The Borderlands<\/em> movie, which released in theaters all of 21 days ago, is already available to watch at home<\/a> through video on demand. This three-week turnaround could be indicative of the movie\u2019s poor box office performance<\/a> coupled with its poor<\/a> critical<\/a> reception<\/a>. After seeing it for myself, I agree it\u2019s not the best example of a video game movie. However, I also saw moments where the movie took its source material and remixed it into something entertaining. Whether you watch this movie in theaters, at home, or not at all, Borderlands <\/em>deserves your respect.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Part of that is because honestly, the movie isn\u2019t that<\/em> bad. It\u2019s visually impressive, with gorgeous styling and action sequences that were actually intelligible instead of greasy-looking smears of CG. It has a bog standard found family \/ magical MacGuffin plot that manages to say something interesting about the whole \u201cchosen one\u201d trope.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Cate Blanchett stars as Lilith, a bounty hunter who travels to the planet Pandora to rescue a girl named Tina (Ariana Greenblatt) from the clutches of Roland, a Crimson Lance soldier gone rogue (Kevin Hart) and his psycho accomplice \u2014 movie\u2019s description, not mine \u2014 Krieg (Florian Munteanu). Lilith discovers that Tina went willingly with her captors and with the unhelpful help of the robot Claptrap (voiced by Jack Black) and the expertise of Dr. Patricia Tanis (Jamie Lee Curtis), Lilith decides to help Tina acquire a powerful artifact to keep it out of the hands of her disgustingly wealthy father, Deukalian Atlas (Edgar Ram\u00edrez), CEO of the Atlas Corporation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201c[Borderlands] isn\u2019t a video game movie.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Pandora is a harsh desert planet marred by prodigious amounts of waste from both its human and natural inhabitants. If the movie <\/em>followed the trends currently dominating television and film, the planet would look dark even in the daytime, and everything would be cast in the sickly orange filter Hollywood trots out every time there\u2019s a movie set in a desert \u2014 looking at you, Dune<\/em>. Instead, locations and characters are thoughtfully designed \u2014 and adequately lit, imagine that! \u2014 making for a movie that is visually pleasing to watch.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I was thoroughly taken aback by how good Cate Blanchett looked as Lilith. With her bright orange hair and deep blue sparkly jacket, Blanchett looked like she had been ripped directly out of the first Borderlands<\/em> game. When Lilith made her first appearance, I turned to my husband and remarked that this is the most video game looking-ass video game movie I\u2019ve ever seen (affectionate!). Everything else, from the rest of the cast to the props and sets, matched that visual energy without looking cartoonish or fake.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Borderlands<\/em>, for good or ill, eschewed some of the typical conventions for making a video game movie. Usually, there\u2019s some moment in these kinds of films that functions as a nod to its progenitor. The first-person action sequence in Doom<\/em> or the Rainbow Road race in The Super Mario Bros. Movie<\/em> come to mind.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In an interview with Randy Pitchford, creator of the Borderlands<\/em> games and the film\u2019s executive producer, I asked how he blurred the line between game and film. \u201cWe didn\u2019t do any of that,\u201d Pitchford answered. \u201cI hate that shit.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n