In the midst of her latest job, she receives an offer she can’t refuse from the mysterious Atlas (Édgar Ramírez). He wants her to find his missing daughter Tina (Ariana Greenblatt), who has been kidnapped by one of his own soldiers, Roland (Kevin Hart).
His urgency to retrieve Tina is not out of fatherly concern, but from the belief she is the daughter of Eridian, meaning she has special powers to open something known as The Vault.
Before that, there are three keys to collect when Lilith arrives on the hellscape that is Pandora, “the worst planet in the galaxy” as Atlas puts it.
Coming along for the ride is Claptrap (voiced by Jack Black), a robot character that has been dormant for years but is programmed to help Lilith on her return to this world she once knew.
With his squeaky voice and endless stream of consciousness, he will surely go down in the annals of most annoying movie characters ever.
There’s also a thankless role for Jamie Lee Curtis, as a woman with connections to Lilith’s backstory, but at least Roth gets a handle on capturing the vibe of the game.
The rocky outcrop that is Pandora, a planet-wide scrapheap painted in mustard yellows and sickly greens, is neatly put together by the art department and the VFX team.
It’s also pleasing to see Blanchett, sporting a bright red crop of hair, in a rare blockbuster outing.
An actress who can pretty much do anything, she evens bring a two-dimensional video game heroine to life. And there is something quite pleasing about watching her brandishing a flame-thrower and burning through foes.
It is a shame, then, that the plot peters out, straining for any kind of emotion (and failing) in the final third. The whole treasure hunt for The Vault really is nothing short of a quest for fool’s gold, while a narrative twist in the tale barely raises an eyebrow.
By the end, it really is game over.