Review: ‘Borderlands’ is a game-to-screen misfire so thoroughly bad, it’s breathtaking

In writer-director Eli Roth’s atrociously uninspired sci-fi fantasy escapade “Borderlands,” Claptrap, an acerbic droid voiced by Jack Black, calls to mind the humor of “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” the parody TV show in which a group of sentient robots comment on unintentionally risible B-movies. Black’s similarly acid quips — aimed at the story’s pack of misfit protagonists searching for “keys” to open an ancient trove of knowledge — are the only morsels of discernible entertainment in this stillborn adaptation of the first-person-shooter video game, tolerable only in brief instances. Since the production of “Borderlands” experienced numerous setbacks that caused major delays, it’s possible these forced scenes were shot long before the young actor appeared as a moody adolescent in Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” a much better showcase of her skills. By the time “Borderlands” wraps up with an anticlimactic thud, this intergalactic sludge confirms itself as a waste of resources and of everyone’s valuable time, not to mention ours.