Films for Breakfast

Action comedies are all the rage right now with the success of Bullet Train and the Deadpool franchise being prime examples of audiences fully embracing the subgenre. However, to really stand out among the crowd, films need to find a unique approach either within how they stylize the action, within the comedy itself, or maybe something entirely different than what audiences are expecting. To its credit, Boy Kills World does feel like it is desperately trying to not necessarily reinvent the wheel of the action comedy but feel wholly distinct and unhinged in a way that can only come from a scrappy, low-budget action flick.

The film follows Boy (Bill Skarsgård) who vows to avenge his family who was murdered by Hilda Van Der Koy (Famke Janssen), the psychotic matriarch of a corrupt post-apocalyptic dynasty. Despite the apocalypse leaving Boy deaf and blind, he is fueled by revenge, years of training, and an inner voice of his favorite video game character (H. Jon Benjamin) – action films rarely need an elaborate starting point in order to be satisfactory, and on paper, Boy Kills World has enough character depth and world-building to get the job done. Unfortunately, the film feels void of any interesting world building that feels tangible or threats that feel legitimately threatening or opposing to our protagonist.

And you know what? I don’t necessarily need to feel the weight of every obstacle or opponent my lead character faces – sometimes I’m perfectly content with watching a shoot-em’ up, killing spree type of action film where the opponents are merely vessels for cool kills and action fodder. But even with that in mind, Boy Kills World feels largely uncinematic in the way it films its action due to the style teetering between lifelessly still or overwhelmingly frenetic. The film also feels wholly boring in the way it presents its blood/gore, as it happens so much and with so little reason/weight that it merely becomes an afterthought by the second or third action sequence. There is simply nothing at play here that we haven’t seen done much better and shot more interestingly, and when you’re an action comedy among a crowd of competition, that is a heavy hurdle to overcome.

On the other side of the action-comedy coin, the film premiered at TIFF last year with Bill Skarsgård narrating the film, but this new version of the film includes H. Jon Benjamin as Boy’s inner voice. This is an obvious (and honestly smart) attempt to quickly retool the film’s comedy, and Benjamin is a favorite of many and incredibly talented. Unfortunately, even his schtick can’t save the films’ humor from getting very tired very quickly. The best thing about the Deadpool films is that the humor is actually well-written, and while Boy Kills World tries a similar approach with our lead character breaking the fourth wall a bit and giving commentary on what we’re experiencing, it simply isn’t funny and actually becomes grating after a while.

The best compliment I can give the film is that the cast is fully trying to turn this into something worthwhile and new. Bill Skarsgård gives a genuinely impressive lead performance here – and while his character is completely mute and the performance is now narrated by someone else, you can see in nearly every frame how committed and devoted Skarsgård is physically with a truly great screen presence and physical transformation. It goes a long way in the action sequences. The supporting cast here is also really impressive, as Andrew Koji, Sharlto Copley, Michelle Dockery, Famke Janssen, and more impress with even limited screentime. However, Jessica Rothe and Yayan Ruhian were two big scene-stealers for me in the supporting cast, as they match Skarsgård and give fully committed and physically impressive performances that you can feel in every moment of action or peril.

By the end, I can appreciate a lot of Boy Kills World is attempting to do. I respect its ambitions and think a lot of the performances go a long way in not making this a miserable experience, namely Bill Skarsgård’s incredible transformation that I believe will be remembered. Unfortunately, the rest of the film succumbs from the weight of feeling all-too familiar in its comedic moments and attempts at world-building, and unfortunately boring and uninteresting within its attempts at delivering on action. Far from the worst of what the genre has to offer due to some compelling factors at play, but given its potential and vast talent at hand, it feels like a massive disappointment.

2/5