Writer-director Eli Roth’s handling of Borderlands is so atrocious it should be studied in film schools to teach aspiring filmmakers what not to do.
It’s astounding how Roth (Death Wish, Cabin Fever, Hostel) manages to get everything wrong in a way that’s typical of student filmmakers their first few times out, when they don’t yet know how to focus viewer attention.
To start with, his script is a mass of dull sci-fi adventure cliches. Then, the camera placement is always off — too close, too far away, somehow angled wrong so that you always feel you’re missing the clearly intended emotional gist of every shot and scene. Comic punch lines are stepped on by other business. If there’s a dramatic moment that’s supposed to be poignant, it falls flat, not only because the scene is written in such a trite way there’s no charge left in it, but also because you’ve gotten distracted again by some…