The Borderlands film is set on the junkyard planet Pandora, which was once home to an advanced alien species, but has since been taken over by violent marauders. Born there, Lilith (Cate Blanchett) reluctantly returns to the employ of a megalomaniac named Atlas (Edgar Ramirez), who has hired her to track down his daughter, a bomb-loving teenager named Tiny Tina (Ariana Greenblatt). Is kept. Joining her quest are new members: a smooth-talking robot Claptrap (voiced by Jack Black), a xeno-archaeologist Patricia Tannis (Jamie Lee Curtis), her late mother’s best friend, a mute He is a warrior like a demon. Craig (Florian Munteanu), and Roland (Kevin Hart), a soldier who used to be with Atlas but now seeks salvation. This group of outlaws doesn’t cut as much cheese as the Guardians of the Galaxy or even the Suicide Squad, a team of misfits, making it hard for us to care if they’re Ramirez’s army, Pandora’s Achieve victory against the various animals or masked maniacs they encounter. His journey.
The film shows some of the highlights of the Star Wars franchise. For example, key messages are transmitted by Claptrap to Lilith, just as Princess Leia received from R2-D2 at a crucial point in Star Wars. Then, at the beginning of the film, we see Kevin Hart in the Stormtrooper uniform, taking off the heavy helmet he wears. The film also borrows from the Mad Max franchise. The landscape is reminiscent of the dystopian world of the Mad Max films and harbors deranged soldiers, just like in Mad Max.
Director Roth is content to make a film that feels like a first-person shooter. He hasn’t wasted energy in adding emotional depth to it. The budding mother-daughter relationship between Patricia and Lilith could have been better explored. We’d also love to know why angry Craig is so touchy about Tina. There was definitely some chemistry between Commander Knox (Janina Gavankar) and Roland, but the two only share ten words in the entire film.
This misadventure by Eli Roth took three years to reach us, re-shot by Tim Miller and co-written by Joe Crombie, who appears to be a pseudonym. You wonder what inspired Oscar winners like Cate Blanchett and Jamie Lee Curtis to be a part of this madness. Curtis tries hard to understand her hastily written character but fails to understand the flawed script. Even Kevin Hart, known for his comic timing, doesn’t get enough material to highlight his motormouth antics. Jack Black appears to be making up his lines as Claptrap, a trick that gets some laughs. There are few films where the lead characters seem too good for the material, and at least that’s true in the case of Cate Blanchett. She plays the role of shoot-first-ask-questions-later soldier of fortune with ease and that’s the only reason to invest yourself in this film.