The Mission is Simple.
4 / 5
Directed by Moritz Mohr.
When his family is murdered, a deaf-mute named Boy escapes to the jungle and is trained by a mysterious shaman to repress his childish imagination and become an instrument of death.
The revenge thriller gets a deranged reimagining as it meets the crazed energy of Boy Kills World. Taking influences from anime, video games and foul-mouthed mercenaries, it raises every element to its extreme with ferocious action choreography and frenetic camera work.
Bill Skarsgård gives everything to playing the titular ‘Boy’ throwing himself, often headfirst, into every altercation all without saying a word. That job is reserved for the dulcet tones of H. Jon Benjamin who plays the inner voice guiding us through his motivations and reactions to the world around him. A large supporting cast joins Boy on his crusade with Andrew Koji and Yayan Ruhian giving particularly dedicated performances in the action sequences.
The focus on visceral action lets Boy Kills World stand out amongst other similar projects. The brutal hand to hand combat and gore-fuelled moments had the crowd jumping out of their seats. Staying with the action rather than hiding the stunt work in editing shows respect for the craft with camera work that flies around the room, reminiscent of The Evil Dead, whose Sam Raimi produces the film.
Narratively it plays things a bit fast and loose, especially with its world-building and the amount of lore it attempts to deliver in such a short amount of time. The tone of H. Jon Benjamin, narration allows the boundaries of exposition-dumping to be pushed further than normal but the film works best when it is boiled down to its targeted revenge approach.
Boy Kills World’s attitude may come off immature to some but it’s hard to argue with the technique and talent on display. If you like your action heart pumping, fist smashing and bone crunching, you’re going to have a very good time.
Boy Kills World arrives in UK and Irish cinemas April 26.
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