Disastrous

Express. Home of the Daily and Sunday Express. HOME News Politics Royal Showbiz & TV Sport Comment Finance Travel Life & Style TV & Radio Celebrity News Entertainment Films Gaming Music Books Theatre A disastrous new Hollywood blockbuster hits cinemas this week by the name of Borderlands and even Cate Blanchett can’t break the video game movie curse. By George Simpson, Senior Film and Arts Reporter

12: 44, Fri, Aug 9, 2024 | UPDATED: 12: 46, Fri, Aug 9, 2024

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Borderlands official trailerBased on the video games of the same name, Borderlands hits cinemas this week having wrapped over three years ago.

The first trailer looked promising with Cate Blanchett leading Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Hart and Jack Black in what looked like a Guardians of the Galaxy-inspired heist movie.

Tragically even the 2023 reshoots couldn’t save this sci-fi disaster about space bounty hunters.

When the review embargo dropped, Borderlands debuted with 0 per cent positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes but at time of writing has risen to just 7.

Check out the review highlights below that don’t hold back on what could be the worst movie of 2024.

Daily Express
Move over Madame Web, a new cinematic disaster is in town

Evening Standard
Is Borderlands the worst film of the year? It’s definitely in contention — so laughably bad, in fact, that it feels like being catapulted back to a time when video game adaptations were a byword for mediocrity.

Empire
Borderlands so wants to be Guardians Of The Galaxy… But it doesn’t come close.

New York Times
Cate Blanchett video game disaster is the worst movie of the year.

The Times
This film, instead, is lazy bricolage, cobbled together by so-called creatives who appear not to care and by some who should clearly know better.

The Independent
It’s dragged us back to a time when studios used to make these with all the grace and acuity of a drunk person attempting to place a 3am chicken nugget order.

Rolling Stone
It’s not a movie for critics, as the saying goes. Nor is it suitable for consumption by most gamers, film lovers, or 99 percent of carbon-based life forms.

Some critics tried to salvage some positive nuggets but were scraping the barrel.

Even Cate Blanchett couldn’t save Borderlands (Image: LIONSGATE)

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Daily Telegraph
There are snatches of crude enjoyment to be had, if you venture in with basement-level expectations.

Financial Times
Has Roth botched an attempt to make a multiplex hit from an edgy nugget of intellectual property? Almost certainly yes. But there are faint, stubborn signs of something more interesting: Blanchett’s charisma unkillable, an occasional lairy oomph.

The Guardian
Blanchett, outfitted in sparkly gear and a swoop of bright red hair, deserves credit for not shrinking from a task so far beneath her.

Borderlands is out now in cinemas.