I mean if we are to give any positives I thought they did pretty well with the look of the film in terms of capturing Pandora and the character designs themselves felt pretty good (even if we've discussed some of them feeling miscast but that's a separate issue). Unfortunately the rest is just so by the numbers, the script is very generic and there's no memorable lines. Characters just feel pretty flat and one note and arguably has a lot more to them in the games.
For me the biggest issue with this movie is that it's a decade too late though. This really should have come out in like 2013, capitalizing on the success of Borderlands 2 (the most beloved game of the franchise). Because back then the Borderlands games were something fresh and exciting. The issue for me is that in 2014 you have 2 movies that in different ways are very Borderlands-y. Mad Max Fury Road has a lot in common with this (Borderlands obviously taking a lot from the original Mad Max trilogy) and you have a big desert setting movie with some weird characters and the war boys and Immortan Joe definitely have that same sort of energy as the psychos in Borderlands. Then you also have Guardians of the Galaxy which does the whole "misfit group of adventurers go on a quest" set to different rock and pop songs.
This should have been something fresh and exciting in 2013 before you got another 2 Mad Max movies and multiple GotG movies (and similar vibing films like Suicide Squad etc) but instead this just slips out the back like a wet fart and fails to live up to any of the bars set by some of those other films. When I saw the runtime was 1 hour 40 minutes for a film of this 'level', I just knew.
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