Shadows on the Wall | Borderlands

Borderlands

dir Eli Roth
scr Eli Roth, Joe Crombie
prd Ari Arad, Avi Arad, Erik Feig
with Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ariana Greenblatt, Jack Black, Florian Munteanu, Edgar Ramirez, Gina Gershon, Janina Gavankar, Olivier Richters, Haley Bennett, Bobby Lee
release US/UK 9.Aug.24
24/US Lionsgate 1h42

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clockwise: greenblatt, munteanu, curtis, hart and blanchett

It's unclear who this action fantasy was made for. An explosion of colourful energy, it's too silly for serious moviegoers, too violent for children and too convoluted for fans of the source videogame. That said, the offbeat cast holds the interest, adding nuance even if their characters are resolutely cartoonish. And filmmaker Eli Roth never loses the chaotic momentum as the plot spirals through a series of action set-pieces.

On Pandora, treasure hunters have long sought a mythical vault, turning the planet into a gigantic junkyard. Now young Tina (Greenblatt) is said to be the promised one who can locate and open the vault. Corporate boss Atlas (Ramirez) hires bounty hunter Lilith (Blanchett) to find her, but Tina has run off with soldier Roland (Hart) and muscled psycho Krieg (Munteanu). Returning to her childhood home planet, Lilith reunites with club owner Moxxi (Gershon) and scientist Tannis (Curtis), who worked with her late mother (Bennett in flashbacks). But Atlas' ruthless goons are on her trail.

Immediately after landing on Pandora, Lilith is joined by chattery robot Claptrap (voiced by Black), who incessantly makes painfully unfunny jokes and annoying observations. It seems like Roth thinks Claptrap is the funniest thing in the movie, but instead he only serves as a pointless distraction. Although it's not as if the script has much else going on, continually using cheap plot devices to propel the story into several bombastic shoot-em-up battles and a couple of predictable revelations.

Blanchett plays Lilith to the hilt, so she's far more likeable when she's tetchy than when she's heroic. And Curtis has some fun with Tannis' on-the-spectrum interactions with other characters. Both are enjoyable to watch when they ground their roles with some attitude. By contrast, Greenblatt is relentlessly cutesy, mischievous and deadly, while Hart mixes beefy action posturing with harsh sarcasm and Munteanu growls, laughs and flexes his physique. The oddball makeup of the team is more likeable than any single member.

Strangely, the movie's digital effects work has a slapstick style to it that makes us wonder why the whole project wasn't animated instead. This universe is a riotous but ultimately rather generic mishmash of Wild West and post-apocalyptic lawlessness. Roth's approach might work for fans of films that are noisy and goofy and packed with mindless action and dense mythology. But without an involving story or resonant characters, this is the kind of movie that only entertains in random bursts of nuttiness.

themes, language, violence 7.Aug.24

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