Is Borderlands The Worst Video Game Movie? Not Even Close

I finally watched the Borderlands movie the other day after it came out on Digital. After going in with the lowest expectations (especially after all the reviews and negative reception), I can conclude that it is, indeed, very bad.

It tries too hard to be a Guardians Of The Galaxy clone but without the heart, charm and humour. You can check out our full review of the movie by heading over here. Even our resident Borderlands nut Jonathan “Mr Toffee” Toyad said the film is garbage with a few redeeming qualities (like the actor who portrayed gun vendor Marcus).

However, as bad as the Borderlands movie was, it seems like many people have forgotten all the other ‘bad’ video game movies from the past few decades.

Here are some video game movies that are way worse than the Borderlands movie. These movies are the reason why people call it the ‘video game movie curse’:

All Of Uwe Boll’s Video Game Movies, Starting With 2003’s House Of The Dead

If you don’t know who Uwe Boll is, then count yourself lucky.

That means you’ve never experienced any of the horrible monstrosities that this guy has directed over the years.

Uwe Boll has directed not one, not two, and not three video game movies.

He has directed a whopping ten (10) video game movies. Yes, 10 of them!

His first video game movie was 2003’s House Of The Dead (trailer is embedded above) and it arguably remains his most well-known one (probably because no one ever watches his movies again after watching House Of The Dead). I watched it when I was a kid (I was about 9 or 10 years old), and I still felt like it was one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen.

He later directed the following movies, and while you may recognise these franchises, their movie adaptations are the worst of the worst. They’re the epitome of the bad video game movie curse.

I’ve listed them all down here (along with their trailers) for your convenience and sheer terror:

2005’s Alone In The Dark (Based on the Alone in the Dark series by Infogrames)

2005’s BloodRayne (Based on the BloodRayne franchise by Terminal Reality)

2007’s In The Name Of The King (Based on the Dungeon Siege series by Gas Powered Games)

2007’s BloodRayne 2 Deliverance

2007’s Postal (Based on the Postal franchise by Running with Scissors)

2008’s Far Cry (Based on the Far Cry series by Ubisoft)

2011’s BloodRayne The Third Reich

2011’s In The Name Of The King 2 Two Worlds

2014’s In The Name Of The King 3 The Last Mission

There you go, folks, freaking 10 video game movies by Uwe Boll (and one of them is Far Cry!). Each one of them is way worse than the Borderlands movie.

Super Mario Bros. (1993)

The younger generation of gamers might only be familiar with 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie by Illumination animation studios, so they might not know that years ago, there was a live-action movie adaptation of the iconic Nintendo characters. Released in 1993, it is said to be the first-ever video game movie adaptation, and it’s responsible for starting the video game movie curse in the first place; a reputation that video game movies would take literally decades to just start shaking off.

Tekken / The King Of Fighters (2009)

Many gamers would likely know of the 1994 Street Fighter movie. It’s one of those movies where it’s a guilty pleasure of sorts, and it’s also the movie that gave us the famous ‘for me, it was Tuesday’ monologue by Raúl Juliá’s M. Bison.

However, I’m sure that many gamers won’t remember that Street Fighter rival fighting game franchises, Tekken and The King Of Fighters, also received live-action adaptations, and in the same year, no less.

And… both of them suck just as much.

Just go rewatch Mortal Kombat if you want a fun live-action movie based on a fighting game franchise.

That being said, I’m specifically talking about the original 1995 movie or the recent 2021 reboot, not the other one, which is…

Mortal Kombat Annihilation (1997)

What’s with fighting games and bad movie adaptations?

Well, this is one of the worst ones out there, and if you don’t believe me, this one single scene and line delivery by Musetta Vander as Sindel.

Just look at this…

 

What’s Your Worst Video Game Movie Ever?

There are plenty of other bad video game movies out there, but to be honest, most of them aren’t that bad; they’re either just forgettable and unremarkable, or just generic and plain boring.

Honourable mentions would probably be movies like 2008’s Max Payne, 2014’s Need For Speed and 2018’s Rampage.

Some of them can still be subjectively enjoyable, fun or a ‘so bad it’s good’ type of movie. These vary from person to person, but I personally enjoyed 2006’s DOA Dead Or Alive movie (yes, it’s probably exactly for the reasons you might think), as well as 2010’s Prince Of Persia The Sands Of Time and 2016’s Warcraft (I’m a sucker for historical and fantasy epics).

My point is that there are a lot of video game movies out there, so what are the worst ones for you? Tell us in the comments below.