Cate Blanchett’s Borderlands Disaster Shouldn’t Sting For Too Long

Cate Blanchett starred in what may very well be the worst blockbuster of 2024 in Borderlands, but her next project is about as different from the video game adaptation as can be, and should be a lock for critical acclaim. Borderlands earned a dismal Rotten Tomatoes score while bombing at the box office, and while it’s impossible to blame Cate Blanchett for a movie absolutely rife with issues, it was jarring to see such an accomplished actress star in such a bad movie. Blanchett’s legendary filmography speaks for itself, but Borderlands will forever be a black mark on her resume.

Fortunately for the two-time Academy Award winner, the stink of Borderlands‘ reviews should be washed away by her very next movie. While the versatile actress has never shied away from off-the-wall projects like Borderlands or the critically-acclaimed Marvel Cinematic Universe movie Thor: Ragnarok, her greatest work as an actress tends to be of a more dramatic nature. Her next movie, which releases in March 2025, will see her turn back to more serious fare, and as a result, likely more critical acclaim.

Cate Blanchett’s Black Bag Movie Sounds Considerably Better Than Borderlands

The Steven Soderbergh film has far more promise

Up next for Cate Blanchett is Black Bag, a spy thriller from Academy Award-winning director Steven Soderbergh, written by veteran action screenwriter David Koepp. There is very little information available in regard to the movie’s plot, setting, or tone, but with Soderbergh at the helm, all of those elements will certainly blend into something worthy of applause. Koepp’s track record is almost as impressive as Soderbergh’s, as he was a co-writer on some of the best action movies of the last 30 years, including Mission Impossible, Jurassic Park, Spider-Man (2002), and War of the Worlds.

Blanchett will be headlining an impressive cast, which should further elevate expectations of the movie’s quality. In addition to Blanchett, Black Bag will feature Michael Fassbender (The Killer), Naomie Harris (Skyfall), Regé-Jean Page (Bridgerton), and even a former James Bond in Pierce Brosnan. With this assortment of dramatic talent combined with an award-winning team behind-the-scenes, Black Bag is a near-lock for quality.

Is Borderlands The Biggest Disappointment Of Cate Blanchett’s Career?

It was a ratings and box office bomb

Cate Blanchett’s movie career is loaded with high-caliber dramatic performances, and she’s starred in some of the most highly-celebrated movies of the last 30 years. With that said, she has a number of duds in her filmography, just as any movie star with a lengthy career does. Ironically enough, one of her lowest-rated movies is a past collaboration with Steven Soderbergh: 2006’s The Good German. She also starred in the lackluster Russell Crowe-led revisionist take on Robin Hood from Ridley Scott in 2010, but neither film comes close to Borderlands.

Video game movie adaptations have a brutal track record, but even among those movies, Borderlands is a colossal failure. It carries the lowest Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score of Blanchett’s career by a good margin, as it still sits at 10% two weeks after its release. Combine that with the abysmal box office return (just $24.2 million as of this writing on a budget of $100 million) and Borderlands is pretty clearly the biggest disappointment of Blanchett’s career.

Source: Rotten Tomatoes