Review: Boy Kills World

 

Bill Skarsgard plays “Boy” whose family is murdered when he’s a child. He escapes into the nearby jungle where a mysterious shaman (Yahan Ruhian) takes him in and under his wing until the day comes where he can wreak bloody revenge on the Van Der Joy family, who were responsible for the childhood tragedy.

 

Skarsgard character is also mute, so he doesn’t utter a word throughout. Instead, narration is provided by H. Jon Benjamin, best known as the voice of Archer. Now, Benjamin has a great voice but it’s always going to be linked to comedy for me. And sure enough that’s what he brings, but the main problem I had was I just didn’t think it was particularly funny.

 

There’s a running joke of Boy not being able to lip read one character which provides some laughs until it inevitably starts to run out of steam, and there’s the odd amusing one liner, but generally speaking I was pretty stony faced throughout – the comedy narration just doesn’t suit the character, and worse yet when the film gets more serious the narration vanishes. It makes sense to do so, but it results in making the entire concept inconsistent.

 

Thankfully, the serious is where Boy Kills World shines. The action is brutal and bruising and at one stage features everyone’s current favourite weapon – the cheese grater.

 

The brutality somehow manages to step up several gears for the finale, which drew several gasps and winces from the audience I saw it with. Not giving too much away but if you have someone from The Raid in your film, you know the fight scenes will be worth watching.

 

Ultimately Boy Kills World tries to tap into the ludicrous comedy/action formula that made the likes of Deadpool so popular but only gets it half right. The action is worth the price of admission, but it’s just not very funny.

 

 

Review by Thom from a press screening kindly supplied by Signature Entertainment.