this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2025
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I watched all of Madame Web. I couldn't get through 20 minutes of Borderlands.

[–] TwinTitans@lemmy.world 60 points 3 days ago (2 children)

But it was actually poorly written, scored, acted and overall a poor adaptation.

But Covid.

[–] primemagnus@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago

And Zoom. Don’t forget Zoom. That’s a big one. Zoom. It killed my dad. Heartbreaking really.

What a shame covid happened. It would have won an Oscar if not for covid.

[–] Emperor@feddit.uk 22 points 2 days ago

It was badly conceived, planned, cast, executed and then undermined by studio interference. It failed at every single level and I don't think Covid can take the blame.

[–] deadkennedy@lemm.ee 37 points 3 days ago (1 children)

sure… not the fact that the film was terrible.

it was COVID.

sure bro.

[–] TheImpressiveX@lemm.ee 35 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I don't disagree, but the headline is a bit misleading. The director is saying that COVID and Zoom affected his ability to properly plan out the movie.

"I think none of us, none of us anticipated how complicated things were gonna be with Covid. Not just in terms of what we're shooting, but then you have to do pick-up shots or reshoots and you have six people that are all on different sets and every one of those sets is getting shut down because the cities have opened up, and now there's a Covid outbreak and it was just like... we couldn't prep in a room together, I couldn't be with my stunt people, I couldn't do pre-vis, everyone's spread all over the place.

"You can't prep a movie on that scale over Zoom and I think we all thought we could pull it off and we got our asses handed to us a bit."

[–] I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world 22 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Still sounds like shifting the blame instead of taking responsibility for creating a bad movie. Had they met in person instead of zoom, I really don't see how that would have changed anything.

The whole film just stank of people working on it at all levels who had zero first-hand experience with the game.

[–] zipzoopaboop@lemmynsfw.com 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Kevin Hart as Roland. There's no possible way it is good with that fact alone and meeting via zoom doesn't affect that

[–] SoloCritical@lemm.ee 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

This is the one that got me, I don’t actually mind Kevin Hart but casting him as ROLAND of all people….?? Whatever the casting director was smoking, I want some of that. I swear these moviemakers don’t even know what Borderlands is.. fucking Jack Black as claptrap.. smh gtfoh. They should have just made their first borderlands movie follow Jack and show his whole origin.. the first movie could’ve ended right as he’s turning into a full-blown bad guy.. setting them up for Borderlands 2

[–] CidVicious@sh.itjust.works 17 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I don't doubt that those additional challenges didn't help anything, but that movie sounded like it had already gone wrong by the time they finished casting.

[–] scintilla@lemm.ee 14 points 3 days ago

Kevin heart for the person that is supposed to be the straight man. Literally can not think of a worse casting choice.

Most of the othetones are questionable to but that's the one that really stood out to me as someone who actually enjoyed the first to games humor when they came out.

[–] hal_5700X@sh.itjust.works 12 points 2 days ago

No, the movie sucked.

[–] ThePantser@sh.itjust.works 14 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I say it was the casting director's fault, nobody wanted a jokey short Roland. Take polls or read forums on who fans want to see and try your hardest to fill the role close to what the fans want.

[–] endeavor@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 days ago

Nah you could've casted golden girls to a good script and director and it would've been a good film.

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Fallout, the last of us? Stuck close to the games' source material and respected current and new fans.

Halo and borderlands both ignored current fans and diverted from the source material.

Could there be a correlation? Oh, no just covid

[–] kittyjynx@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It was insane that the big reveal was that Lilith was a siren, a fact you learn during character selection in the first game! There was absolutely no thought given to fans at all.

That's like, who she was?! I think they forgot that the first game was pretty much a non-story anyway, and somehow made it worse

[–] RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago

Yahya Abdul-Mateen was right there...

And you cast Kevin Hart instead.

You are the reason the movie failed.

[–] happybadger@hexbear.net 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I probably played the games more than most of the audience and wouldn't have wasted money on it. The IP is terrible apart from being the first lootbox shooter. Annoying characters, boring plot, a flat setting- it's probably the video game I'd least want to see made into a film.

[–] simple@lemm.ee 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I'd agree if it weren't for Tales from the Borderlands (the Telltale game). They took the franchise and turned it into a genuinely fun story with an interesting world.

[–] happybadger@hexbear.net 4 points 3 days ago

That I haven't played. The main three games were just gun slot machines for me.