Following a teaser of Cate Blanchett’s Lilith, Lionsgate released the first Borderlands movie trailer, and the game adaptation sure does look like Borderlands. The two-minute trailer is full of meme-able moments, but it also gives a brief look at what you could reasonably construe as a possible message that gives a bit of coherence to the explosions, poop fetish jokes, and urine splashes.
Lionsgate's Borderlands movie is the latest in a string of video game adaptations. Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding, indie horror hit Martha is Dead, and Sony's God of War are just a few productions in the works for 2024 as well.
The Borderlands movie follows Roland, Tiny Tina, Lilith, and the obnoxious robot Claptrap as they track down a vault of legendary reputation, a status it earned after everyone who tried finding it died in the process. Jamie Lee Curtis’ Dr Patricia – originally a quest giver in the Borderlands games, but with a more active role in the movie – reminds the ragtag band how deranged their mission is. Their response is that they have something no one else who tried did: serious issues.
That style of humor is Borderlands in a nutshell. The idea of misfits finding a common cause and maybe even creating a family together underlies the vault hunt, but it sits alongside moments like driving through Piss-Wash Valley and getting splashed with – surprise – urine or Claptrap having an extended dialogue sequence about only being able to excrete lead if people were watching him.
On the bright side, Jack Black’s performance as the annoying robo-companion makes these moments slightly more bearable. Blanchett, Curtis, and Kevin Hart seem to be enjoying themselves as well, which – in the trailer, anyway – helps elevate the slightly crude script. Whether that holds true for the full film is anyone’s guess, but we don’t have long to wait to find out. The Borderlands movie releases in theaters in fall 2024.
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