The Borderlands movie tried to split the difference between a PG-13 rating and original story appealing to a more general audience. But they were not interested
If they wanted to make this movie a success they should have had ONE PERSON from the writing, directing and (most importantly) casting team sit down and play the games.
And funny fucking Deadpool is kicking its ass with an R rated movie. When these assholes going to learn. Mostly adults go to movies and we are fucking adults we don’t want pg13 bullshit. If I am going go to a 30 dollar movie better be damn good. Save your piss ass movies for direct to streaming. I’m sure Netflix or someone would of gave them 10 million for exclusive rights. That made them extra 2 million not counting all the marketing and cost of distribution.
I’d argue it’s not the rating but the writing.
Sure, it’s easier to write a good story when only the overtly “gross” is off limits, but there are plenty of great stories where all the horror of its setting or events are only implied. It’s all about how the story is told.
Hollywood does have a very full history of dumbing things down to the point of boredom even outaide of ratings, so I’m not surprised what so ever that this movie flopped.
It would’ve either took excellent writing exploring the story the games present further than the games ever did, or an R rating so the spectacle could be, “Mad Max with scifi”.
Hollywood had no chance of either with a pg-13, though that’s because bean counters HATE paying for good story tellers.
It probably comes from an attitude that video games are for kids so they can’t make the movie R or it won’t capture the video game audience. They don’t realize that especially for games like this the audience is primarily adults and maybe teenagers.
There are many people with kids who might be greatful for a decent pg13 movie. But this is not it. Also I think you’re right that they didn’t assess the target group correctly.
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The second I saw Kevin Hart, I was done. I’m just not a fan.
I don’t dislike Kevin Hart when he’s appropriate for the role. But Roland is not a role that Kevin Hart should play. Unless he was going to perform differently than every other role I’ve seen him in, he’s not the right fit.
He did perform it differently and it lacks everything that makes Kevin Hart a decent watch.
But, honestly, not the worst part of the movie.
I’m at least happy it wasn’t the rock
He would be a better Roland than Kevin
It was obvious from the casting and trailer that they were more interested in ticking boxes than actually making a good movie
I was talking to my mom about that last night. She’s never played the games, but I showed her a couple of pictures of Roland and Lilith and then told her who they cast and even she said, “what the fuck?” Kevin Hart is terrible in pretty much everything, but casting him as Roland made it immediately clear that no one involved in this movie cared at all about the games. And I love Cate Blanchett but she’s also about 20 years too old to play Lilith.
I just can’t figure out why they thought anyone who didn’t love the games would care about the movie, but that seemed to be the audience they tried to attract.
The costumes and lighting make it look like a bad YouTube fan parody too.
They shouldn’t wait for 10+ years to do a movie based on a game.
I don’t think that’s the problem, though. It was just made by people who clearly don’t give a shit and were just trying to cash in on the fact that there are actually some not terrible movie and TV show adaptations of games being made lately.
The Last of Us came out 11 years ago and became a critically-acclaimed TV show. And Sonic and Mario are ancient by video game standards yet made some good movies. Those IPs are still getting new installments which keep them relevant, but so is Borderlands, with Borderlands 3 only turning 5 next month.
But I think the other part of it too, is that Borderlands basically stopped being relevant years ago. It’s built on some “you had to be there” Millennial humor that people don’t really find funny or original anymore. It’s a series that peaked in high school and thought it was too cool to care about long-term goals. When it turns into a movie and tries to stand on story alone, without the unique art style or passable gunplay that serve as the games’ few remaining charms, what substance is there?
For borderlands though I’d say it was at its peak popularity with borderlands 2. None of the games after that really made a mark. And the characters are using is directly lifted from that game. And the gameplay loop is basically just a looter shooter with humor. Any serviceable story. In the very least handsome Jack was done well. Using this much of borderlands 2, would have been better when borderlands 2 was still a bigger game. Or just putting in a borderlands setting but with all new characters. And I still need better casting and better writing.
Sonic has been around forever, has had numerous games, TV shows, various other media (toys, shirts, etc.). And the movie used some elements from the games but then hard code itself to the game.
And last of us, is a heavily story-based game. The story that pulls elements that have existed and pop culture for a long time. I mean to be blunt it’s just another zombie story.
I don’t know how people running these projects aren’t ever fired. It’s an endless dance of lemons.
Wait till you hear how much of hollywood runs on nepotism and backroom favors. There are shit directors pumping out tons of movies and living the high life because they have a list of kids their co-workers have abused.
Which is very unfortunate. It’s not too disimilar from CEOs that jump from company to company with the intent of tanking the place, getting their paycheck and then rinse and repeating.
No excuse for this bullshit. They blantantly did everything THEY wanted, not what the FANS wanted. Awful cast, awful character portrayels, sterile corporate “rehash” of the story. This ain’t it chief. Shame on pritchford for giving this abomination the green light; not surprised he did, though. This is unacceptable, not when we have FALLOUT and LAST OF US kicking as much ass as they are. Fuck you Eli.
a movie for everyone is a movie for no one. tell a story and don’t apologize.
So while it’s unlikely based on those box office numbers, has anybody actually seen this thing?
A friend of mine who hasn’t played Borderlands went to see it. According to him, it’s not even “so bad it’s good,” it’s just flat and boring.
I did, lol. From the trailers it looked so bad it could be good, you know in that awful cheesy way that some movies are. In the end it wasn’t that bad. If you strip away the borderlands wrapper it was a decent comedy sci-fi film. Not gonna win any awards but solid 5/10. Really this should’ve just done it’s own thing, to me it just looked like an excuse for the actors to make money and cosplay XD.
I see “Jack Black” and know enough to save my money. Dude is poison. Seems like a nice guy, but has the comedy stylings of a low rent party clown.
I remember watching school of rock and thinking: i like jack black. But pretty much everything else i’ve seen is extremely unfunny. I have no idea why people like him this much. How many good movies was he in? I don’t even think school of rock held up well, but i don’t want to rewatch it. A lot of people liked when he was on japanese tv shows or commercials, i just see a guy who does everything for a dollar. Which is fine, but not something likable.
For real and he threw Kyle Gass under the bus when you know damn well he agreed with what was said.
