Eli Roth’s Borderlands is getting so much flak even before the worldwide premiere, and now that the early reviews are out, it sets a disappointing record. Fans already expected the movie’s failure after certain remarks from the director proved it wouldn’t be a faithful adaptation.
Based on Gearbox Software’s famous game, Borderlands stars Hollywood A-listers Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Jack Black, among others. With such a solid cast, it’s quite depressing to think of the movie’s potential failure.
Eli Roth Talks About Adapting Borderlands But Making It His Own Version
Eli Roth previously spoke with IGN and shared how close the movie is to the original game. He asserted that he wanted to make the film his own and not adapt it by the book.
We could use certain things, but I didn’t want to have to be too slavish. I didn’t just want to film the game. We wanted to tell a great story on its own, but of course, it’s loaded with Easter eggs for the fans.
This did not sit well with the fans despite the promise of Easter eggs and references to the games. Moreover, he admitted in an interview with Den of Geek that he’s played Borderlands before although he signed up for the project with a different, more personal purpose in mind.
“I didn’t want to change it to the point that it’s not Borderlands, but I wanted to take it from being a video game to being a great sci-fi film,” he declared. This meant that he was not after bringing the game’s lore into the big screen as his loyalty lies in his own version of the film.
Kevin Hart, who stars as Roland, knows the magnitude of his responsibility after taking on a project based on a widely-acclaimed franchise. He told VIBE:
I just wanted to make myself familiar with what the world was, and take a deeper dive and see what it is that the fan base is so crazy about. I mean 50 million plus-whatever users have touched this game, so it’s a big thing to not understand.
Still, even with his stellar star power and comedic action skills, fans aren’t buying into the Borderlands movie. In fact, it debuted with a depressing 0% score on Rotten Tomatoes based on critics’ reviews.
Fans Already Expected Borderlands Will Flop
Fans on Twitter are not even shocked with the embarrassing score. In fact, they believe it deserves a zero rating after Roth’s disregard for the games. Check out their reactions below:
yup sounds about right. looked awful from the get go
— Waffy's Spatial Realities ᯅ (@waffyonyt) August 8, 2024
I kinda figured…
— DAEWOO📺🩸 (@daewooarts) August 8, 2024
I KNEW it was gonna suck
— justsumone57 (@Wheresthesauce8) August 8, 2024
not even surprised, it was probably doomed to fail anyway
— Joe (August DC Era) (@Joefanatic23) August 8, 2024
a director change plus many many extensive reshoots during covid too
I had a feeling this movie was going to be really bad, but I didn't it was going to be this terrible. pic.twitter.com/M0jEUOb124
— James Fierro (@SoftPlatypus23) August 8, 2024
It remains to be seen how the film will perform in the next couple of weeks. With a reported $120 million budget, Borderlands needs to make at least $300 million to turn a profit and break even.
However, given the initial negative impression, it doesn’t look like it will make a huge box office return.
Borderlands will premiere on August 9.
