Borderlands

“Borderlands” opens with the narration of the lead character named “Lilith,” played by Cate Blanchett. We see a successful kidnapping of Tiny Tina (Ariana Greenblatt) by Roland (Kevin Hart), and learn that Lilith is a hardcore bounty hunter with grit and an obscure past.

While in a bar attempting to collect on her current bounty, she is approached by a new potential boss Atlas, a powerful corporate magnate played by Edgar Ramírez. He offers her a job finding, rescuing and retrieving his young teenage daughter Tiny Tina. Lilith agrees, even though it means having to return to her home planet Pandora and confront her past. This opening sets the tone for a forgettable and lackluster film.

I requested this film, because my husband played the game, but when he saw the casting he was very disappointed. After watching the movie I can see why. Cate Blanchett is a great actress, but she did not fit this role; the character she portrays is much younger than the actress herself, so it comes off as forced.

Kevin Hart was miscast as well. It sometimes seems as if he plays the same character in every role he’s in, but in this film they tried to make him more of a hero and serious, and it just did not come across well to the viewing audience. Jack Black lent his voice acting to this film delivering quips throughout, and it was neither here nor there, maybe a chuckle, but ultimately forgettable.

The plot is a ragtag team of highly skilled adventurers team up against a common enemy to protect a child and to find a portal that is supposed to unlock untold powers and related fire-winged warrior goddess named Firehawk. The 13-year-old Tiny Tina is the key to the portal, and that’s why Atlas needs her so bad.

The plot is clunky, and according to my husband isn’t based on the games. As a viewer who has not played the games, I just found the plot to formulaic, nothing new, and boring.

There’s quite a bit of negative content including multiple foul words including over a dozen s-words, a**hole, a**, p*ss off, b*tch, G*d-d*mn, G*d, d*mn, h*ll, and others. Drinking is shown. There is blasphemous language throughout. Almost all the women of Pandora display lots of bare skin and cleavage. And the Pandoran thugs are bare-chested.

The main point is to find your true potential and discover who you really are. From a Biblical point of view it’s important that we discover who are identity is in Christ—sinners in desperate need of a Savior.

This film gets a non-recommendation from me for several reasons. The foul language is unnecessary, the plot is boring, the actors are forced and misplaced, and by the end my husband was falling asleep.

• Violence: Very Heavy
• Profane language: Heavy
• Vulgar/Crude language: Heavy, and also includes urine gas clouds, fecal matter, robot drops spent cartridges out his backend, etc.
• Sex: No sex depicted, but there are objectionable innuendos, such as referencing to premature ejaculation; reference to an orgy; robot makes sexual geusture; characters visit a XXX club which may be involved in prostitution
• Nudity: Moderately Heavy
• Drugs/Alcohol: Moderate
• Wokeism: Moderate
• Occult: Mild

Learn about DISCERNMENT—wisdom in making personal entertainment decisions

Every time you buy a movie ticket or buy or rent a video you are in effect casting a vote telling Hollywood, “I’ll pay for that. That’s what I want.” Read our article

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.