Boy Kills World: Film Review
After getting a taste for action in John Wick: Chapter 4 last year, Bill Skarsgard is now giving Keanu Reeves a run for his money as a bona fide action star in Boy Kills World.
The action-comedy is set within a totalitarian regime run by Hilda van der Koy (Famke Janssen) and her corrupt family. Every year, the family hosts The Culling (think The Reaping in The Hunger Games), during which supposed enemies and traitors are killed in a sponsored televised event. After his loved ones are killed, Boy (Skarsgard) spends years growing up in the jungle outside the city and training with a mysterious shaman (Yayan Ruhian). Once he has successfully turned his body into a weapon, he returns to wipe out the Van der Koys.
Boy is mute and deaf but you know exactly what he’s thinking because his inner monologue is narrated by the voice of his favourite arcade game Super Dragon Punch Force. H. John Benjamin (who you might recognise as Bob from Bob’s Burgers) puts on the classic movie trailer/video game voice and it works brilliantly. It is my favourite aspect of the movie because Benjamin’s dialogue and line delivery are simply hilarious and I could not take the voice seriously.
While I loved the film’s sense of humour, I was also a big fan of its slick and super-violent action sequences. The fight choreography is insane and it felt like a video game at times (in a good way). There are so many bloody, brutal and wince-inducing injuries and kills in this. These are typically paired with funny commentary from Boy’s inner voice, making it all the more entertaining.
Skarsgard is jaw-droppingly ripped for the role – he seriously gives his brother Alexander Skarsgard, who bulked up for The Northman, some competition! He absolutely nails the stunts and is super convincing as a hardcore, savage killing machine. While he doesn’t speak, it is sometimes hilarious watching his facial reactions as his inner monologue comes out with a quip.
I adored Michelle Dockery as Melanie van der Koy, she had a ball playing the psychotic public-facing member of the family. It’s so nice seeing her – and Dan Stevens – playing these wild characters after Downton Abbey. Brett Gelman and Shartlo Copley round out the family as the poor lackeys doing all the dirty work.
My only gripe is that the plot is a bit overcomplicated when it doesn’t need to be. There are a few too many flashbacks and revelations that kill the momentum in the third act. The reveals weren’t necessarily bad but it needed a lot of explanation and that slowed down the pace. Sometimes audiences just want a simple movie where a man kills bad people!
Boy Kills World is violent, fun and such a good time at the movies.
In cinemas from Friday 26th April