Ahead of its premiere last week, Randy Pitchford, executive producer of Borderlands, spoke about fans’ skepticism of the new video game adaptation. “I think it’s amazing that people care so much,” he noted in a red-carpet interview.
In fact, fans care so much that they’re taking every opportunity to trash-talk the film online.
Borderlands is based on the video game series of the same name, which follows a group of adventurers known as “Vault Hunters” in search of a storied vault rumored to be filled with futuristic technology.
The ragtag team travels around the planet Pandora, fending off dangerous wildlife, ruthless bandits, and corporate mercenaries along the way. A role-playing game and a first-person shooter, the video game is famous for its gory violence.
Fans of the video game have been skeptical of the film adaptation since it was first announced several years ago.
On Reddit, many users criticized the cast—which includes Cate Blanchett, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Kevin Hart—because of how much it diverges from the game and seems to indicate a desire to draw in a mass audience rather than be faithful to the characters. Many surmised the film would have little in common with the game plot-wise, which made fans suspicious of the director’s intentions. The fact that the movie is rated PG-13 and not R was an immediate red flag for fans as well.
Now that the film is out in theaters, the longtime haters feel vindicated. The movie was critically panned and a box office flop, and many fans of the video game took to social media to express their disappointment. As was predicted, viewers found that the movie doesn’t represent the game in spirit or plot, with a few suggesting it is the worst movie they’ve ever seen.
On Reddit, fans got into the specifics of why they think the movie failed. For many, it came down to a question of audience. Casting was seemingly done without the specifics of the characters in mind, and the movie plot deviates significantly from the game. This means that fans of the video game were not drawn to the movie, but neither were non-video game fans with no frame of reference for what makes the story unique. “They tried to make a movie for everybody that is actually for nobody, tale old as time,” one Redditor wrote.
Indeed, numerous fans bemoaned this common pattern with video game adaptations. “It’s one thing to have to modify a story because of length, budgets, time, ect. But to just ignore all of that because you want to inject your own creativity, or because you really wanted to make another project is just insulting,” an X user wrote. Another fan noted that a shot-by-shot remake of one of the games would at least please the gamers, rather than no one at all.
There’s been one unexpected side effect of all this bad press, and that’s a renewed interest in the games themselves.
“Somehow the Borderlands movie is being received so badly that people are advocating to go and play the games instead,” one fan wrote on X. Even Pitchford, who is also the CEO of Gearbox, the company that produces Borderlands, suggested that the biggest takeaway from all these bad reviews is how much fans value the game. Discussions about the movie also revived debates about Borderlands 2 vs Borderlands 3, with some fans defending the latter, particularly in light of how poorly written the film is.
Why it matters
Video game adaptations always generate discourse, both because people are conflicted about the quality of video games as art and as entertainment and because fans tend to be critical of efforts to adapt their favorite games.
While catering to every whim of the fans is unlikely to produce a great outcome, totally ignoring fans —or not considering the perspectives of potential new fans—is not a great media production strategy either.
In this case, gaming fans made some salient points, and movie producers would be wise to heed their words.
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