The Borderlands movie tried to split the difference between a PG-13 rating and original story appealing to a more general audience. But they were not interested
The Borderlands movie tried to split the difference between a PG-13 rating and original story appealing to a more general audience. But they were not interested
I’d argue it’s not the rating but the writing.
Sure, it’s easier to write a good story when only the overtly “gross” is off limits, but there are plenty of great stories where all the horror of its setting or events are only implied. It’s all about how the story is told.
Hollywood does have a very full history of dumbing things down to the point of boredom even outaide of ratings, so I’m not surprised what so ever that this movie flopped.
It would’ve either took excellent writing exploring the story the games present further than the games ever did, or an R rating so the spectacle could be, “Mad Max with scifi”.
Hollywood had no chance of either with a pg-13, though that’s because bean counters HATE paying for good story tellers.
I usually try to remind people that The Dark Knight is PG-13 and it’s arguably a pretty great action movie that doesn’t feel like the violence is toned down.
I mean the Joker stabs a guy in the skull with a pencil. It’s fast and brutal but it doesn’t need a lot of blood or gore to sell the moment.
I guess PG-13 here means that creative control was taken by a board of suits, as its unlikely a fan of the games would have voluntarily opted for PG-13. So in that sense it’s a red flag, even though I agree the ranking itself is not the problem.