Borderlands (2024) - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

I’ve long believed that it doesn’t matter if a movie is “good” or “bad” - it just has to be entertaining. The only truly terrible movie is a boring one. A Good movie can be a grand adventure, a rich drama, a heartfelt romance, or a hilarious comedy, whatever the genre so long as the story works, the writing/directing is solid, and the cast is up for it. The same can be true for a Bad movie that misses all of the marks but does so in such a gonzo fashion you either enjoy it because of or despite its faults. Then there are movies like Borderlands, a work that once probably had something going for it but bears all the hallmarks of top-level studio meddling for a boring soulless slog of one cliched plot beat after another. 

Starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Ariana Greenblatt with Florian Munteanu; I’m not going to list characters because it really doesn’t matter as it’s all so generic (even if they are based on video game counterparts). Shady Bounty Hunter Lady with good heart (Blanchett) is hired by the Obvious Bad Guy (Edgar Ramirez) to locate Girl (Greenblatt) who can do the miracle thing at the special spot but she’s friends with an honorable Rogue Soldier (Hart) and a Gigantic Good Psycho (Munteanu). Everything works out and they become friends but before they get to their destination Shady Lady meets Kooky Genious from her past (Curtis) before they all get into one big CGI final battle with Obvious Bad Guy. Oh, and there’s an obnoxious robot (Black) throughout the movie who at one point stops the action dead so he can shit bullets. Fun.

To clear some air after that fog, I’m not someone entrenched in their love for the Borderlands games. I played through the first two, I know I started Borderlands 3 but can’t remember finishing it. I thought they were fun pick-up-and-go games I didn’t need to get too invested in to have a good time as I gradually worked through their expansive worlds and gameplay. That said, I haven't fired up one of those games in years so I had no baggage going into this film. I heard reviews were bad and so forth, but I figured if Eli Roth is involved it had to have at least a few moments to enjoy, right? Well, it might have at one point, but who really knows? 

Straight up, the problem with Borderlands is that it’s such an obvious studio hack job that it’s difficult to tell if Eli Roth was at fault or if reshoot director Tim Miller tripped at the finish line. What’s painfully obvious is that at one time this was a hyper-violent action movie with tons of gore and probably plenty of crass humor to match. You know… like a Borderlands game! But somewhere down the line, the bright idea was made to make this more teenage kid-friendly and was numbingly dumbed down to PG-13. So while Roth was busy shooting his hilarious and wildly entertaining slasher whodunit Thanksgiving, Tim Miller was given the unenviable task of reshooting the film (supposedly for only two weeks) and squeezing out the final product. 

At this point, I know I’m just piling on the film, but it really is bad. The first thirty to forty minutes is just this unending parade of half-finished scenes with uninspired voice-over by Blanchett to explain what is going on or where her bounty hunter character is going. And the film never really comes together after that. Eventually, Borderlands starts to have a plot and go somewhere, but by that point, the damage is done. And it’s a shame because you can tell a lot of work went into recreating game characters and world design and bringing them to life. There are moments where the cast looks like they are at least having fun and enjoying it. Then there are so many times when they all look like they’re just trying to get through it and go home. The trouble for me watching this mess was I was at home and I had to finish it. By the grand finale, I was ready to close the vault on this movie forever. 

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray 
Borderlands cracks the home video vault for a 4K UHD + Blu-ray + Digital release from Lionsgate. The 4K is pressed on a BD100 disc with a Region A BD50 serving up the film in 1080p. The discs are housed in a standard two-disc eco-friendly case with an identical slipcover. The discs open to your typical main menu layout with standard navigation options.

Borderlands crashes onto 4K UHD with an overall pleasing 2160p Dolby Vision transfer. While there are a lot of great highlight points to celebrate, the image also suffers from the obvious reshoots and what looks like some seriously rushed CGI to get the film finished and in theaters ASAP. When the image cooks, details are razor-sharp and look terrific, and even with some heavy CGI effects used, there’s some impressive depth. In these moments the makeup work shines, the costumes are fun to see, and the production design looks impressive. But the reshoot scenes are what hold this transfer back as it becomes very obvious when the actors are simply standing in front of a green screen - and I’m sure not always at the same time. The image flattens, and the impressive background effects to bring Pandora to life suddenly become a soft nondescript blur. The result is any human character suddenly looks like they’re standing out of a poorly illustrated pop-up book. And the film popcorns back and forth like that leaving this transfer to rest with that visual inconsistency. When it’s great, the Dolby Vision transfer shines with bright colors, inky blacks, crisp whites, and impeccable details. When it doesn’t, it’s just the obvious fingerprints of late-in-the-game tinkering.

At least the good thing going for this release of Borderlands is the Dolby Atmos mix! Given the big action sequences with guns blazing and massive creatures destroying things, there’s a lot going on to give this soundscape a full spread. Front/center, sides, rear, and height channels get plenty of playtime. The bigger and more complete-feeling the scene, the bigger and more immersive the Atmos experience. A scene of our ragtag group of misfit heroes driving through the head of a giant tentical monster is a notable highlight! But then they get down into the caverns facing down swarms of baddies and it's just as exhilarating. Throughout dialog is clear and well-prioritized. While quiet scenes are relatively few, there was a lot of care to spread around incidental audio elements to maintain that active presence. All around a fun and engaging mix.

For this vault run on Borderlands, Lionsgate gives us about 45 mins of extra materials for fans to dig into. While tackling different topics about making the film and bringing the world design of the game to life, they’re all rather brief. A little better than simply EPK soundbites, but not extensive either. Extras are on both discs.

• Borderlands: From Game to Screen (HD 5:20)
• Meet the Team (HD 4:29)
• All Aboard the Death Choochoo (HD 5:10)
• Bringing Borderlands to the Screen (HD 5:29)
• Badonkadonk Time (HD 5:11)
• Fashion and Action on Pandora (HD 7:37)
• High-Tech Hellscapes (HD 9:17)

Adapting a video game isn’t an easy order to tackle, that is why there have been so few successful attempts. That’s especially the case with a game series like Borderlands where there’s a level of near-infinite replay value for a game where you can spend dozens of hours playing it and still not finish it. A 100-minute film was going to be a tough task to accomplish but Eli Roth, a solid cast, and production design crew gave it their best shot. Then somewhere down the line the decision was made to take a very hard R-rated game and make it a souless obnoxious semi family-friendly PG-13 adventure and that effort goes to waste.

Was Eli Roth the wrong guy for the job? Was it the Tim Miller-directed reshoots that doomed the film? Who knows, and I don’t think it matters now. Results speak for themselves and this is a grating sloppily edited neutered version of a vast video game empire with a been-there-done-that generic storyline. But hey, not every video game adaptation can be as lucky as Fallout. On 4K Borderlands opens the right vault door for a quality Dolby Vision transfer and an excellent Atmos mix to match. Bonus features are informative but slim. Honestly, I’d tell anyone who asked to Skip It. I don’t think the flick is worth it, but if you enjoyed the film, the disc is quality.