Summary
TheBorderlandsmovie has a lot of great homages to the series. While there are about eight main characters, the movie is not shy to highlight some smaller fan favorites too. For example, Marcus has a few speaking and background appearances. Fans will know Marcus as the narrator in most games, the voice of various machine vendors, and just a character that introduces Vault Hunters to Pandora.
Mad Moxxi gets some screen time as well, even more so than Marcus, as she has a pivotal role in the plot. What about TheBorderlandsmovie’s main cast? Well, let’s go through and rank how close the movie got to portraying these characters from costumes to personalities. There will be spoilers.
8Commander Knoxx
A New Character Without A Lot Of Time To Develop
Commander Knoxx is a new character in the movie but she has ties to someone from the games. General Knoxx is a characterwithinBorderlandsDLCand is mentioned in this movie as the father of Commander Knoxx. It feels like Commander Knoxx at one point had a bigger role in the movie, perhaps giving chase to the heroes more but her scenes are brief. She has ties to Roland as well, perhaps romantically, but again that’s a mystery left in the ether. Janina Gavankar at least does a good job at portraying this new character for as little as she gets to flex.
7Deukalian Atlas
A Villain Who Could Have Rivaled Handsome Jack But Lacked The Bite
Deukalian Atlas is the main villain of the movie, a new character, and is also boss to Commander Knoxx. His best scene happens through a hologram mask when he asks one of his minions to strap him on in front of Lilith. He’s theCEO of Atlasand hires Lilith to get his daughter, Tiny Tina, back. This scene sets him up to be a smart and slippery CEO but like Commander Knoxx, Deukalian Atlas isn’t given enough time to be a great movie villain. He at least gets a good death scene as he is sacrificed to a giant tentacle monster, presumably the final boss of the first game aptly called The Destroyer.
6Roland
A Blank Slate That Shoots Guns
Roland is one of the four characters players can choose in the first game. He is a soldier, with a background in The Crimson Lance which he was discharged from in the games and then becamea Vault Hunter.
Why he did this is not explained and true to form, Roland’s ties to The Crimson Lance are a mystery in the movie too. In that essence, the character fits in with both the movie in the game. However, it feels weird getting Kevin Hart to play Roland when he’s a famous comedian and doesn’t get to flex those comedic chops.
5Tiny Tina
A Clone But Still One Full Of Chaotic Energy
The movie gets very close toportraying Tiny Tina properly. The weirdest thing is that Deukalian Atlas is her father who seemingly uses the blood of Sirens to clone her multiple times, which the movie never shows. It’s a wild departure for her origins but at least Tiny Tina still likes blowing stuff up. Her best scene is her introduction from her sweet sing-song voice to fool Lilith with all of her stuffed animal booby traps. Flexing her muscles by shooting Commander Knoxx down with a giant rocket launcher is also a great moment for this unhinged character.
4Lilith
Going Beyond The Games, But Still Looking The Part
Lilith, along with the other three Vault Hunters, didn’t get much personality in the first game. Characters said things while shooting, but it never came across as typical characteristics. Lilith and the others were properly fleshed out in the sequels because they became NPCs, thus giving Lilith a high command in the resistance against Handsome Jack. She was confident, powerful, and unwilling to back down from a fight. The movie gets close to this attitude although Cate Blanchett plays her more like a snarky Star Lord-type bounty hunter which is a bit off the mark but still powerful as a Siren all the same.
3Krieg
A Man With Few Words And More Kills
There’s not much to Krieg in the games. He’s a DLC character fromBorderlands 2who was a beefy Psycho. His best skills were smashing thingslike The Hulkand Krieg does this well in the movie. He also likes talking about meat because he is inelegant with his words.
That is something that changed from game to movie though. Krieg has an inner voice in the games like a sophisticated member of society. Even though that aspect is missing from the movie, Krieg is a good, albeit brainless, movie hero.
2Dr. Tannis
A Woman Of Science And Not Humanity: Looks And Behaves Naturally
Dr. Tannis comes in about halfway through the movie and has a small parental change to her character. It’s said that Lilith’s mother gave her to Dr. Tannis to raise, which she briefly did, before sending Lilith away. It’s a wrinkle in the Borderlands lore, but not enough to distract from Jamie Lee Curtis’ performance. Dr. Tannis is a scientist so wrapped up in her research that she lacks the basic principles of human understanding. Jamie Lee Curtis nails that idea down like the scene where she is trying to fend off Psychos or her using a hand version of a shower without offering it to anyone else. She’s an awkward character and it works in the film.
1Claptrap
A Perfect Encapsulation Of The Character And The Series
The Claptrap series of robotsare the mascots of theBorderlandsseries and if someone was going to do these robots justice, it was Jack Black. He is a gamer and understands how to be goofy and let loose. Claptrap is a character who talks a lot to seemingly help people but his incoherent babbling often annoys them instead. That’s how the characters feel toward Claptrap in the movie. He’s the comic relief, there for the kids to get a laugh from his kung-fu grip or defecating of bullets. There are really no changes made to the character and his CG looks great, making Claptrap easily the standout star of the film.
