Even if you're not much of a gamer, you've likely heard of Borderlands, the irreverent, engrossing looter-shooter that essentially pioneered the genre (not to mention that delicious cel-shaded visual style). It was absolutely huge in the mid-2010s- which, coincidentally, is when development of a film based on the hugely lucrative video game property began. Nine years of development hell later, we finally have our first trailer – and the end result looks like it could have used nine more years in the oven.
Even saying nothing of the bizarre casting choices–why is the tiny, perpetually-screaming Kevin Hart trying to play the serious straight man?–the trailer fails to get much beyond the surface-level aesthetic right. The ELO needle drop and the constant quips would feel more at home in the next Guardians of the Galaxy movie rather than the hyperviolent, utterly deranged world of Pandora.
Perhaps, like the games themselves, this movie still might prove to be dumb fun. Only time will tell.
Previously: Play Borderlands 3 and help map the foreign microbes found in human poop
