The Borderlands movie failed in a way that few video game adaptations do nowadays. In a time when studios see ’existing fandom’ as a market opportunity, an adaptation that shows blatant disregard for the source material feels oddly nostalgic.

Yet, that is precisely what the 2024 Borderlands film accomplished. It reimagined Tiny Tina as a genetically modified alien ‘chosen one’, turned Claptrap into a bargain-bin character longing to exterminate humans yet unable to, and treated Lilith’s siren identity as a mere plot twist instead of a foundational aspect of her character.

While staying true to the source material is not the only roadmap to a successful adaptation—Netflix’s Castlevania stirred debates yet was ultimately good—Borderlands completely altered the essence of its characters, replacing them with trite clichés like ‘world-weary bounty hunter’.

In a recent conversation on the podcast The Town, director Eli Roth elaborated on the myriad challenges faced during filming, particularly acknowledging the complication brought on by the pandemic. “I think none of us anticipated how complicated things were gonna be with COVID,” Roth noted, reflecting on the difficulties of coordinating shoots that had to be executed remotely.

“We couldn’t prep in a room together. I couldn’t work with my stunt team. It became clear that you can’t prepare a movie on that scale through Zoom, and we thought we could manage it, only to find ourselves overwhelmed,” Roth admitted, hinting at the ill-fated production experience.

This may elucidate some of the absurd action scenes present in the movie, but it does not excuse the numerous other shortcomings that plagued Borderlands. As Joshua Wolens stated in his review, it’s not the kind of film you can place alongside cult classics like The Room; it’s merely a succession of uninspired scenes featuring disenchanted actors who seem bemused at their participation in the Borderlands project.