Popular media + all star leading cast = extremely likely to be a failed adaptation. I’m sure there are a few exceptions, but an ensemble cast of a half dozen top actors is a sign that they cared more about names. This kind of movie with that kind of cast is just begging for studio interference to create a bland experience that tries to appeal to everyone.
The thing I don’t understand at all is why use Jack Black for Claptrap? I love the guy but they could have just used the voice actor from the game.
The even advertise the movie with Jack Black here in Germany although in the german dub it’s someone else.
I felt the same until I saw the movie. I actually think Chris Pratt did a fine job.
I kind of agree that Chris Pratt was not the worst Mario voice actor choice.
However, knowing that the actual voice of Mario is a good and upstanding guy and would have been glad to do it ruined the whole thing for me. Why not let the man have his time in the limelight? What’s wrong with nintendo?
Actually, don’t answer that there’s a lot of fucking things wrong with Nintendo. We don’t need to rehash all of their flaws right now.
https://www.pcgamer.com/former-claptrap-voice-actor-details-randy-pitchford-assault-allegations/
The OG claptrap wouldn’t have done it anyway.
I had heard the movie was bad so I did not read any of the reviews before watching it and I did not know Jack Black was in it until the credit scene started rolling.
They used enough modulations and filters on his voice to where you can only barely tell that it’s Jack Black.
I hope they know it’s not because we didn’t want a borderlands movie. It could have been good, but they didn’t choose that path.
Same with Warcraft, Eragon, Valerian, the new Lara Croft. Sometimes I wonder if engaging with the source material hurts screenwriters or why they avoid it so much.
The Warcraft movie was actually really good, not sure why it did poorly in the States. Everywhere else in the world loved it.
Just looked it up, and wow you’re right. Only made $47 million in the US? Seemed to be unusually overseas-heavy.
From Wikipedia:
Variety reported that the film was generating only moderate interest among U.S. moviegoers, which could possibly hurt its box office performance stateside, with poor reviews and competition from the aforementioned films and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (released the week prior) also affecting its performance.
I have a really hard time imagining a good Borderlands movie. It would basically need to be a different franchise like Mad Max.
Right? Like I see folks in this thread and elsewhere echoing some of the typical things you hear when Hollywood botches an adaptation. Things like “it would be better if it was faithful to the source material” and other sentiments like that.
However, in this case, the one aspect of the games that is easily translateable to film (the writing) seems to have aged the absolute worst. Self-referential Internet humor was a bold, unique aesthetic in 2009, but it’s been largely played out the 15 years since the og game released, or at least Borderlands’ take on that style of humor has gotten stale. Maybe the writing was better outside of 2 and Tiny Tina’s (the entries I played the most), but I sort of doubt it.
I would not want to be tasked with adapting Borderlands. Stick close to the source material, get flamed for writing something juvenile. Diverge from the source material, get accused of not capturing the spirit of the franchise. It’s an impossible situation.
Lots of people are going to lose lots of money on Borderlands
Not me lol.
But good for them. To make a movie is a big investment and a big bet. To make a videogame adaptation while pissing on the source material while also a bad movie, they deserve this much.
Lionsgate is not nearly as big as Universal, Paramount, or Disney and is not as well equipped to handle such a big loss.
Tiniest violins are playing for them right now
A market dominated by very few super corporations, a new smaller company tries to break through and break the oligopoly, but hey, they made a bad decision on a particular product, let’s make fun of them, surely the market is better without those busybodies, Disney would have done better
Lionsgates roots go back to 1962, while that’s more recent than Disney or Warner, I hardly think it classifies them as new.
