The most important thing to know when starting the action thriller Boy kills world is that there’s finally a phenomenally bloody fight scene – a brutal, drawn-out tumble in which faces are smashed, fingers deliberately dig into open wounds, and fighters slowly drag a sharp object through each other’s bodies, slashing skin and muscle with a palpable rush . It’s a battle so grueling and brutal that even seasoned action movie veterans might grit their teeth and murmur in knee-jerk sympathy.
But while squeamish viewers want to know how messy the movie will be so they can stay away from it, everyone else wants to know what to expect, because Boy kills world Otherwise it seems so weightless, silly and unrealistic that it lacks any serious combat missions. The smirking way director Moritz Mohr builds the battles around video game references – complete with voice-over comments like “Fatality!” and “Player two wins!” – doesn’t exactly prepare viewers for a duel in which the pain of the fighters plays a major role and the characters actually seem to be hurt.
But this last fight gives Boy kills world The film packs more weight than the rest of its running time, making it accessible to action and martial arts fans who might otherwise be put off by the film’s jarring, referential humor. For the most part, the film was designed exclusively for a specific group of video game movie fans: it’s a checklist of retro beat-’em-up references and meta-comedy tropes that some viewers will inevitably find broad, over-the-top, and off-putting Some will find it playful and stimulating.
This isn’t quite Edgar Wright’s work Scott pilgrim against the world, with its pop-up “Pow!” and “Kerblam!” animated effects for big hits or its antagonists exploding into victory rewards at the end of each battle. But it’s just as silly and superficial, with world-building that amounts to little more than an apathetic shrug, and a plot that largely serves as an excuse for creatively staged fights that range from goofy humor to surreal mind games to that final, surprisingly serious fight are sufficient.
Bill Skarsgård plays the otherwise nameless boy, a tragic victim, comically hapless idiot and world-class fighter whose skills have been honed through years of jungle training with “The Shaman” (martial arts film star Yayan Ruhian). The Raid: Redemption And The raid 2). The boy is none too bright and extremely naive, and he is determined to complete the mission the shaman gave him: to bring down Hilda Van Der Koy (Famke Janssen), the totalitarian figurehead who rules her country .
Of course, she has a small army of well-armed lunatics and a monstrous family. The boy must fight his way as he climbs the ladder to avenge the family that took it from him – including his little sister Mina (Quinn Copeland), whose death he remembers vividly but which hangs around him as a cheerful hallucination and sees his bitter fight for revenge as a fun adventure in which she gets to dress up like a ninja butterfly.
Boy had his tongue removed and his eardrums burned out as a child, part of the legacy of brutality in his vaguely defined, cliché-riddled fascist state. His deafness is played for awkward laughs – all audible dialogue throughout the film is stylized as if he were lip-reading. So when he meets someone he can’t interpret clearly, he appears to spout gibberish, which Boy then utters verbatim and vividly visualizes. And his muteness is made even more comical thanks to the comprehensive voiceover of H. Jon Benjamin, who does his best in Mortal Kombat–The announcer’s bass rumbles as he tells Boy’s thoughts.
This voiceover is from Boy’s favorite childhood video game. Super Dragon Punch Force 3
Boy kills world feels like a litmus test for self-proclaimed fans of video game movies. It’s a spreadsheet-like experience where anyone can add up the elements this film does and does not have in common with other films in its subgenre and calculate what makes a video game film truly successful as a video game film for her. Boy kills world does not have the specific, recognizable characters; nostalgia factor; or cultural cachet of a Sonic, Super Mario Bros. or Minecraft film. It has the tongue-in-cheek attitude that beat ’em ups aren’t all that fun, and that everyone recognizes the tropes and innuendos that come with them. It’s not immersive or experiential, but it follows the escalating dynamic of minion-to-miniboss-to-boss battles familiar from so many games.
A character taking extreme damage, eating something, and shaking off that damage? Yes. Cutscenes that advance the story while the protagonist stands by and can’t interact with anything? Yes. Ridiculously colorful antagonists, including a woman (Jessica Rothe) whose LED-enhanced motorcycle helmet visor spells out insults and orders in combat? Check. Unusual weapons, from improvised stabbing tools (in one case, a carrot) to a combination brass knuckles and pistol? Ayep. A power fantasy in which one person can, through sheer skill, fight his way through an entire repressive government, one battle after another? Secure. A story based on elaborate fight sequences? Surely. All Boy kills world It lacks upgrades, loot drops, inventory swaps, and crafting collection mechanics. (Don’t laugh; some video game-inspired films rely heavily on such mechanics.)
It’s not like any of these things specifically define a video game movie, or more specifically, a satirical action movie that feels explicitly like an installment of a particular video game subgenre. Rather, the point is that the game of “acknowledge the tone” or “put on the joke” is the entirety of it Boy kills world. Mohr knows exactly the target group he is addressing, and it is a fairly specific, narrow target group. It’s not enough to know the kind of games he lampoons, have a strong affection for them, and a penchant for graphic bloodshed without having to play it seriously.
It’s also not enough to find Benjamin endlessly funny, although that certainly helps. Boy kills world requires viewers to care enough about Boy and a few other supporting characters to be invested in their goals and feelings, but not so much to care about them poking around in the world’s many holes or a dubious eye wink at the path The film is about just a few white characters on both sides of the good-evil divide making their way through a field of people of color. It’s an oddly specific film, a gag aimed at fans of joyously cult, chaotic nonsense Weapons Akimbo or crank – At least until that final battle suddenly starts taking the narrative seriously. But even then, it’s best to watch Boy kills world with the same biting detachment that the rest of the running time suggests.
Boy kills world hits theaters on April 26th.