Eli Roth’s new movie isn’t as bad as everyone says, but it’s definitely not good.

Borderlands the movie is based on Borderlands the videogame. A trilogy of games set in a quasi-futuristic wasteland cyberpunk-ish world. The game takes an abundance of inspiration from films like the Mad Max series but unfortunately, the movie loses all the elements that make the game any fun.

The overall plot of Borderlands is serviceable if not a little messy. Cate Blanchett’s Lilith is a bounty hunter on a mission to retrieve a young woman named Tiny Tina played by Ariana Greenblatt. She finds Tina on the desert land of Pandora and learns she may be the key to unlocking a mysterious vault rumored to contain countless treasures. Lilith teams up with Tina’s protectors and the crew commences on an ensemble action road trip.

Borderlands, the movie and the game series, are primarily set on the world of Pandora. A desert-type planet not dissimilar to Tatooine where larger-than-life vault hunters shoot and loot their way through post-apocalyptic wastelands looking for a mythical vault left behind by a long-gone alien race. The main thing to know about the Borderlands game series is that it’s violent, filled with jokes, and has a distinct visual style that complements the drab desert world. The Borderlands movie tries to emulate all of these characteristics but fails at almost everyone.

A desert setting can easily feel gross and brown. It’s difficult to make these worlds appealing on screen but there are numerous examples of directors doing just that. Take Dune, Mad Max Fury Road, or even Star Wars for example. These films have locations or take place entirely in the desert, but instead of feeling lifeless and drab, the worlds pop with character. In Fury Road we get distinct and interesting pops of color that add life to the world. The paint the war boys spray in their mouths shines against the bleakness of the world and the continuous fire and pyrotechnics add to the feeling of heat while providing a contrasting spark of red. In Star Wars we are meant to feel like Tatooine is a forgotten planet, filled with junk traders and seedy characters. The world realizes this theme by showcasing a seedy bar crawling with visually interesting low-life characters and a double moon that adds a spot of beauty to this plain-looking planet. Borderlands sets the world on a desert planet but does nothing to make it feel realized or special. The vehicles in the movie are laughably bad and look like Toyota Tundras with spray-painted plywood bolted on for flair. The characters that inhabit the world, aside from Cate Blanchett Lilith, all look dull and lifeless. The sets all look like they were built in a garage. Visually, it’s bad.

The games use a cell-shaded animation style that makes every color in the game that isn’t brown pop off the screen. It adds a specific flair and contrasts well against the bleak world of Pandora. Here, the only color that pops is Liliths’ hair, with everything else retaining that old technology look. That visual style works in something like Star Wars where we get contrasts between the aesthetic of the Rebels and the Empire. When we see the Rebels, all their ships look old and worn down, their quarters are cold and bland, but when we see the Empire everything is shiny and new. Everything on the Death Star has a spotless shine that contrasts well with the Rebels’ vintage aesthetic. Borderlands has no contrast. Everything feels the same from the costumes to the sets to the vehicles. The result is an entire world that feels lifeless and boring.

The acting in Borderlands is also lifeless and boring which is a shame considering the incredible talent that signed on for this film. Cate Blanchet plays Lilith, the lead for Eli Roth’s cosmic caper and her performance feels notably dialed in. I’m not sure what notes were given to her, but it seems like the director just told everyone to not have any fun. Lilith as a character comes off as flat even though she’s the only character given a real hero’s arc. Fortunately, her visual style is solid with praise going towards her hair and makeup team. Unfortunately, she is about the only person in the film that actually looks cool. Ariana Greenblatt who pays Tiny Tina has a unique aesthetic, but the colors of her costume are so murky that she blends in with the rest of the world. Kevin Hart who plays Roland has a truly disgusting costume and Florian Munteanu as Krieg looks worse than most Borderlands cosplayers at Comic-Con. The worst culprit of all though is Gina Gershon as Mad Moxxi. Mad Moxxi is a side character in the game but one with an incredibly realized aesthetic and personality. Here she looks like a nightmare version of a marionette puppet come to life.

This film went through a lot of headaches and reshoots and that all comes through in the final product. Borderlands was originally penned as an R-rated script, then taken over by Craig Mazin who isn’t credited at all, and again passed through multiple hands before the final product was put on screen. After the film was completed it went through a period of reshoots which weren’t directed by Roth resulting in this mess of a film. An R-rated script may have been closer to the game but I think a PG-13 script could have worked with the story. The problem isn’t the film containing itself, it’s that seemingly no one knew what they were doing, who their characters were, and how they should be acting. We have Cate Blanchet who is a hard ass but also the hero but also needs to act as a mother to Tiny Tina. Then there’s Kevin Hart who looks incredibly uninteresting and doesn’t crack any jokes in the film. And the rest of the cast just seems to be fumbling their way through script rewrites and changing plot lines. The most egregious here is Jamie Lee Curtis. The choices she’s making with her character are wild and totally uneven. When we first meet her she’s doing a weird soft-like voice that feels totally strained. She eventually loses the voice but never gains any personality.

All that being said, there is some fun to be had here, but barely. Jack Black voicing Clap Trap is for the most part annoying, but he does have some jokes that land. There is an action sequence that takes place about midway through the film in an underground bunker that is pretty fun, but that’s about it. Borderlands isn’t a victim of the video game movie curse, it’s a victim of itself.

Eli Roth wasn’t a particularly inspired choice to direct this flick. He’s best known for violent over the top movies and giving this movie a PG-13 rating doesn’t work in his favor. Had he been able to provide jokes through blood and gore it could have worked to his advantage, but toned-down violence doesn’t play to his strong suits. He also struggles to bring color to any of his films. Most of his movies are dark, leaning into gore, and even when he does stray from that like with 2018’s The House with a Clock in its Walls, he still fails to make something visually striking. Borderlands the game would have been a failure if it lost its humor, its aesthetic, and its fun characters. And that’s exactly what the Borderlands movie did. I’m giving this flick a 4 and here’s to hoping the next videogame adaption skews closer to Fallout than Borderlands.