Borderlands Film Adaptation Will Be Horrible, Industry Insidier Says

Despite their fair share of flaws, inconsistencies, and moments that would frustrate any die-hard fan of the originals, the recent adaptations of The Last of Us, Super Mario Bros., and Fallout have undeniably changed the video game adaptation industry for the better, being of significantly higher quality than most previous attempts to translate beloved game franchises into another medium and fostering an expectation in the minds of many that filmmakers have finally learned how to create proper adaptations.

Apparently, this spree of well-received adaptations is about to end within the next month with the release of Eli Roth's Borderlands, which, according to industry insider Daniel Richtman, is on its way to becoming one of 2024's most horrible movies.

According to Richtman's recent Patreon post, he spoke with viewers who attended a preliminary screening and got a sense of the movie's quality prior to its release. These viewers described the Borderlands movie as a "terrible" and "unfunny" mess, citing a chaotic plot, awful jokes, and underdeveloped characters. Combined with the online community's prior negative comments about the film's questionable casting choices, and it seems that we've got a disaster bomb on our hands, ready to go boom on August 9, 2024.

While I'm definitely no stranger to criticizing video game adaptations and would never miss a good opportunity to throw shade on filmmakers for replacing the original concepts with their own, often dreadful, ideas (looking at you, ghoul serum), it's worth noting that chaos, weirdness, and a hint of cringe have always been a part of the Borderlands games, meaning that until the movie is released, the viewers' negative feedback might be interpreted as the adaptation staying true to the original.

While it's certainly questionable to have 40, 50, and 60-year-old actors playing much younger characters, we won't know for sure whether Borderlands will be a success or a failure until more reviews or the film itself is released. Either way, I'm confident Borderlands will make its audience laugh, with it or at it.