• Chozo
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    410 months ago

    I forgot that they were making this. I just checked the trailer, and it surprisingly doesn’t look terrible. As far as video game adaptations go these days, this actually seems pretty true to the source material.

    I imagine it’ll be one of those movies that’s terrible for general audiences, but will probably be well-received among its niche. As a huge fan of the first two Borderlands games, it looks solid and I actually want to watch this.

    • @[email protected]
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      910 months ago

      As far as video game adaptations go these days, this actually seems pretty true to the source material.

      Uh… What? Look at the casting- Roland should be a straight-man (in comedy terms) but they’ve cast Kevin Hart to tell his typically unfunny cracks. And while I love Kate Blanchett she is not a good fit to play Lilith

      • Chozo
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        510 months ago

        Yeah, I’m not sure how I feel about some of the casting as I’m kinda tired of seeing Kevin Hart and Jack Black in everything lately (I’m surprised I didn’t see The Rock in the trailer somewhere, to be honest), but the overall feel of the trailer seems to match the energy that the games had. I’m not saying it’s 1:1 accurate by any means, but the trailer definitely manages to feel like Borderlands. I imagine the writers for the movie didn’t want anybody from the main group to feel like a “downer” character, so Roland’s probably being reworked a bit.

        I’m okay with it so far, at least. It’s generally pretty hard to make the “strong, quiet type” very interesting, especially for a movie format where you have limited screen time that has to be shared among a lot of characters. You can make that sort of character interesting, like in No Country For Old Men, but you have to dedicate a lot of time to it, and that’s not easily done with a story that has so many characters with their own stories to tell.

        I dunno, I’m just remaining optimistic. I want to like this movie.

  • @[email protected]
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    10 months ago

    Good. I hope that sleaze Pitchford loses a mountainload of money on this. I absolutely hate the guy, he’s a liar and a thief. And arguably, depending how you look at it, a pedophile.

    As a short reminder: Borderlands was originally meant to look like this. Then, at the MTV Asia Awards 2006, an artist by the name of Ben Hibon premiered a neat-looking animated short by the name of Codehunters. You can see it here. Witchford saw this and wanted to use the artstlye for his new game. He and Ben had a back-and-forth for a while and then, radio silence.

    2009 comes around and Pitchfork’s new game Borderlands is released. And to say that it looked familiar to Codehunters would be an understatement. Kitschford, being an upstanding and virtuous citizen that he is, straight-up aped Codehunter’s style. No discussions or agreements were made with Ben and as such, despite Borderlands becoming hugely profitable, Ben didn’t see a cent. And that is why I will always hope for the Borderlands IP to crash and burn. Or, at the very least, for someone to actually pay Ben Hibon for (unknowingly) creating the game’s artstyle. Anyway, rant over, thanks for coming to my TED talk.

    • Derin
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      10 months ago

      I agree that Pitchford is a dick, but I sincerely disagree about the art style comments: I don’t think it’s morally correct to “copyright” (or, reworded: claim exclusivity of) art styles, especially in this context.

      I think the two works are completely independent, and Gearbox being inspired by the short film is completely appropriate.

      Anything else would be no different (in my opinion) than cases like Roger Dean (the cover artist for Yes’ early albums) suing James Cameron for the floating islands in Avatar.

      It’s not stealing to be inspired by someone else.

      • @[email protected]
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        210 months ago

        I remember just a couple months ago before that game Mouse (the one that’s all black and white, rubberhose animation style, where you play as a detective mouse) was supposed to come out, and everyone and their mother was freaking out over the use of the rubberhose style, as if Disney had a copyright on the entire art style itself.

        I just thought people were fucking stupid for voicing those thoughts in the first place.

      • @[email protected]
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        210 months ago

        Nah, I didn’t forget. It’s just that Pitchford’s list of screw-ups is so extensive that if I wanted to list of each and every one, we’d be here all day.

  • @[email protected]
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    710 months ago

    It’s been some time since I saw critics and fans so aligned, congrats to the Borderlands movie! lol

  • @[email protected]
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    610 months ago

    The movie feels like it was made after they picked the cast then curated it to the actors instead of the source material. I know everyone seems to like the cast choices but I genuinely think it’s the worst line up they could have done. The closet to acceptable would be jack black. I honestly don’t get why they wouldn’t just do the voice actor for him or find someone who is close to a perfect match.

    I’ve got a home copy to watch tonight for free and I only have that because a friend sent it to me. I don’t even wanna pay the electricity to watch it.

  • @[email protected]
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    10 months ago

    I’m sorry but the cast alone is proof they didn’t give a fuck about the fans. It’s also dumb as fuck how they’re “telling their own story” and aren’t ballsy enough to go the route fallout did (telling a good story within established canon).

    I’m not going to see a movie about borderlands if the established, existing core character cast isn’t literally from the game actors. Big celebs can be cool if they’re their own unique characters, but core, pre-existing characters should be played from the games.

    Should clarify: if you’re going to use the main characters in the series, they should be using the actual actors. If you want to make some new characters, then that’s fine. If these guys were brand new vault hunters, I’d be far more forgiving.

  • @[email protected]
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    310 months ago

    well its impossible that it could be worse than the games so im sure the borderland fan will like it give it some time

  • @[email protected]
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    10 months ago

    Duh.

    It’s the classic thing that happens to all these movies and TV shows that are written by people who purposely avoid the source material and brag about “we didn’t play the game or read the books” like that somehow is going to make the content better?

    • @[email protected]
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      910 months ago

      Not only that, they probably would have been better off not using the original 4 playable characters since every game comes with a new set. Just make sure the side characters are done well and you keep the same feel as the games and it should have been an easy win

      • tb_
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        510 months ago

        I think the Halo show could’ve been much more interesting too if they focused on someone not the main character of the games.

        But no, gotta keep the most recognizable character

        • @[email protected]
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          110 months ago

          Only if they read anything about the games or books. Leaving master chief out doesn’t fix the active contempt for the source material.

      • @[email protected]
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        110 months ago

        I would have fully supported a movie with Mister Torgue running around having adventures. Of course he would be played by John Cena in a mullet.

    • @[email protected]
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      4010 months ago

      “I hate that thing that you love, so I convinced someone to pay me a million dollars to shit on it for you. Now pay me for my failures!

    • @[email protected]
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      1910 months ago

      Offhand I can only think of one movie (and sequels) where “didn’t read the book” made the movie significantly better: The Bourne Identity. Those books really were awful!

  • elgordino
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    1510 months ago

    Just saw this a few hours ago. If it wasn’t for this post I think I’d have forgotten about it already.

    I guess it’s fine, just entirely unremarkable.

    • tiredofsametab
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      910 months ago

      I resolved to stop paying full price for anything Pitchford and his touch based on a number of factors. I did buy the latest BL game when it was on a big sale and thoroughly hated the main story and various plotholes (seemingly from cuts made by the company/directors rather than the writers). I bought Tiny Tina (again, on sale for over half off) and it was a game with all kinds of bugs that just never got fixed – it’s the first game I didn’t immediately roll a new character to replay after beating it. At this point, I’m not sure I would buy anything else they put out.

    • @[email protected]
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      1610 months ago

      They are… Okay.

      Big random factor in the loot so you can go long stretches without any interesting upgrades if you’re unlucky.

      There’s a lot of time wasting - go here, now go back there, now go to this place

      Leveling is weird and is a big factor in damage. If you’re too low level you can’t do anything except die. If you’re too high level you can’t lose. Sometimes you do too many side quests or not enough

      The games typically start slow. You go a long while before you unlock your cool powers, or even the ability to equip four guns.

      The writing is meh except for Handsome Jack. He’s a great villain.

      There was a mega bundle of all the games before 3 for like $5. Look for that kind of sale.

    • @[email protected]
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      1310 months ago

      play the trilogy and your faith in the franchise will be restored

      bl2 is the best one hands down, you could totally start with that one

      • Sami
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        310 months ago

        The PreSequel and Wonderlands are both great too

        • @[email protected]
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          710 months ago

          I really wanted to like Wonderlands, but the intended demographic is apparently younger than me. The drop from M to T seems to have cut the writing down to kindergarten level.

        • @[email protected]
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          1010 months ago

          Presequel is great, wonderlands is not. Tiny Tina’s dlc in 2 was absolutely perfect and MAYBE should’ve gotten a sequel dlc in 3, but there was never enough content for a stand alone title. Certainly not at a full game price point. I always look back to farcry 3 for the proper way to handle a stand alone dlc installment. Blood dragon was always a smaller spinoff and it worked well in that regards.

        • @[email protected]
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          310 months ago

          I don’t think Wonderlands had much replay value. Plus the DLCs were garbage, speed run dungeons and new items in the loot pool, no new story. I lost faith in gearbox after that.

    • Chozo
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      910 months ago

      I highly, highly recommend playing BL1 and BL2. They’re fantastic games, and wonderfully written. Not all of the humor has aged really well (nothing offensive, just mostly very 2010’s-specific humor), but the gameplay still holds up today, IMO. The DLCs for BL2 are particularly good, and among some of the best DLCs I’ve seen for any game.

        • Chozo
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          110 months ago

          Agreed! The quality and quantity of the content in that DLC are enough to qualify for a standalone game. Not to mention all the wild new mechanics that the DLC introduces, and work seamlessly with the rest of the game. TTAODK was probably the best piece of content Gearbox will ever produce.

    • @[email protected]
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      310 months ago

      Played the first two, cringy and tedious. And this is coming from someone who loves plenty of pulp and grindy games.

  • LeadersAtWork
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    110 months ago

    Joltzdude thought the movie was pretty bad, with few good moments. He’s one of the most wholesome people I’ve ever run across, and a massive Borderlands nerd. So while I normally try to make my own decisions on these things, I am willing to bet it was pretty bad.