Apologies that this is not a pure gaming question, but I’d really like to hear people’s opinion on the Borderlands movie trailer and especially from people who have played the games. That’s why I’m asking here, I hope that’s ok.
Eh. Seems alright. Definitely not going to a cinema to see it. Gearbox milked the franchise to death, I really only liked Borderlands 2. Looks like Krieg is in this, which isn’t canonical. But fun. He also says nothing in the trailer?
My hate for what they did with tiny tina is unmeasurable. The character does not work when she is not a child. If they had put an actual child actor in their shoes and THEN made them blow up a lot of people, with gore, that would be the level tina is at. Like, if Borderlands had realistic graphics, it would be as PG 18 as Doom (2016) +. For understandable reasons. She is a traumatised child that got ate up by pandora and lived. On a revenge quest. All other characters +1 or +2 Tina gets a -20.
Not hating on the actor, lots of things can go wrong for the “magic” to not happen, most aren’t on them.
I actually don’t care for the prequel or BL1 backstory part. I’m not hooked by the premise.
Expectation is “mid”. If an opportunity to watch it falls right into my lap I might, but realistically I will probably forget it exists when the ad campaign is through.
The writing doesn’t seem great (forced and unfunny), but it’s just a trailer, so I don’t put a ton of stock in that. Besides, some of Borderlands’ best jokes are slow burns over the course of the game or even the franchise, so that might be why it feels a little off.
But the cast…they’re going to have to win me over.
Lilith as the lead, I’m fine with. But Cate Blanchett as Lilith I’m a little more concerned about. She’s definitely older than Lilith, yes, but that’s not the big problem; for me, I just don’t think that she has the vibe to pull off Lilith (and I don’t think she did even when she was 25). She’s got too much gravitas.
Including Tiny Tina in the main cast, I’m over the moon for. But casting Ariana Greenblatt, I just don’t see. In fairness, I don’t think I can see anybody in particular as that character; she’s so singular and wide-eyed, I don’t know if there’s a young teenager-passing actress who could pull it off. You need the 16-year-old equivalent of Helena Bonham Carter, and she’s a pretty singular person. Tina needs to be absoluely unhinged, but in a gleeful way; maybe this could be a Millie Bobby Brown role, or maybe it could be Jenna Ortega (though she might be a bit too sardonic; Emma Myers perhaps?), but I don’t know that we have any evidence of any actress in the right age range to pull off Tina.
Not including Brick or Mordecai is sad; I think Dwayne Johnson could pull off Brick decently well, and Michael Pena would’ve been a funny Mordecai, though it would be even better to bring people into those roles who we’ve never seen before.
Krieg was kind of a blank slate to begin with, so he’s no problem. Marcus, Hammerlock, Scooter, great. Jamie Lee Curtis as Tannis, fine. No major issues with any of that casting. Same with Jack Black as Claptrap; yeah, it would’ve been nicer to have the original voice actor, but I get that you want somebody with a name in that role and Black is as good as any. I would believe he’s played the game, so I trust that he understands the role.
But Kevin Hart…I mean, come on. Idris Elba was right there, and you went with Hart?
After watching the trailer, my opinions shifted slightly. Hart was actually the least of my concerns after watching the trailer; I liked his role in Jumanji, and it seems like he’s channeling that same vibe, so I think he’ll probably do fine here. And Blanchett’s performance as a more grizzled, almost Jane Lynch-ian Lilith kinda works for me.
But Tina still isn’t quite right.
All in all, if this had been the same cast in different roles (Blanchett as Captain Scarlett, retconned as a hero? Greenblatt as Gaige?) or the same roles with a different cast (Saoirse Ronan as Lilith? Kiernan Shipka as Tina?) I’d be totally down. The world feels right and the story sounds interesting, I’m mostly just worried about the dialogue and the cast.
I think Ashly Burch would’ve been just fine as Tiny Tina, even though she’s a full grown adult. Because, you know, she’s the actual voice actor who can channel that energy. Just age the film character up.
My issue with Ashly Burch isn’t her age so much as…has she ever done any acting before, beyond voice acting? I don’t know if that’s even a skill she has.
She got started making her own shorts, which isn’t the same as getting cast in films but it’s not nothing either
I’ve never seen it before so I can’t personally say how competent she is in the role, but Ashly Burch is a cast member on Mythic Quest, a live action sitcom on Apple
Good grief. THAT WALL OF TEXT HAD TOO MANY SYLLABLES!! APOLOGIZE!!
No I loved it, interesting read.
You’re very kind, thank you.
AND NO F$@#ING EXPLOSIONS!?!?
Edit: those downvotes suggest some people didn’t get the reference
Some people have no class.
Or at least didn’t notice that I (the person who wrote the wall of text) wrote that reply.
I haven’t felt like this after watching a trailer since I saw the one for the Dark Tower movie.
I’m avoiding everything about it. video game movies are generally a misrepresentation of the source material entirely. so I never have hope for any video game movie. and borderlands is a franchise I actually really love.
and after seeing the cast, I think it’s going to be a disaster. 😭
I don’t watch very many movies and I’m by no means a movie critic; I think it looks terrible.
Its a trend chaser, imo.
✅️4-5 wacky characters
✅️action montage with fun music
✅️colorful explosions.
✅️rebellious teenager
✅️starring 4 names everyone knows
All tropes of previous movies that did well, but only the writing will save a movie this late to the game.
The original writer left and demanded his name be taken off the credits after they changed things. Avi Arad involved.
Not looking good.
It looks too be a lot of ‘meh’ to me. I honestly don’t think the game’s story will translate well into any other medium and certainly the humor that makes the original BL games isn’t what I would call mainstream so that will just get watered down to nothing. Plus the casting looks off.
Who the hell is the random psycho just chilling with the main characters? Did they just add the dude from the game covers to the main cast like he’s actually a character?
DLC playable character named Krieg.
DLC for which of the games?
Borderlands 2, Krieg was an intriguing character but as a class generally sucked. His ult was a melee only mode which… doesn’t mesh with a game about COLLECTING GUNS. They also introduced Gaige. Her class worked better in the game, although very gimicky, lore wise she was basically a more sane Tiny Tina.
Like… genuinely a series or a movie about him sounds cool… but… I don’t think they’re gonna show him off like that link. How is an internal monologue supposed to work if only one of the 4 hear it? It can’t work while sharing a spotlight.
Also I can’t remember if it’s official or cannon but
spoiler
Krieg is Tiny Tina’s dad so…
James Bomb and the Kingdom of the Mushroom Skull.
The aesthetics are on point but the comedy seems like it’ll be forced and to be frank, Lilith is just too old
Well, Tannis too. But they apparently don’t follow the games timeline, otherwise Mordecai and Brick would be there instead of Tiny Tina and Krieg.
I mean, I understand leaving out Brick. Both Roland and Brick are not… bastions of dialogue. Both combined could be a bit much in a film. Even though he’s a fascinating character. Mordecai confuses me more. He seems like a much better straight man (comedy term, not the orientation) than Roland or Brick, and if he operates like a sniper then he makes a great diagetic narrator to move dialogue and scenes because he operates as the scout from range. Granted the CG for the bird will probably cost.
I’m sure a good chunk was they wanted more Tiny Tina, and then they added Kreig just for the reveal moment which is… a lot of dedicated screen time just to create a moment. Seeing as he barely had any time in the trailer… clearly he doesn’t shine in this film.
I’ve got hundreds of hours across all of the games. Played every single one to almost 100%.
Honestly, I think I might enjoy watching this movie. I’m definitely not going to pay money to watch it in theaters, but I only watch maybe 3-6 movies a year that way. I’ll easily be entertained for a couple hours watching this when I can inevitably stream it for free or pay like $3 off redbox.
This movie seems like it’s getting an absolute ton of hate, but doesn’t really look that terrible. It’s a silly movie based on a silly game series that sets itself apart by being extremely silly. The fuck do people expect?
You know what I expect?
MOTHER#$@&ING EXPLOSIOOOOOONS!!!
Honestly? I really don’t get the hate that all these comments are generating. I don’t think we’ve seen enough of the dialogue from the characters to know what the casted actors are going to do with them.
I personally think it might be a bit refreshing, like a reboot. All of us lost faith in the Borderlands story at the Presequel I think. I think this plays into the wacky and wild elements of BL2 (indisputably the favourite in the whole series, wouldn’t you agree?), rather than the unfunny stuff of 3, don’t you think?
I’m not saying that off the bat it’s going to be amazing. I’m saying that I think it’s worth a shot, it’s worth waiting until we see it before we shit on it- I don’t think this trailer makes it look like trash. It has potential. Don’t you think, guys?
It definitely has potential. People gotta remember that when they reach for castings like Kevin Hart as Roland; these are professional actors. If they want something a bit different from that person, they can probably achieve it.
I think we’ll be pleasantly surprised, so long as you keep an open mind that it’s not supposed to be a beat for beat recreation of the games.
Had to check if it’s not made by Uwe Boll. Guess in a sense he was ahead of his time as Hollywood is now doing his shtick.
He would have cheaped out with some no-name actors. He knows the kind of movies he makes.
I read the cast and decided that’s all I needed to know that the movie would be bad. Why use the characters if you’re not even going to get actors that fit the roles? They could have just used news characters set in the same universe.
Which would have fit just fine based on every game having new characters in addition to old ones showing up as cameos. Heck they could have named the movie borderlands 4 and have it be part of the main game continuity. It would have been right in line with how insane borderlands is. Kinda like how the nightmare before Christmas game and matrix game are part of the movie continuity.
I put weeks of time into these games so I really want the movie to not suck
54 year old Lilith is wild. I’ll watch it but it needs to be really over the top to work
It looks fun enough, but I’m keeping expectations low. It has a “This is what a successful, funny movie is like, right? Right?” vibe, imo.
Casting is dogshit, jokes aren’t funny, trying way too hard to be guardians of the galaxy 2, and where’s mordy/brick?
