Click here to copy URL

Boy Kills World

Boy Kills World

2023

Moritz Mohr

Bill Skarsgård, Yayan Ruhian, Sharlto Copley, Brett Gelman ...

5.9

Action. Thriller Boy is a young man who must confront the unhinged matriarch of a corrupt post-apocalyptic dynasty who left him orphaned, deaf and voiceless. After a tragic childhood, an enigmatic shaman turns him into an instrument of vengeance and releases him into his distant dystopia on the eve of the annual slaughter of dissidents. Trying to find his place, Boy will join a resistance group while having intense arguments with the ghost of his rebellious little sister. [+]

	Author	Review
United States	David Fear Rolling Stone	"[It] isn't a movie so much as a 12-year-old boy's mindset brought to life"	NEG
United States	Valerie Complex Deadline	"'Boy Kills World' jumps back and forth between exciting and confusing. For all of its narrative issues, it remains a vivid spectacle that revels in its genre-blending chaos"	POS
Canada	Chris Bumbray JoBlo	"Director Moritz Mohr makes an impressive debut and with the film including enough world-building that it could easily spawn a franchise (...) Rating: ★★★★★★★★ (out of 10)"	POS
United Kingdom	Catherine Bray The Guardian	"Ripped Bill Skarsgård shows he’s got brutal action chops (...) As a mute avenger against a dystopian tyranny – looking like a lethal Buster Keaton – the actor makes you wish the film itself was as purposeful (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	NEU
United States	Ankit Jhunjhunwala The Playlist	"A gleeful orgy of violence and blood-letting – wrapped in a stylish and imaginative package. If you’ve ever screamed “Shut up and kill!” at a dilly-dallying, loquacious protagonist, Bill Skarsgård is your man."	POS
United States	Derek Smith Slant	"A jacked-up parade of soulless ultraviolence (...) Rating: ★½ (out of 4)"	NEG
United States	Nick Schager The Daily Beast	"A high-octane action extravaganza sure to satiate genre fans’ delirious bloodlust"	POS
United Kingdom	Neil Smith Total Film	"There does come a point when the wackiness gets wearying. Yet it's hard to deny that 'Boy Kills World' has a delirious, unhinged energy to it (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	NEU
United States	Kyle Smith The Wall Street Journal	"[It] should have stuck to gonzo comedy and been 15 minutes shorter. But Mr. Mohr exhibits the kind of flair for comic action that makes him an obvious choice to direct a big-budget Hollywood superhero epic"	NEU
United States	Chase Hutchinson Seattle Times	"Even when a late twist lands awkwardly, the final deadly dance that follows is a work of graceful and gruesome art (...) Rating: ★★½ (out of 10)"	POS
United States	William Bibbiani The Wrap	"A hodgepodge of exuberant stylistic flourishes and pop culture references, and while it’s often briefly entertaining, it’s never consistently anything except manic"	NEG
United Kingdom	Sophie Butcher Empire	"Despite some fun action excess and an impressively committed performance from Bill Skarsgård, 'Boy Kills World' is a muddled, tiring mess, favouring violent shocks over cohesive storytelling (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"	NEG
United States	David Ehrlich IndieWire	"The sudden pivot from the cool for coolness’ sake logic of a side-scrolling beat-em-up to the dramatic backstory of a 'Metal Gear Solid' underscores Mohr’s inability to balance them both at once"	NEG
United States	Cary Darling Houston Chronicle	"As a feature-film debut for Moritz Mohr, it's an impressively kinetic calling card with a head-slamming, skin-shredding climax so violent that it could even make Quentin Tarantino say, 'Dude, you might want to dial it back a notch or three' (...) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Manohla Dargis The New York Times	"Skarsgard puts in serious work to try to make the relentless bashing and smashing, flailing and dying look good. Too bad the filmmakers were incapable of doing the same"	NEG
Denmark	Karina Adelgaard Heaven of Horror	"There are so many wild scenes and unexpected injuries that you’ll never feel safe thinking you know what comes next. Also, Bill Skarsgård stars in the title role and he is brilliant! (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Simon Abrams rogerebert.com	"Copley plays creepy well, Skarsgård pantomimes his butt off, and Ruhian unsurprisingly looks more convincing than anyone else tasked with executing complicated stunt work. Everything else in 'Boy Kills World' could have been directed and scripted by the Van Der Koys (...) Rating: ★ (out of 4)"	NEG
United States	Richard Roeper Chicago Sun-Times	"[It] hits you over the head with gimmicks (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 4)"	NEG
United States	Robert Abele Los Angeles Times	"For this boy to kill the world, the movie shouldn’t need to kill our patience first"	NEG
United States	Ty Burr The Washington Post	"[It] overstays its welcome (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 4)"	NEG
United States	Lauren Coates AV Club	"Bill Skarsgård leads a rote revenge thriller that isn't nearly as clever as it thinks it is"	NEG
Canada	Nadir Samara Screen Rant	"Skarsgård and Benjamin make for an odd pair that work well together. Mohr's vision is clear and realized, and the resulting work of art is exciting (...) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Mick LaSalle San Francisco Chronicle	"With each twist and turn of the story, 'Boy Kills World' becomes less involving, though it’s never involving to begin with. Basically, the movie starts at zero and works its way into negative numbers (...) Rating: 0 (out of 4)"	NEG
United States	Owen Gleiberman Variety	"It is shot and choreographed with brutal visual wizardry. It’s all held together by Skarsgård’s performance"	POS
Canada	Radheyan Simonpillai The Globe and Mail	"It’s a cheeky post-Deadpool comedy – irreverent to a fault – with grindhouse aesthetics that tend to feel inspired by Quentin Tarantino rather than the movies that inspired Quentin Tarantino"	POS
United States	Meagan Navarro Bloody Disgusting	"While its revenge plot may not offer any genuine narrative surprises, the manic B-movie energy combined with frenetic, gory action infuses a familiar conceit with a sense of video game fun. (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Nate Richard Collider	"This misfire falls far short of becoming the next genre classic (...) Rating: ★½ (out of 5)"	NEG
United States	Brian Tallerico rogerebert.com	"A joyously conceived series of action sequences designed to top the one that came before"	POS

Return to movie

We encourage you to check the reviews' original sources. Intellectual property rights of these reviews belong to their authors and/or the correspondent media from which they have been extracted. If you'd like to help us to add more reviews to your favorite movies, just send us a message.