'Boy Kills World' review: Generic unsigned action

Relentlessness is boring in “Boy Kills World,” a fun revenge massacre starring Bill Skarsgård as its nameless “Boy.” The killings are a desperate attempt to achieve mythical carnage status, and the world is a dystopian caricature unimaginatively copied from “The Hunger Games.”

In addition to confusing energy with euphoria, the film is a puree of black humor, comic-book sentimentality and ultra-bloody combat. But it's the video game's relentless, banal aesthetic that can make you involuntarily reach for a controller in the hopes of finding a pause button.

Don't waste your time, because who needs background or mood? — Moritz Mohr's debut feature takes us to a totalitarian post-apocalyptic world just as, as part of a televised ritual called Culling, a little girl in a pink onesie is shot in cold blood by a grim-looking Hilda Van Der Koy and dressed in black (Famke Janssen), matriarch of the sadistic family that runs this tyrannical land. In fact, this future looks horrible. Cut to the girl's surviving brother, now an orphan, being raised over the years in the art of revenge with punches, stabs and kicks by a wild-eyed shaman whom action fans will recognize as Yayan Ruhian from the legendary films “Raid”.

Comedy nerds will notice that it's not Skarsgård narrating the inner thoughts of his own deaf character, but animation stalwart H. Jon Benjamin (“Archer,” “Bob's Burgers”). On review after its completion (early screenings included Skarsgård's vocals), it is a tonally jarring choice, as Benjamin's arrogant arrogance cannot make lines like “I am an instrument of death” sound serious, and even when the laughs are intentional in the script. by Tyler Burton Smith and Arend Remmers, fail. Although it is explained that the boy is appropriating the voice of his favorite arcade game hero, the running commentary plays like an open mic night rejecting B-movie hijacking.

Mohr is much more involved in the bloody hand-to-hand combat, each level of thug defeat bringing Boy closer to the Van Der Koy complex and the vicious architects of the Culling program: Hilda's producer sister, Melanie (Michelle Dockery), her husband, the television presenter (Sharlto Copley). and her brother Gideon (Brett Gelman). Each bad guy's shouty, smarmy performance seemingly exists only to wish him a violent end, yet Copley, a veteran of over-the-top villainy, is at least watchable, as were Lee Van Cleef and Jack Palance in their love-hate. apogee.

The exhaustive fights, coordinated by Dawid Szatarski and including the nightmarish use of a cheese grater, are designed in the extended gameplay style that “Oldboy” dynamically introduced. (It is now ubiquitous and extravagantly enhanced with effects, as seen in this spring's “Road” House” and “Monkey Man”). There are differences, of course, and Mohr's bag-of-tricks approach is closer to the merry-go-round artificiality of “Kingsman” director Matthew Vaughn than to the modern dance muscularity perfected by “John Wick” director Chad Stahelski. .

For those who prefer choreography and acting to a novice director armed with a drone, “Boy Kills World” will disappoint, even when the music by Ludvig Forssell and El Michels Affair provides a strong and adequate accompaniment.

So why go overboard? The shame is that “John Wick 4” alum Skarsgård, when not sharing time with that ridiculous voiceover, is not only an imposing machine of chaos with his lanky physique and those intense eyes, but also, at times, a convincingly naive figure, even if the boy is sleeveless. The red shirt can sometimes make him look like an extra from an '80s music video. But ultimately, it's more of a game piece than anything else.

As the climax approaches with a helmeted killer (Jessica Rothe), there's an admirably unforeseen twist on the film's blood-stained sleeve. However, I'm not sure it's a good thing that it's taking so long to arrive. For this guy to kill the world, the movie shouldn't need to try our patience first.