The reception to the Borderlands movie has me almost nostalgic, reminiscing about the days when videogame tie-ins were reliably terrible rather than half-decent. The short version is that people hate it: the longer version is that they really, really hate it. Words such as “lifeless”, “obnoxious” and “baffling” hover around it, and the only good news is that a single positive review has lifted the film’s Rotten Tomatoes score from 0% to 3%.
So it’s a bit of a mess. But things have now gone from bad to worse, as it turns out the film has even failed to credit key production staff behind one of Borderlands’ main characters. Robbie Reid, who goes by the helpful handle “Robbie Reid the Rigger”, says he worked on rigging the movie’s Claptrap model for five months straight, the process which essentially gives a CG model a skeleton that animators can then manipulate. It is obviously a crucial job and, when it comes to Claptrap, we’re talking about arguably Borderlands’ most recognisable figure.
“This time 3 years ago I was rigging the CG asset of Claptrap for the Borderlands movie,” said Reid on X. “I worked on him for 5 consecutive months. Neither I, nor the artist who modelled him (Who I worked with the entire time), got a credit for the film.”
The first Borderlands is one of my favorite games of all time. I was kind of excited when I first heard there was going to be a movie since a lot of the recent video game adaptations have been good. As soon as I saw Kevin Hart was in it I knew it was going to be a disaster.
The chief sin to me is not hiring the VA for Claptrap. At least before this news that people who worked on it aren’t credited.
But yeah, Kevin Hart? Terry Crews is right there man.
Which Claptrap VA? The first one was assaulted by Pitchford.
https://www.pcgamer.com/former-claptrap-voice-actor-details-randy-pitchford-assault-allegations/
Either, really. Just not Jack Black, as great as he is.
Randy’s too greasy to make good decisions.
Man I just seriously do not care for Kevin Hart in anything… there’s such an oversaturation of him right now and I really don’t understand why… I just don’t think he’s funny, at all. No shade on people that like him, honestly, but I just can’t stand him and don’t get the appeal
He’s got black guy energy with a white guy demeanor which is widely marketable and non-threatening. He’s not a bad actor but like you said he’s just too bland for my tastes. Every character is basically the same. From a financial perspective it’s clearly working for him though so whatever.
He’s one of those actors who doesn’t play characters, he just plays himself with different names
The Rock has entered chat: You talking shit about me?
Kevin Hart is in it? Lmao
As Roland no less.
What the fuck lol.
kevin hart could have worked, roland is much more joyous and talkative in the first game. but they obviously weren’t going to do any part of this movie right
a single positive review has lifted the film’s Rotten Tomatoes score from 0% to 3%
See? See? It’s not that bad!
Up to 6% now!
The movie sucks, but this title is just piling on, cuz this lack of credit isn’t super unusual.
From the article:
The Claptrap model Reid worked on appears to be the one used in the final movie, and Reid speculates the omission may just be because he and the artist left their former studio in 2021 and “it took the film this long to come out”. In response to someone trying to pin the blame on Randy Pitchford (!), Reed stresses this is “a common problem in the industry. Definitely not the fault of any singular person, and would be wrong to suggest this.”
To be fair, Pitchford is such a piece of shit he should be insulted at every opportunity, relevant or not.
i must have missed this whats with pitchford?
This thing keep delivering
Damn the movie was going to be a 10/10 until this hit piece dropped.
industry folk genuinely really care about this, so it’s a worthwhile piece to write.
Especially considering the frequent history of 3d workers not getting proper credit for their work and how this is basically like if a company called your previous employer and they were like, “Who? I don’t remember them.”
The first credits for video games came in the form of hidden rooms the devs secretly added to games because the companies refused to actually give them credit for their work.
It sounds like maybe he dodged a bullet
Well it still would help his resumè even if the movie is terrible, as long as his work was good. I get being upset about it
Is it too much to ask to have at least one great actor give a grand Shakespearian speech and give it his all because his children loved the game?
Yes. Yes, that is entirely too much to ask and Raul Julia didn’t have to do that in 1994 either.
Frank Langella did a great skeletor for his kids. Though Raul became Bison.
“lifeless”, “obnoxious” and “baffling”
well at least they’ve really captured the borderlands spirit
