relied on the visuals and the Pokemon world. But still a charming movie, entertaining enough, and I know they're making a second one, I'm pretty sure, so we'll see if it improves at all. Number nine, Rampage with Dwayne Johnson. I saw this one for the first time maybe a year ago, and I've never played the games. But as a kind of smash them up action movie that is a mix between, like, Planet of the Apes or King Kong and the Godzilla world, I thought it did the job. It kept me interested the whole way. It wasn't too complicated. It wasn't too long, and it is a little forgettable in the end, but I was pleasantly surprised because at least it wasn't trying too hard. It wasn't overly self serious. It was just fun summer blockbuster. Number eight, Warcraft. Of all the movies in this list, I wish that this was the one that got a sequel or a whole franchise because the special effects, the world looks amazing. The look of the orcs, the magic in the movie, like, all the spells and the Lord of the Rings esque architecture and all that, I loved being in that world. And I really like Travis Fimmel from Vikings, the whole cast was good, Paula Patton. The action for the most part was a little bit more violent than you would expect for a PG thirteen film, and it was so high fantasy that it was refreshing for me. But as and it'll probably sound like a broken record, the story was so lacking that it really didn't draw people in, I don't think, emotionally or really made a case for what they could do next. It was a very vanilla plot, but still one I go back to every so often. I think I did review it in full sometime early \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nlast year, so you can check that out if you want. Number seven, \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nthe Angry Birds movie. The first one. I reviewed this one along with the Garfield films last year, so you can check that out if you want as well. Firstly, I've never played the Angry Birds game or at least not for a long period of time. I knew people and maybe even now people are obsessed with it. I was always curious, but it's kinda hard for me to get into a mobile game. \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nAnd the movie itself is, for one, as I always say when I talk about it, beautifully \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nanimated. The look of the feathers of the birds, I just it's a feast for the eyes, I think, and I wish more movies look as good as this one does and as colorful and clear as this one does. Jason Sudeikis as the main character and the first part of the movie of him going around actually being angry and irritable and even throughout the rest of the story is enough to make me laugh at times, and I thought the characters were fun. They at least had some creativity with what they're trying to do and expand on the concept of the game, and I even think the sequel, The Angry Birds Movie two, is pretty decent as well. \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nI get, in the end, it's pretty much a kid's movie. It you know, I I don't disagree with that, but I liked it. Number six, \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nResident Evil, the first one from two thousand and two. Way back in the day, I did play some of the Resident Evil games, but never really got that into it. And I don't know how this franchise, out of all the ones out there, have gotten so many sequels. Like, none of them are well received critically. A lot of them don't do well financially. I really don't know what's going on behind the scenes there to warrant the amount of sequels and spin offs and all that that this has gotten, but whatever. I do really like Mila Jovovich. I think she's awesome and an underrated actor, especially as an action star. There's some good horror, dark, gothic imagery in this, and there's that factory sterile aesthetic as well to the movie. And then when things go crazy, it is pretty engaging and campy, yes, but in this case in a good way. Number five, Sonic the Hedgehog three, which I just recently watched and I'll try and do at some point this year, so keep an eye out for that or I might do the whole trilogy. The thing that really, I think, has gotten a lot of people by surprise is that the sequels to this first film are only getting better. The first one was, like, it's okay. You know, it's the original CG. People didn't like that, but each time, in my opinion, it's gotten better and better as opposed to so many others like it that get worse and worse. This builds upon the story. It feels more confident with what works and what doesn't. The characters introduced are fun and well written and well acted. Love Keanu Reeves and Idris Elba. It's something that if done well, it could go on to be one of the best video game movie franchises ever easily if it's not already. And if you haven't played the games, I wouldn't worry about it. It's easy to get into, easy to follow. It's simple. So number four, the Super Mario Brothers movie, the Illumination Entertainment one, not the OG one. I was skeptical about this. I do like Illumination a lot, but I am really bored of Chris Pratt voicing all these huge characters. I'm really tired of him. Sorry to say that. I've said that before, but wish they would hire anybody else other than him to do these roles. But he's okay in the movie. You know, the accent is toned down. The humor's okay with the character, but I think it's everything else in the movie that works. The world is really well built. It looks amazing. The Peach character, the rainbow track, like, race car track, the castles, the real world where Mario and Luigi are plumbers and they're really not that good and things go wrong. Jack Black as Bowser was amazing, so it may not be the best ever, but I'm hopeful now for the sequel and I hope they continue to do as good a job as they did with this one. And it's an easy watch. It's something I've watched a handful of times, so you can just throw it on, and it's pretty colors, good jokes, not too chaotic or at eleven out of ten all the time, just very well rounded. Number three, Tomb Raider, the Alicia Vikander one from twenty eighteen. I really like the director of this. He's a European director who had done some indie films mainly before doing this movie. I love Alicia Vikander, as I have said many times. I think she's such an underrated actor, and I wish she'd be in more stuff recently. I feel like she's kinda dropped off after this, but she's perfect as Lara Croft. I love the Tomb Raider games, and I've played the majority of them, I think. The OG films with Angelina Jolie really have not aged well, and this one is one that I think is just dramatic and serious enough to feel like a good adventure film that most people could get into. There's not a lot of Tomb Raider game jargon in it. It's almost like a more action version of National Treasure or something or Indiana Jones. The action is very well shot. It's got good suspense. It's kinda gritty and violent and real, and it's only until they get to the third act or so where things become a little too big, a little repetitive, and and too grim. But those first two acts especially, where she gets to this island and she's just trying to figure out what's going on and find her family, and then Walton Goggins is the villain, great villain, very good score, and I've seen it a couple of times over the years and it is pretty much always at the same level of quality. It hasn't gone down at all for me. Number two. Now this one might be a hot take because it is not based off a actual video game. It is based off a novel, but considering the entire movie pretty much is in the world of a video game, I'm kind of counting it, and that's Ready Player One, the Steven Spielberg film. I think this is easily one of his best movies of the last ten years. \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nThe concept of them \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\ngoing into this game and competing for these hidden treasures and everyone can be their own character and there's just endless amounts of pop culture references and people doing their own thing and really getting into, I think, the idea and love of gaming as well as there being enough for the average person to enjoy and not get too lost. There's so much world building within that along with the characters, but also the places they go and the possibilities that they could have for sequels, Mark Rylance as the kind of Steve Jobs esque creator, Ben Mendelsohn as the villain. I mean, the whole cast is very solid, but it's so much fun. It's a little long, but I really didn't mind spending time in that world at all. The action really brings out my, like, little kid, like, the Hot Wheels stuff, the King Kong, the Jurassic Park. I mean, there are some references to his own movies and things, but whatever. But it's very much a crowd pleaser in a good way. It feels earnest and, like, it actually has a care for this kind of world and for these kinds of people. Number one, and I'm sure that this is gonna be a hot take for some because I know a lot of people don't like it. Sorry. But number one for me is Assassin's Creed. I am an Assassin's Creed fanboy. I played them ever since I was in maybe middle school or high school. They, for one, even though I had already been interested in history, they kind of sparked my interest in learning more of history and the different worlds they created. And so, sure, I am a little biased. I know everyone has their favorites, and you might be more inclined to like the movie that's from a game you love. We know it's whatever. But I really like the director, Justin Kurzel. He did Macbeth with Michael Fassbender, true history of the Kelly Gang. \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nAnd the main issue with this, \n\n[Henry Faherty]:\nand it goes into how studios think, I guess, or the writers, I don't know. But the main problem with this is it spent way too much time in the modern world and not enough in the historical world, which is the opposite for the games. And so while, yes, the modern day stuff isn't as interesting, the historical periods are incredible. Some of the most intense beautifully shot chase sequences and fight scenes, the costume and production design is top notch. The score by Justin Kurzel's brother is really, really good. And so I think there are a lot of elements that people kind of I mean, maybe I'm wrong, but I think people kind of easily can throw away when there's a bigger issue that brings everything else down for them. I personally don't care that much about how it's structured. Yes, I would change it. But as a two ish hour movie, I think it's very compelling, very dramatic. I really like Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons. I would happily watch a sequel with the same production team, same cast. I am so sad that it didn't do well because you could do anything with this world any time period and in how they style and tell the story. It could be dark and grim and gritty but still interesting, so we'll see. I know they're doing a TV show, I think, for Netflix, if I'm not mistaken. And, yeah, of all the ones I could pick, this is the one that comes to mind when I think of my favorite video game movies. So there you go. Let me know your favorites and what you think of my list, if you think I was crazy or if you like my list, whatever. And like, review, rate, subscribe, share with your friends, follow us on social media. Check out our premium podcast page at filmbuds dot bandcamp dot com, as well as our website filmbuds podcast dot com, and all that is in the show notes. Thank you so much for listening, and hope you enjoyed it even half as much as I did, and see you next time. \n\n