For a brief window, the Borderlands movie wasn’t the worst-reviewed film to release this month, but it’s now reclaimed that un-enviable title.
Earlier this month, Borderlands debuted to a 0% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, with none of the 23 reviewers who offered their early impressions returning a positive verdict. Since then, that figure has increased to 10% - which, for a brief time, was enough to ensure that Borderlands wasn’t the worst-reviewed movie of the month.
When The Crow, a reboot of 1995’s gothic superhero franchise, first appeared on Rotten Tomatoes last night, it did so to a score of just 6%. That was enough to see it swoop in underneath Borderlands as this month’s worst film. Cue much celebration at Gearbox and movie distributor Lionsgate, presumably.
Unfortunately, any of those celebrations were to be short-lived, as The Crow saw its own gradual improvement, with its overall score rising from that initial 6% to the dizzying highs of 24% critical approval. That’s hardly a glowing reception, but it’s enough to see The Crow clamber back over Borderlands and avoid the bottom spot.
It’s a cycle, safe movies made money for a few years, so studios went all in on safe, well known, well loved IPs. They got complacent and didn’t do the actual work needed to make them good.
Soon they’ll see an independent upstart outsell a known IP, and they’ll go all in on small time filmmakers. Most of them will make a little better than average draws, but nothing extraordinary.
Then James Cameron will make Avatar 6, it’ll make $17 billion opening weekend, and we’ll be back at the start.