Hello readers. It is not often that I do a follow-up on a previous column. Well, this time I have to because Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford decided to do an interview that involved a pet peeve of mine. Last column, I talked about my tepid optimism with the upcoming Borderlands movie, but following what Pitchford said to IGN, I am having second thoughts.

Pitchford told IGN that the Borderlands movie is the first of the Borderlands Cinematic Universe. He went on to say that this is a good thing because it gives players an opportunity to go deeper into the lore and expand the franchise a little bit. The example he gives is that in the Borderlands series, we have never met the CEO of the Atlas Corporation, but we will get to do so when the movie comes out.

Now, let’s watch the trailer once more in case you all forgot about it.

Readers, I’m tired of every single movie needing to be a cinematic universe. This goes double when the first movie has not even come out yet. We get it, Disney caught lightning in a bottle with the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). No one has been able to replicate that success, and even the MCU has started looking anemic with recent launches.

I’m not saying it is impossible, but I have serious doubts about the ability to execute that with this movie. The fact that DC Comics, with all of its characters and storylines, and Resident Evil, with its more well-known characters, could not pull it off is kind of a memento mori. Pardon me if I doubt that a game series whose story has always been a tissue thin excuse to go to a place and shoot things doesn’t have enough heft to sustain a cinematic universe. I mean, they only had a good story in one of their four main line open world titles.

Honestly, this drained any goodwill I had towards the movie. I don’t watch any cinematic universe movies anymore because I don’t want to have to see all of the previous movies and shows to understand what is happening. I guess the one exception is Star Wars, but compared to Marvel and DC Comics, they have released content at a glacial pace. Could you make a movie that captures Borderlands’ odd brand of humor and mania in a single film? Maybe. But over three or more movies sustaining itself? Doubtful.

As a side note, the part of the statement where Pitchford says we get to meet the CEO of Atlas for the first time in the movie is interesting. Why? Well, the movie is non-canon with the Borderlands series as I discussed previously. If we watch the movie, we still have not technically met the CEO of Atlas since he has not appeared in the series which dictates the canon. This is another side effect of investing heavily in a cinematic universe because it can be hard to keep canons straight.

While Marvel has kept all of their stories mostly straight, DC Comics has been a disaster. Comic fans can attest that sometimes it can be too much to have three comic variations for one character plus a cinematic universe variant. This whole ordeal, plus a few too many beers, got me thinking that they probably plan on soft rebooting the Borderlands series and are trying to use the movie for advertising. In closing, I more or less want to retract any positive feelings I had towards the movie. I’m going to bet my next GiN paycheck the movie is not going to be very good.

Also, I still haven’t beaten Final Fantasy XIII. Maybe next month.