First Borderlands Film Footage Is Just Like The Game According To Critics

The age of the video game adaptation in Hollywood is far from over, if recent and upcoming releases are any indication. Sony just put out "Uncharted" this year, and the film enjoyed solid success at the box office, grossing $392 million worldwide (per Box Office Mojo). Video game movies still can't seem to get critics on their side, however, though it seems that studios are stubbornly pushing forward with them regardless. HBO is set to release a television version of "The Last of Us" sometime in the near future, and Lionsgate is set to release a film version of the highly popular video game franchise "Borderlands." Funnily enough, both of those latter projects are being co-written by Craig Mazin.

While there's still some time before fans get any sort of concrete look at "The Last of Us," "Borderlands" has been building hype for months. The film will feature an A-list cast with stars like Kevin Hart, Cate Blanchett, Jack Black, and Jamie Lee Curtis in key roles. Now, however, the first footage for the film has been revealed, and critics are comparing it favorably to the video games it is inspired by.

At the Lionsgate panel for CinemaCon, the company finally revealed the first footage for its upcoming "Borderlands" adaptation, and some of the early responses have been overwhelmingly positive. The Hollywood Reporter described it as similar to the video games, adding that it was basically awe-inducing to look at. The scene in question apparently features Cate Blanchett's Lilith firing a gun as well as the first reveal of Jack Black voicing the robot Claptrap. Collider's Steven Weintraub was also very impressed with what he saw, tweeting that it actually looked like the "Borderlands" game had been faithfully brought to live-action form.

It's important to note that it's still early days and approximately only 30 seconds of footage was released during the presentation, so it's still hard to say how the finished product will turn out. But these early reactions are certainly encouraging for fans of the games still hoping for a faithful adaptation of the games. It looks as if the early footage is determined to show off the colorful, zany world that the games inhabit.