The Room. Street Fighter: The Movie. Samurai Cop. These movies are bad movies. But, even so, they are still beloved by a lot of fans and have gained a cult following. That’s because they fall into the magical area of being “so bad they’re good.” It’s kind of a small miracle that something so terrible can warp around and then become enjoyable. But these movies managed to do it. I’m actually a bit of a fan of the “so bad they’re good” class of movies. However, they’re kind of hard to spot when they come out as it’s only after some time that the mysterious quality of being awful becomes a good thing.

However, after looking at the Borderlands live-action film, I saw the potential in how crappy it looked. So, I actually decided to spend my weekend afternoon watching a movie I knew was going to be crap. Was this going to be one of those “so bad they’re good” movie experiences? Or was is just “so bad” full stop? Well, since I did watch it, I might as well give you my review on it!

Even though no one else seems to be watching Borderlands, I’m still going to make this a SPOILER FREE review. I know the people who’ve seen it have already seen it and the rest are not going to while it’s in theaters. Honestly, this review is going to be for those who may see it when it hits streaming services. So, yeah. SPOILER FREE review!

The Borderlands film very loosely follows the plot of the games made by Gearbox. In fact, it just picks and chooses things from the games’ lore rather than try to adapt the story. Anyway, in the film, the bounty hunter Lilith is hired by the head of the mega conglomerate Atlas to go to the planet Pandora and retrieve his daughter, Tiny Tina. Lilith eventually comes across a band of misfits to help her along her quest.

One of the biggest criticisms to level on the Borderlands film is how it only bears a passing resemblance to the games they’re based on. You would think Gearbox, who is listed as part of the production companies who made the film, would be a little more involved with ensuring the film follows the overall plot from the games. There’s also the matter of the overall artstyle as the Pandora depicted in the film feels rather colorless and bland when compared to the bombastic world from the games. I also was very disappointed we didn’t get the awesome intro cutscenes from the games translated over to the film. I mean, why not add some of the flair which made the characters so memorable in the first place?

The casting overall is also pretty questionable. Now, Cate Blanchett is a good actress. Kevin Hart does excel when he’s allowed to do his Kevin Hart shtick. I love Jamie Lee Curtis and Gina Gershon also. But they just don’t fit the characters they’re supposed to play! As good as a actress Cate Blanchett is, she just didn’t embody the sass needed to play Lilith. Having Kevin Hart play the ultra stoic Roland is a grave mismatch. And, sorry to say, Jamie Lee Curtis and Gina Gershon are just not a good fit for the demure but slightly unhinged Dr. Tannis and the lustful and sadistic Mad Moxxi. Then again, like with the story, the characters don’t really follow their personalities from the games. The worst offender is fan favorite Tiny Tina. Instead of being the insane bundle of energy from the games, the Tiny Tina we get in the movie is more like a overconfident preteen.

I can’t even say the miscast actors are at fault here because, like I said, the script is just… dumb. Oh, it tries to be smart by adding a twist (that you can see coming by a couple of hundred miles). But why make a convoluted plot when the game’s story, which is admittedly very simple as it’s just about four Vault Hunters who want to find a Vault, would’ve worked well? I bet the writers never even watched a Let’s Play of the games and just went on Wikipedia to read the story synopsis then thought “Well, that’s just too simple! Let me overcomplicate things to make it better!”

I will say the special effects, costumes and the sets are decent and, weirdly enough, I’m putting that as a negative. That’s means they actually tried and they had the budget to make a good movie. Now, if the special effects were comically bad, the costumes looked too cartoony and the sets were obviously made of cardbord but you could tell they put some effort into them, I do think Borderlands would have been more entertaining. Even the fight scenes were okay. Nothing spectacular but they do try to add some flair to them.

There’s also a weird tonal shift in between the movies, almost as if there were two different directors who did different scenes after the fact. Well, turns out that’s true! It’s kind of obvious in retrospect. As such, I fully expect the film’s original ending to be a little more sad than the upbeat one that we got in the final product.

So, as a fan of the games, Borderlands is a terrible movie. But what about from the eyes of those who never played the games? It’s kind of hard for me to say but, if you ask me, I don’t think they’d be entertained as well as there are so many other sci-fi movies wherein a band of misfits come together and do some action scenes. Guardians of the Galaxy, anyone? However, Borderlands’ group of misfits never have the same chemistry and witty banter to make them come off like a surrogate family. And when you don’t care about them staying together, why would you care about them as a group?

So, back to my original premise: Is Borderlands a “so bad it’s good” movie? I don’t think so. A “so bad it’s good” sticks out in your mind at how laughably terrible it is. Borderlands is terrible but forgettably so. It’s bad but it’s bad because the people doing it weren’t passionate about the project. I say, if it comes to streaming, go see it. Maybe you’ll get a laugh out of it but I didn’t get the joke.

Have you seen the Borderlands movie? Was it “so bad it’s good” in your eyes? Let me know in the comments section below!