Worldbreaker Movie Review – Luke Evans and Billie Boullet Put in Monstrous Performances in a Remixed Version of Every Post-Apocalyptic Story

Brad Anderson’s Worldbreaker is a strange movie. It’s clearly influenced by the Ellie-Joel dynamic from The Last of Us, while it also borrows ideas from many zombie properties and dystopian monster flicks like The Quiet Place. Truthfully, there’s hardly any new ideas creeping around in this sci-fi film. Yet, the parts in Joshua Rollins’ script that focus on the relationship between father and daughter never fail to elicit an emotional response from the viewer, elevating what would be run-of-the-mill genre fodder into something far more touching.

The world finds itself in peril. Years earlier, a rift known as the Stitch tore open the earth. What popped out of these cracks were monstrous creatures, referred to as Breakers here. Men assembled to wage war on these monsters, but it’s soon discovered that if these beasts scratch or bite men, they become infected by some kind of virus and turn into Hybrids. As it turns out, women are less susceptible to turning — though it’s still possible — so they lead the battle charge against these creatures.

Willa (Billie Boullet) lives with her mother (Milla Jovovich) and father (Luke Evans), who are provided no name in Worldbreaker. Willa’s mother is the leader of a group of soldiers, while her father attempts to prepare his daughter for the battle she’ll fight in the future. He also tells her stories of how the world used to be and how a mighty warrior named Kodiak slayed many Breakers. After their village is attacked by the beasts, Willa and her father escape by boat to an island, while the mother stays behind to fight, vowing to come for them when she can. A year later, Willa and her father live in solitude, but this all changes when a young girl named Rosie (Milla Harris) washes onto shore and Willa decides to help her without telling her father.

From that synopsis alone, the inspirations prove obvious. We have seen this all before elsewhere. Unfortunately, it isn’t like Worldbreaker surprises in its unraveling plot either, as everything plays out as shown in previous films and series. There’s no shocking moment, nor unexpected twist in the tale; seriously, if you have watched a season or two of The Walking Dead or The Last of Us, you will know exactly what’s coming at every turn. It also doesn’t help that all of this happens in a compact 95 minutes, since it almost feels like an accelerated CliffNotes version of these shows.

Where Anderson does well, though, is to withhold the usage of the monsters for as long as possible. Instead of having them pop up every few minutes, they’re used sparsely throughout the film, focusing more on the human drama than the action-horror element of the story. It’s actually these parts of the movie that are the strongest, making one wonder if there was ever a need to show the monsters at all. Could have saved a few bucks on the CG budgetI, really.

Jovovich doesn’t feature much in Worldbreaker, as she acts more like a bookmark in the overall story. Consequently, it’s up to Evans and Boullet to carry the film for the bulk of the runtime. The good news is that their chemistry is the best part of the film, making you feel for these characters and their evolving relationship. Dare I say, the pair gel better than Pedro Pascal’s Joel and Bella Ramsey’s Ellie from The Last of Us TV series.

When Willa and her father are on the island, it’s all too easy to lose yourself in the beautiful scenery and serenity of their current reality. It seems perfect, but it isn’t. They miss Mom. They’re running out of food. There are no Breakers around them, but this could change in a heartbeat. They make the best of a bad situation, proving that as long as hope exists, there’s a chance at life. The actors sell the viewer on this concept, suggesting that maybe there is a chance at a happily-ever-after here.

Despite all the positives they bring to Worldbreaker, it’s impossible to ignore the fact that Evans and Boullet deserved a better script than they had here. There’s something special between this pair, but maybe this story was never meant to be turned into a film in the first place. Maybe it needed to be a series to let the relationship simmer and captivate the audience for even longer. Somewhere, in this clutter of ideas and inspirations, there’s a powerful tale about a father’s love for his daughter and inspiring her to never lose faith in herself, but Worldbreaker never needed the gimmick of monsters to begin with. When it focuses on the quiet – the fear and tension about the unknown that doesn’t need to be verbalized – that’s where it comes alive.

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