This film reminded me of watching an adult Anime series or Love and Monsters, for which it received an Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects in 2020. Boy Kills World focuses on the main character called “Boy” who vows revenge after his family have been murdered by Hilda Van Der Koy, the deranged matriarch of a corrupt post-apocalyptic dynasty that left the boy orphaned, deaf, and voiceless. After being trained in the martial arts by a mysterious shaman, Boy and a ragtag resistance group embark upon a campaign of vengeance, his thoughts expressed by an inner voice derived from his favorite video game, with which he bickers with the ghost of his dead younger sister.
Bill Skarsgård (It films) portrays “Boy,” a deaf-muted boy who seeks vengeance after his family got killed by an attack, with voice actor H. Jon Benjamin (FOX’s Bob’s Burgers) provided the inner voice of “Boy.” Benjamin also provides the narration in the film. Skarsgård is phenomenal as he breaks the sound barrier on taking his action-movie acting skills to greater heights. Whenever he gets caught by the bad guys or just gets himself in a hot mess, he always relies on himself on what to use and what advice to seek, but in the end, he seems like he is having a blast despite learning how to fight enemies in the most challenging way. H. Jon Benjamin, on the other hand, is the most enjoyable actor to watch as he is also having so much fun based on his voice acting gigs from Archer and Bob’s Burgers. His vocal performance serves as a cherry on top and has deeply aged like fine wine.
With Sam Raimi serving as one of the film’s producers, Moritz Mohr is the director of this film, which marks his directorial debut. The story, inspired by a smattering of graphic novels, is completely stylish, funny, and full of suspense and surprises. The fight scenes based on the camera work are astounding, realistic, bombastic and authentic while the characters are highly multidimensional to watch based on their own character development. Though the story contains characters breaking the fourth-wall in some parts, which is utterly distracting as the director focused more on adding comedy. Nevertheless, this film does give a feel of watching a live-action Anime movie based on any adult Anime series or manga books.
Also appearing are Jessica Rothe (Happy Death Day) as June 27, Michelle Dockery (ITV’s Downton Abbey) as Melanie van der Koy, Brett Gelman (Netflix’s Stranger Things) as Gideon van der Koy, Sharlto Copley (District 9) as Glen van der Koy, Yayan Ruhian (The Raid films) as the shaman, Isaiah Mustafa (It Chapter Two) as Benny, Andrew Koji (Bullet Train) as Basho, and Famke Janssen (X-Men films) as Hilda van der Koy, the matriarch of a corrupt, post-apocalyptic dynasty, who is responsible for killing his family that left “Boy” deaf-mute.
With 111 minutes running, Boy Kills World has a lot of bloody action going on for first-time filmmaker Moritz Mohr. It’s very compelling and it’s chopped full of awesome action sequences that will give Deadpool a run for his money. It does feel like it’s a movie directed by either David Leitch, Zach Snyder, or Chad Stahelski due to the colors, the action-filmmaking techniques, the visuals, and the ingredients being similarly used in the film, but it’s actually quite riveting despite all the bad language being used throughout the film. Though it does influence ordinary narratives based on the tricks Mohr used, and yet, he never ceases to amaze anyone. Like I said before, even though it’s an American action film, this movie can be a live-action Anime action movie at any time, but as long as they keep making quality action adventures like this, I will return the favor by going back to this enjoyable fine fare.
GRADE: B-
Photo credit: Lionsgate/Roadside Attractions
Movies365 by Henry Pham 
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