It wasn’t that long ago in cinema history that films of video game adaptations were considered naff; much of that can be put squarely on the blame of 1993’s Super Mario Bros. that saw proper geezer Londoner Bob Hoskins star as the world’s most famous Italian plumber.

And what followed it wasn’t much better, as Hollywood continued to attempt to make money from the hugely lucrative gaming market.

A corner has seemingly been turned of late, with last year’s animated The Super Mario Bros. Movie joining the elite billion dollar plus box office club, as well as the success of Prime’s Fallout show.

Normality soon resumed however with the release of this adaption of the long-running franchise Borderlands, that first appeared on consoles in 2009.

Walking into a bar with a prisoner in hand is bounty hunter Lilith (Cate Blanchett). She gets approached by some thugs, which she doesn’t appreciate and dispenses with them accordingly. This seems to please their boss Atlas (Edgar Ramirez), who is there virtually, who would like to hire her services; his daughter Tina (Ariana Greenblatt) has been kidnapped, and he wants her back.

Lilith is put in a position of where she has to agree, and soon sets off into space looking for her.

It doesn’t take her long to find her either, thanks to the help of Clap Trap (voiced by Jack Black), a robot who aids her on her quest. But when she does catch up with Tina, who is in the company of mercenary soldier Roland (Kevin Hart) and ‘psycho’ Krieg (Florian Munteanu), she soon learns that Tina’s father wasn’t exactly honest about his reasons for finding his daughter, with a bigger plan about getting into a impenetrable vault on his mind.

It’s fair to say that this film’s theatrical release was a magnificent failure; it’s a film with a budget of around $120 million, and struggled to make around $33 million worldwide at the box office. But is it that bad?

The answer to that is no, it’s not. But it’s also not very good.

It’s certainly an interesting choice for director and writer Eli Roth, with his wheelhouse mainly being horror films (such as the Hostel films, and last year’s impressive Thanksgiving). And to be fair, there’s enough of a story there to keep it ticking over. It’s just a film that is woefully short of memorable characters. This is probably due more to the game franchise, which is popular but by no means a must-have AAA title; yes its characters are colourful, mainly due to the cel-shading animation they’re presented in, but they’re unlikely to encourage many to dress up as them for Halloween, say.

The main character is interesting, mainly for the fact that one of the best actors of her generation Blanchett is playing her. Perhaps the Australian actress chose the role as a way of being more accessible to a younger audience, who are unlikely to be drawn in by the likes of Tár - lucky them. The film certainly doesn’t fail due to her performance, but it’s bound to be a role that she regrets, if not now, certainly down the line.

And the world building by Roth isn’t bad, although it’s a little too Mad Max looking to really stand out.

But something is missing. Perhaps it’s the character interaction, which is disappointingly flat, or the weak foe that they face; whatever it is, there just isn’t enough here to either care about or get excited over.

The only real highlight is Black’s Clap Trap, a robot that owes an awful lot to a certain R2-D2, but at least delivers some necessary personality and sparkle.

Where at least the games can offer some thrills, albeit not the most memorable, this adaptation just doesn’t do enough to warrant an adaptation in the first place.

It’s unlikely that 30 years on, it will be looked upon fondly, as Hoskins’ Super Mario Bros. now is, but will hopefully serve as a reminder that gamers and audiences alike won’t take any old adaptation dross any more, and if studios want to keep them happy, they’ll just have to play the game.