5 Bad Video Game Movies That Are Still Better Than ‘Borderlands’

From bargain-bin reboots to cyberpunk trash, these adaptations aren’t good — but they could be worse Buena Vista Pictures/Everett; Lionsgate; Screen Gems It was only a matter of time, but the has already hit a snag. After high-brow television adaptations like and becoming Emmy darlings and and breaking box office records, things seemed to be on an upward trajectory. With greater respect for the source material and some actual effort, it appeared as though Hollywood had finally caught up with the untapped storytelling potential of video games.

Then came . Eli Roth’s action-comedy adaptation of Gearbox’s popular sci-fi shooter franchise could’ve been a layup; the games are colorfully silly space adventures tailor-made for mindless fun. But after multiple creative shifts and reshoots fans of have been left with a movie that’s as boring as it is soulless.

The cardinal sin committed by isn’t that it’s bad, but mundane. As a director, Eli Roth is mostly known for making juvenile grindhouse send-ups like 2023’s and, frankly, could’ve been a solid pick had he committed to making a movie as unabashedly tasteless as his previous repertoire. At least people would’ve laughed.

Instead, we got 100 minutes of secondhand embarrassment. And here’s the thing: there are plenty of awful video game movies that are still entertaining. Paul W.

S. Anderson’s chopsocky disasterpiece (1995) and Steven E. de Souza’s cornball take on (1994) are crowd favorites, reassessed over.