'Borderlands' Adaptation Struggles Despite Negative Reviews

The Borderlands movie, currently in its premiere week, is facing a barrage of negative reviews from prominent film critics, and now a fresh controversy involving uncredited staff.

Borderlands Movie Premiere Week: A Rough Start

Uncredited Staff Member Speaks Out

Eli Roth's Borderlands film adaptation is experiencing a difficult premiere, plagued by overwhelmingly negative critical reception. Rotten Tomatoes currently shows a dismal 6% rating based on 49 critic reviews. Leading critics haven't pulled any punches; Donald Clarke of the Irish Times suggested viewers might want to "imagine hitting an X button" to escape the film's "nonsense," while Amy Nicholson of the New York Times praised some design aspects but found the humor lacking.

Early reactions on social media, following the lifting of the embargo, echoed the negative sentiment, describing the film as "lifeless," "terrible," and "uninspired." However, a segment of Borderlands fans and moviegoers seem to appreciate the film's action-packed nature and over-the-top style. The audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is slightly more positive, sitting at 49%. One user commented, "I had low expectations, but I actually loved it," while another praised the action and humor, though acknowledging that "some lore changes might confuse people."

But the negative reviews aren't the movie's only problem. A recent controversy erupted when Robbie Reid, a freelance rigger who worked on the character Claptrap, revealed on Twitter (X) that neither he nor the character's modeler received screen credit.

Reid, expressing his disappointment, stated, "It stings that the one film to break my streak of receiving credit was my last studio project, especially for such a key character." He speculated that the omission might be due to him and the artist leaving the studio in 2021, adding that this issue is unfortunately common in the industry. He concluded by expressing hope that the situation might lead to industry-wide change regarding artist crediting.