At first, the trailer for Borderlands makes it seem like the movie might have a sort of Tank Girl potential. Weird stuff, funny outfits, desert-apocalypse kind of fun times, you know? But then it quickly becomes clear that this is a movie working from the Guardians of the Galaxy playbook—ragtag team! familiar song! really thin found-family vibes!—and it all begins to feel a bit familiar. Still, there is a joke about robot diarrhea. Make of that what you will.
Borderlands is based on the extremely popular videogame, and features at least two of the game’s playable characters, Lilith (Cate Blanchett) and Roland (Kevin Hart). The rest of the characters include Atlas (Edgar Ramírez), Tiny Tina (Arianna Greenblatt), Krieg (Florian Munteanu), Tannis (Jamie Lee Curtis), and Claptrap (the voice of Jack Black). Gina Gershon is in here somewhere; according to IMDb she’s playing Moxxi (presumably of the Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot downloadable add-on for the game).
Here’s the synopsis:
Lilith (Blanchett), 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 (Ramírez), the universe’s most powerful S.O.B. Lilith forms an unexpected alliance with a ragtag team of misfits – Roland (Hart), a seasoned mercenary on a mission; Tiny Tina (Greenblatt), a feral pre-teen demolitionist; Krieg (Munteanu), Tina’s musclebound protector; Tannis (Curtis), the oddball scientist who’s seen it all; and Claptrap (Black), a wiseass robot. Together, these unlikely heroes must battle an alien species and dangerous bandits to uncover 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 videogame franchises of all time, welcome to Borderlands.
Borderlands comes from director Eli Roth (Thanksgiving), who also co-wrote the screenplay with Joe Crombie.
It’s in theaters August 9th.
