Irony is something that doesn’t always happen in the gaming industry for multiple reasons. For example, it’s not “ironic” when a certain indie title does well because that’s happened multiple times in the past, and it’s more about quality than anything else. Furthermore, it’s not “ironic” when a series goes from “niche” to “mainstream” because it’s always about connecting with gamers. In contrast, what happened with the Borderlands Movie is both ironic and hilarious all at the same time. After all, this was a movie that had an A-List cast in many respects, then flopped hard at the box office, and is just days away from a release on digital platforms.
Yes, really. Despite the fact that the Borderlands Movie came out within the first week of August, it’ll be on Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, and Apple TV this Friday. As noted by VGC, it’ll cost you $20 to rent and $25 to own. As pretty much anyone who has seen the movie will tell you…that’s WAY too much to get it, and you should just avoid it altogether.
If you need to remember why it was so bad, you need only look at the production of the film. First and foremost, they decided to pick a cast that ranged from the “she’s a bit old to play that role” via Kate Blanchett to the “why the heck is he played Rolan?” aspect with Kevin Hart. Even if we could overlook the miscasting, the film went through numerous issues during production, including filming it to be an R-rated film and then cutting it down to be a PG-13 film to “appeal to more audiences.”
Hey, uh, Deadpool and his pal Wolverine would like a word with you all…because they came out before this movie, had an R-rated “buddy superhero flick,” and became the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time, and one of the highest grossing films in history! Oh, and IT is still in theaters despite coming out over a month ago.
Those who did dare to watch the film found themselves looking at a version of Pandora that was downright unrecognizable at times. Characters were given their “proper looks” at times but not their proper personalities or storylines. As some noted, it was more like they “read the back of a video game box” and then tried to make a movie based on that.
The film flopped so hard that even Uwe Boll made fun of it. There are things worse than death, ladies and gentlemen. But hey, at least Gearbox Software is making a new game in the series!
