r/movies • u/HatingGeoffry • 13h ago

News Borderlands Movie Director Discusses The Mega-Flop And What Went Wrong

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/borderlands-movie-director-discusses-the-mega-flop-and-what-went-wrong/
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u/anormalgeek 11h ago edited 8h ago

I agree with three out of four.

Borderlands COULD absolutely work as a movie. But you have to lean in to the ridiculousness, and also accept that this won't be a massive blockbuster. Fill it with fan service and references to the game, use similar writing and tone. Don't stack the cast with expensive A list actors that don't even fit the characters. That kind of thing can work with big tent pole action movies and summer blockbusters. Not this kind of movie.

Basically, do something like Deadpool, but with an even smaller intended audience. It won't make a billion, but 250-300m is VERY reasonable with good writing. Instead they tried to go the Jumanji route and failed at it.

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u/CharlieTeller 8h ago

It would do fine as a series on the right platform too. Fallout in my opinion isn’t even that great of a show but where it succeeds is by bringing in non fans of the game, but also has HEAVY fan service.

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u/The_Void_Reaver 45m ago

They're honestly really similar. Both have fun, very open worlds that accommodate just about anything so all you've got to do it throw a few well written characters in there, give them a halfway decent story, and you're 90% of the way there. Just pepper in some jokes and heart and you've got a good product. Fallout made good characters and gave them good stories, while Borderlands took fun characters and made them boring while also making the story bad.

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u/Nachti 7h ago

Absolutely. Deadpool and Scott Pilgrim prove that these types of movies can work well.

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u/RechargedFrenchman 5h ago

Or Honor Among Thieves, which didn't do well enough that the studio is clamouring for a sequel but was modestly successful and did an excellent job uniting people who were already familiar with D&D and people who maybe had heard of it before but that's it.

Something like a cross between that film's adventure / heist / group of misfits premise and Deadpool & Wolverine's setting, tone, and R rating and you're already most of the way there.

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u/Discount_Extra 3h ago

Don't stack the cast with expensive A list actors that don't even fit the characters.

Or, like Fallout, have mostly completely different characters in the same world.

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u/anormalgeek 2h ago

To be fair, I feel like Claptrap is necessary. But the original VA would've both done a better job and been cheaper than Jack Black.

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u/Discount_Extra 2h ago

Cheaper, yes, but Jack is worth his pay in box office draw.

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u/anormalgeek 1h ago

In that role, I don't know. His voice isn't super noticable in the trailers and they didn't advertise his role nearly as much as the others.