Borderlands (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)
By no means am I a video game afficionado. I can honestly say the last game I played was Grand Theft Auto: Vice City on a PSII that I HAD to have. I had other games, but I only ever played this one. I wasn’t very good at the game and my attention span for gaming had never been the best. Despite my distaste for gaming, I still am easily aware of video games and Borderlands is a series of games that I know of. Don’t ask me anything about it though, but the title, I know for sure! All kidding aside, I was intrigued when Eli Roth’s film adaptation was announced. With a huge cast of recognizable talent and what seemed like a nice sized budget to make something big and fun for the spring, I was immediately ensconced when I saw the negative press and the abysmal box office returns. Read more about the film below and what happens to be a reference grade 4K Blu-ray!
Film: 
“Lilith, an infamous bounty hunter with a mysterious past, reluctantly returns to her home, Pandora, the most chaotic planet in the galaxy. Her mission is to find the missing daughter of Atlas, the universe’s most powerful SOB. Lilith forms an unexpected alliance with Roland, a seasoned mercenary on a mission; Tiny Tina, a feral pre-teen demolitionist; Krieg, Tina’s musclebound protector; Tannis, the oddball scientist who’s seen it all; and Claptrap, a wiseass robot. Together, this ragtag team goes on a mission to save Tiny Tina, battle alien species, and discover one of Pandora’s most explosive secrets. The fate of the universe could be in their hands — but they’ll be fighting for something more: each other. Based on one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time, welcome to Borderlands.”
The synopsis of the film tells you everything in a nutshell. What the synopsis does not tell you, is that the film is an unfortunately disjointed, incomprehensible and confusing mishmash of superhero action, middling comedy and poor performances from otherwise unshakable actors. The film begins in such a way that it’s been written to believe all the viewers going into the film have seen or played the game before. The filmmakers have chosen to just roll with the assumption we know what the backstory is of Lilith. We don’t and as the story careens out of control we find out little by little. That is, if we haven’t already completely zoned out.
Along with Lilith, we have Tiny Tina, a bratty teenager. Krieg, a nearly faceless wall of man-meat accompanies her and Roland, a mercenary who acts as if he’s never seen any kind of battle. Claptrap is an incessant Jar-Jar Binks level annoying robot that has a quip for everything. Finally, we have Tannis, a “wise” scientist. We get all the cliches in one film! How fun – Now, how does all of this characterization come through in the film? Undoubtedly, the film comes out choppy. Between extremely poor CGI and some colorful but shallow set dressing, the film’s world it’s trying to build just can’t find its foundation. The actors aren’t necessarily to blame, but the writing and direction can. Eli Roth, who has given us some good movies and some bad ones too has certainly delivered a bad one here. It’s no wonder the film didn’t do well financially, critically or even connect with its audience. There is no soul or heart in this film and it’s evident from the first frame.
I believe Cate Blanchett and Jamie Lee Curtis have tried very hard to deliver here. As they usually do, they remain the most grounded of the cast here. I realize the other cast and the filmmakers meant well. I believe that most if not all films being made are made with the best of intentions. This one notwithstanding just fails overall. The film is too loud, too fast, then too slow and then so confusing it’s hard to get the film to do more than just lie there hoping you’re still watching by the end. I had a hard time keeping focus and became so confused that by the end of the film I was bored and frustrated and tired from all the ways I had been pulled by the incoherent script.
I say that you should watch the film if you dare, or if you want to have fun making fun of the film. For others, I’d say wholeheartedly to stay away. I wish I could say something positive here, but I have no clue how to objectively. As we always say as film critics, films are subjective. I do take Roger Ebert’s words to heart that reviews shouldn’t aim to rip a bad film to shreds, and I also know that regardless of the negative reaction here and elsewhere the film will find an audience too! At the end of the day, this is another film casualty of an exhausted filmmaking community that has run out of fresh ideas.
I watched Borderlands a full week ago. I had no clue how to write this review without going off on a tangent based on my frustrations with how poorly the film went over for me. I have been thinking over and over how much I wish filmmakers and studio heads would find ways to listen to the consumers who go to see their films. I’ve thought about how social media is such a catalyst for creation and collaboration now. I wonder – What would a studio do/think about asking those consumers to help them find new films to create. You can make polls or hire someone to look at comments to posts and find something new or original there. If not, why can’t you take someone’s ideas and find something that used to be out quite a lot like a middle of the road comedy or a thriller or a well written buddy cop flick and find ways to refresh them. There has to be more originality or something that isn’t adapted or remade to be seen in the theater these days. Maybe that’s the optimist in me. With my diatribe aside, I implore you to watch Borderlands with extreme caution and hope for better “big” films to come in the future, maybe something that won’t bore you to tears.
Video:
Encoding: HEVC / H.265
Resolution: 4K (2160p)
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Layers: BD-100
HDR: Dolby Vision
Clarity/Detail: You read it, so you know I did not enjoy Borderlands. Thankfully though, I did think the overall look of the disc itself was phenomenal. The film was at least lovingly captured and is reference quality for sharpness and detail. The imagery is so nicely reproduced here that the CGI is more cartoon than photo real but that could just let you know the intent to make something look glorious is there.
Depth: There is a lot of movement throughout the film and these movements look great depth-wise. The focus is nice and neat with foregrounds and backgrounds both benefitting from some very nice lensing overall.
Black Levels: Blacks and shadow details never lend themselves to crush and are perfect throughout.
Color Reproduction: Colors are often either candy coated and nearly neon or they’re the browns, reds, oranges and beiges of the desert like planet the film takes place on.
Flesh Tones: Flesh tones are natural on the characters that aren’t animated, or computer generated.
Noise/Artifacts: None
Audio:
Audio Format(s): English Dolby Atmos, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Audio, French 5.1 Dolby Audio, English Descriptive Audio
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Dynamics: Dynamic the Dolby Atmos mix is! The sound of this mix is all over the sound stage and sounds full and very engaging for the entire film.
Height: Height channels bounce sounds off one another as the film’s mix moves from speaker to speaker. This is not a static mix, and these height speakers deliver!
Low-Frequency Extension: Bass booms for music and for action sound effects. The bass hits deep and will definitely vibrate your floor!
Surround Sound Presentation: Surrounds are as dynamic as the height channel, but of course their sounds are closer to the ear, and will make you jump if you’re not paying attention!
Dialogue Reproduction: Clean
Extras:
Extras for Borderlands attempt to shed some light on the source material but also the production of the film. Borderlands hits 4K Blu-ray with a variety of options – The standard option had an O-ring slipcover and the 4K Disc, Blu-ray and Code inside the standard case. There is a steelbook available at Amazon and another steelbook option only available at Walmart.
BONUS FEATURES:
- Borderlands– From Game to Screen
- Meet the Team
- All Aboard the Death Choochoo
- Bringing Borderlandsto the Screen
- Badonkadonk Time
- Fashion and Action on Pandora
- High Tech Hellscapes
Summary:
I cannot mince words. I did not enjoy Borderlands. Almost immediately I was confused, and then I became annoyed. Then I began to think of dozens of other films I’d rather have seen. I can’t complain about the 4K presentation though, as the film is nice to look at when you’re trying to pay attention, and it sounds great too. It’s just not a good movie. I’d say maybe find a way to rent this and see if you’d like to own it before committing, but even then, I continue to say to do this with caution. This is a film to skip.
