Manuel São Bento
4/30/2024
FULL SPOILER-FREE REVIEW @ https://movieswetextedabout.com/boy-kills-world-movie-review-a-very-bloody-good-time/
"Boy Kills World finds its stage when it focuses on the cool stunts and explosion of unrestrained action that will certainly win over genre aficionados.
The revenge premise never quite flies off narratively, remaining a thematically superficial, undeveloped story, but the numerous sequences of violently choreographed fights are entertaining enough to please the majority of the audience. The layer of humor fits the light tone, but beware of the complete uninhibitedness regarding the doses of blood, ruthlessness, and creative use of everyday items for combat.
The standard recommendation for a weekend without plans."
Rating: B-
There's a bit of the television series "Kung Fu" (no panda) to the start of this film as we see a young deaf/mute boy being intensively trained by a mysterious and highly-skilled shaman deep in the jungle. Why? Well it turns out that civilisation is being governed by the dastardly, seriously hammy, "Van Der Koy" family and that every year they round up their enemies and kill them all on live TV. Remind you of anything? Our nameless, muscle-bound, hero (Bill Skarsgård) has an axe to grind with them, and egged on by his mentor sets about wreaking revenge on them for killing his family. Sadly, there's nothing at all original throughout the rest of this pretty dull action thriller that relies too heavily on a slightly comedic narration (his thoughts) guiding us through some set-piece and repetitious combat scenes that after about fifteen minutes left us in no doubt as to the conclusion we were headed for. The more heavily armed soldiers you have guarding something, the easier it is for one man to... The arrival of Michelle Dockery and the sparingly used Famke Janssen add nothing at all, indeed the former is actually pretty terrible and doesn't become any more menacing just because she takes on a mid-Atlantic drawl. It's a fight/stunt co-ordinators' wet dream this film, but for the rest if us it's "Hunger Games" light. Very light.
Boy Kills World is a mash up of by now well known martial arts action genres.
Perhaps the most obvious nod is to films like "Kill Bill" which in turn is a satirical parody, of cheesy 70's, 80's and 90's, martial arts action films.
Boy Kills World is superficially quite watchable but it feels truncated. This is especially evident in terms of character development and grim comedy.
Had it delved further into its potential for larger than life, well rounded characterisations and better exploited its rather dark humour, it could have become a bit of a cult hit.
By contrast, its, at times, gratuitous violence, like the creative but painfully cringe worthy, cheese grater scene, is something, I personally felt, needed to be dialled down.
In summary, a watchable martial arts action mash up with a cheesy nod to older films, in the genre. Let down a little by missed opportunities for character development and dark humour. Not to mention, at times, over the top violence.
