JP Nunez
I love revenge films. Whether they’re thoughtful subversions of the genre like Park Chan-wook’s Vengeance Trilogy or more traditional action flicks like John Wick, I’m always up to watch people go bananas on the bad guys who wronged them. So naturally, when I first heard about the action comedy Boy Kills World, the movie instantly shot up my most-anticipated list. Not only did it promise to deliver all the bloody action these films are known for, but it also looked like the movie was going to take a unique approach to the revenge genre, and I couldn’t wait to finally see how it all turned out.
Boy Kills World was directed by Moritz Mohr, and it stars Bill Skarsgard, Jessica Rothe, Michelle Dockery, Famke Janssen, Sharlto Copley, Brett Gelman, Isaiah Mustafa, Yayan Ruhian, Andrew Koji, and the voice of H. Jon Benjamin. The film takes place in a dystopian setting overseen by a maniacal woman named Hilda Van Der Koy, and the main character is a young man known only as Boy.
When he was a kid, Hilda killed his family and left him deaf and mute, so now, Boy is out for revenge. He’s been training with an eremitical shaman ever since that dreadful day, and he’s finally ready to get back at the woman who ruined his life. In the course of his quest, he falls in with a couple of resistance fighters, and together, they plan on taking down the tyrant who rules their land.
On paper, that might sound like just another by-the-numbers revenge thriller, but trust me, Boy Kills World is nothing of the sort. Sure, it has all the requisite tropes we expect from this genre, but the movie executes those tropes in a way I’ve never really seen before. For starters, even though Boy can’t talk, we hear the thoughts that run through his head, and that distinct filmmaking choice gives the film a bit of a cartoonish feel.
Not only is the whole idea pretty unusual for any film that’s not a 1980s coming-of-age story, but Boy’s thoughts are voiced by H. Jon Benjamin, the actor who voices the title characters in Bob’s Burgers and Archer. If you have even a passing familiarity with those shows, you can’t help but associate this guy with animation, so he just adds to the cartoonish feel of the entire thing.
What’s more, that running narration is also pretty hilarious, and it’s not the only source of humor in Boy Kills World. Since this is a comedy, that cartoonish feel permeates the entire movie, and it makes for some truly uproarious moments. To take just a couple of examples, Andrew Koji’s character has the most over-the-top personality I’ve seen in a film all year, and there’s a scene that’s almost certainly an intentional homage to Arthur’s fight with the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
But hands down, the funniest thing in Boy Kills World is a running gag involving one of the resistance fighters Boy encounters along the way. See, Boy has taught himself to read lips, but for some reason, he can never make out what this particular character is saying. Every time the guy speaks, Boy just “hears” gibberish, and so do we. It’s knee-slappingly hysterical, and the first time it happened, I was just about falling out of my seat from laughter.
Next, we have to talk about the action in this movie. Boy is played by Bill Skarsgard, and if you have any doubts about this guy’s ability to be an action star, you can put those to rest. Skarsgard is amazing in the role, and he’s especially convincing in the fight scenes. I don’t know if he had any martial arts training before joining this cast, but to my eyes, he looked like a seasoned veteran. He pulls off everything from jiu-jitsu to gun fu with aplomb, so if you enjoy this kind of action, you’re going to walk away very happy.
And if you want your action films to come with boatloads of gruesome gore, you’re going to love Boy Kills World even more. Blood flows pretty freely in this movie, and we see everything from limbs being cut off to heads being crushed. In a word, this is pretty much everything you could want from a martial arts action flick, so if you’re even remotely a fan of this stuff, I can almost guarantee that you’re going to have a good time.
On top of all that, Boy Kills World also manages to skirt around a problem that almost all action movies face. We often want the hero to be the toughest guy in the room, but that can make for some pretty bland storytelling. The good guy needs to meet his match at some point, but if he’s the best fighter around, it can be tough to make that happen.
However, this film finds a way to have its cake and eat it too. Boy is a better fighter than any of Hilda’s cronies, but he has one weakness. As a result of his trauma, he experiences hallucinations of his dead sister, and if one of those hallucinations comes in the middle of a fight, it’s very distracting for him. It sometimes causes him to zone out at key moments, and that allows his opponents to get the upper hand a few times.
I found that to be an ingenious solution to a problem that permeates the entire genre, but as clever as these filmmakers are, they’re not perfect. There are a bunch of things I could nitpick here and there, but hands down, my biggest issue with Boy Kills World involves the third act. There’s a big twist in this part of the movie, and while I can’t get into any specifics, I can say that I didn’t love it. The twist takes away from the cathartic effect of Boy’s story, and it leaves a big element of the guy’s past severely underexplained.
However, in the grand scheme of things, that’s not nearly enough to derail the entire experience. Despite its problems, I still had an amazing time with Boy Kills World. The action and the humor are top-notch, so if this sounds like something you’d enjoy, I highly recommend that you give it a watch.
Boy Kills World is playing in theaters right now.
