A Quest for Revenge

Action movies are expected to provide one thing: action. Movies can have crossover properties, from a horror comedy bringing laughs to spike the scares (Evil Dead Rise), to a comedy playing lovingly in the tropes of action films (Hot Fuzz), but generally speaking you don’t hear much about an action film being considered a crossover hit with any other genre. The second an action film takes on the notes of something else, such as the Predator gaining a sudden horror villain for the big, buff heroes to fight, it’s no longer considered an action film but is, instead, a horror movie. Something about action makes it so that it gets subsumed by other genres, leaving its action as just an “aside”.

But a case can be made that action-forward movies should still be considered action even if they pull in elements of other genres. Action films are stylish and daring, but the key component of the genre is that conflicts and disputes are handled through action above all else. Have a problem with a foe? You have to try and beat them down. Long, elaborate, interesting fight scenes take the place of jokes and laughs in a comedy or song and dance numbers in a musical. If your action is big enough, and your fights resolve enough conflicts, then no matter what other flourishes your film gets you should still be considered action.

2024’s Boy Kills World is often described as an “action comedy”, which I feel is a bit reductive for the movie. Yes, it is very funny in many places, and it has some solid running gags. But first and foremost the film is an action movie. The comedy is there to keep things lively and interesting in the film (with the hilarious narration and reparete of H. Jon Benjamin adding to the sarcastic humor). But when it comes time to resolve issues and deal with the meat of the problems our protagonist faces, it’s not laughs but violence that settles matters. Boys Kills World is a very strange, frequently hilarious movie, but it is, at its very core, an action movie, and a spectacularly over-the-top one at that.

We’re introduced to Boy (played as a child by Cameron and Nicholas Crovetti, and then for most of the film as an adult by Bill Skarsgård), a deaf-mute child who had previous seen his mother and sister killed in the annual Culling ceremony performed by the tyrannical Van Der Koy family. The Van Der Koys took over the region sometime early after a protracted revolution, and their leader, Hilda Van Der Koy (Famke Janssen), instituted the Culling (where people who have gotten on her bad side are put on a kill list and eliminated once a year) to deal with any possible revolutionaries in the future. Boy, somehow, survived the Culling and was taken in by Shaman (Yayan Ruhian), a crazy old martial arts master, so he could be trained as a weapon to seek his revenge on the Van Der Koys.

Years later (with Skarsgård stepping into the lead role), Boy and Shaman are in town, selling the vegetables they’ve grown, when they see two of the Van Der Koys – mouthpiece Glen (Sharlto Copley) and speechwriter Gideon (Brett Gelman) – grabbing people off the streets for the annual Culling. Against Shaman’s wishes, Boy runs out, ready to fight the Van Der Koys and their goons. He hops into the back of one of their vehicles and uses this as a way to sneak into their complex before getting spotted and having to fight his way through dozens of goons. In the process he free revolutionary fighter Basho (Andrew Koji), gaining an ally in the fight, which he needs because now that he’s made himself known to the Van Der Koys they’re not going to stop until they’ve used him for their Culling, or he’s killed them all.

At its core, Boy Kills World is an over-the-top action film. It featured very big, detailed, choreographed fight sequences that are, at times, incredibly violent and bloody. There are more than a few moments that made me squirm from the level of violence and detail to the action, which wasn’t a bad thing. This film commits, fully, to its action inspirations and never cuts corners when it comes to the revenge quest of our deaf-mute protagonist. If you want an action film that commits fully to the action, this is a film for you.

With that said, it does have comedy elements. The foremost and most obvious is that narration from H. Jon Benjamin. Because the protagonist is deaf and mute and hasn’t heard his own voice in quite some time, he gives himself an internal monologue voice based on the voice from a video game he used to love (also voiced by H. Jon Benjamin). That means that throughout the film we have the deep, sarcastic tones of Benjamin (who famously has voiced the lead characters in both Archer and Bob’s Burgers) guiding us through the film.

This isn’t the only comedy in the movie as we also have a couple of additional crazy elements included in the mix. One is the recurring figment of Boy’s sister, Mina (Quinn Copeland), that haunts Boy and, eventually, starts talking to him and cracking jokes at the situation around him. Then there’s the other freedom fighter that ends up working with Boy, Benny (Isaiah Mustafa). Boy can read lips but for whatever reason (maybe his thick beard), Benny’s words are incomprehensible to the deaf-mute. All he reads is word salad, which can lead to some hilarious moments throughout the film.

The comedy moments are there to make the film lighter, yes, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say this makes the film an action-comedy. It’s like a horror film using moments of levity to make the scares hit harder; by positioning some moments of comedy in this action film it allows the action to be more violent, more gory, but keep it all engaging. The comedic elements help to keep the audience in the moment, focused without being forced to turn away, and that allows the film to get away with more, assured that everyone watching is enjoying the delights on screen.

And the delights are plentiful. The film features a number of hard-hitting, bone-crunching, flesh tearing action sequences. Boy is an unstoppable killing machine (as he was trained to be) and the film doesn’t shy away from letting him wreck absolute carnage on all who get in his way. Blood and bone and limbs go flying in many sequences, and there is an absolute ton of gore spilled in many shots. The movie blends its martial arts action, and even some wire work, into a tight number of action sequences, making for a film that will absolutely sate action movie fans.

If there’s any issue I had with the movie it’s that, at least in part, I could guess one of the major twists coming early in the film. The movie downplays it, and I don’t think everyone would automatically pick up on the plot detail the way I did, but it is something that, when you think about it, seems pretty obvious from a Hollywood filmmaking standpoint (although with the film being so fresh I’m obviously not going to spoil it here). Now, I wasn’t able to guess all of it, and there were some twists that still caught me, but I think the plotting might be just obvious enough that the attuned are going to get what’s going on and that might keep them from investing fully.

But even then, the action is so gleefully over-the-top, I don’t know how you couldn’t get into this. Boy Kills World is a violently enjoyable film with, yes, some comedy that helps it go down smooth. If you like action you will enjoy this movie. Just don’t go into it for the comedy alone because the film will turn your stomach otherwise.