Would the Borderlands movie have been better with Uwe Boll at the helm? Well, he seems to think so
Shut your Claptrap.
Eli Roth's recent Borderlands film adaptation hasn't exactly had the best debut. Ahead of release, critics far and wide shared disparaging reviews of the adaptation, with phrases such as "disaster" and "lifeless, unfunny, and visually repulsive dud" being bandied about.
And then the film was released and, well, things didn't really get much better. The Cate Blanchette-fronted adaptation generated just $4m on its opening day, a disappointing result that looks set to result in the film becoming a commercial flop.
In fact, Borderlands has been such a misfire that now even filmmaker Uwe Boll - who previously directed that Alone in the Dark adaptation, which saw him nominated for not one but two 'Worst Director' awards (one of which he won) - is taking a swipe at it.
As spotted by PC Gamer, earlier this week Boll shared an infographic taken from IGN's social media account that detailed Borderlands' opening weekend sales figures. He captioned this image thus: "Ha ha. My movies were rated R and made more money than this. Now you wish I Directed."
One commenter was quick to call Boll out on his claim that his films had made more than Borderlands, noting that Alone on the Dark opened $2.8m, with a final gross figure of $12.6m. House of the Dead, meanwhile, opened to $5.5m with a final gross of $13.8m and Bloodrayne opened to $1.5m, with a final gross of $3.6m. These figures hardly set the film industry alight.
Boll then tried explaining that his films had actually made more than that thanks to illegal downloads (apparently his films have been illegally downloaded 41bn times). I have no idea how accurate that is, but it is some claim.
Regardless, this swipe at Borderlands from a man who made one of the most widely considered worst films of all time has got to sting.
As for Borderlands, Take-Two Interactive boss Strauss Zelnick has asked that fans give the film a chance. Meanwhile, Gearbox founder Randy Pitchford said he had "blocked over a dozen accounts" on X for being "truly nasty" about the movie.
He was a tad more optimistic about the whole video game to big screen thing earlier this year, calling the Borderlands film the start of a "Borderlands Cinematic Universe" back in February.
Maybe Uwe Boll will make good on his quip, and throw his director's hat in the ring for the sequel? Hmm, yeah I am not sure either.