WORLDBREAKER - - Derivative Post Apocalyptic Sci-Fi

Review by Adam Donato

From the director of The Machinist comes a post apocalyptic father/daughter movie that looks just perfect for the SYFY channel. Director Brad Anderson has found himself directing streaming television series as of late, with a few small time movies on the side. The cast boasts recognizable names like Milla Jovovich and Luke Evans so there’s an amount of legitimacy here. The lead is a young actress named Billie Boullet, making her feature debut as her only other experience is a role in a Disney+ series. Worldbreaker is about a young girl whose father retreats them to the middle of the woods on an island to avoid the deadly creatures that plague their world. There’s a few little January releases for it to compete against at the box office, most notably Sam Raimi’s Send Help. This is a good time of the year for smaller movies to make an impression. The only question is, is it a good impression?

The concept of the movie is a tired one at best. Society was perfect until mankind had to make things more difficult for themselves leading to the global infestation of monsters hell bent on destroying all humans. That combined with the father/child angle is very reminiscent of After Earth, which was an epic bomb. While the runtime is short at just over ninety minutes, the story really drags. A movie that appears to be an action/horror, mostly ends up being a boring drama. The ending provides a cliffhanger for what seems to be another installment, but there’s not enough here in the first place to incept a curiosity for more in the minds of audiences. Maybe make one good movie first and then make a sequel if there’s enough demand.

The biggest compliment to the film would be the setting and the special effects. The film was shot on an island in Northern Ireland and it is truly a beautiful location. For what appears to be a very low budget film, the soaring uses of special effects for the creatures looks good. It’s mostly masked by darkness, but a win is a win. The design looks like spiders with human torsos. Not the most original design, but cool nonetheless. There’s a couple shots where our leads get up close and personal with the infected and it’s some pretty gnarly stuff. The only problem is that there’s very little screen time for the creatures as we’re mostly just hanging out on the island. 

Jovovich is in the movie a very small amount. She has a reputation for sci-fi slop like this so selling the movie with her face on the poster, only to have her removed from the plot after the first act will be disappointing to her fans. The dynamic between Evans and Boullet is cute enough, but what they’re given to work with is so standard and stock. Evans gets an opportunity to be softer than his usual action man blockbuster fare. Their relationship is just frankly not interesting enough to carry this movie. 

Worldbreaker provides nothing really new. The notable cast is not given anything to do and the majority of the experience is a slow one. Expect this movie to get lost in the sea of January dart throws and award season rereleases. Seek your post apocalyptic thrill from the likes of 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple instead. Now that’s a movie that is surprisingly more of a hang out as well, but with actually interesting characters that explore truly interesting themes. Worldbreaker provides a simpler experience for movie fans. 

Worldbreaker is in theaters January 30th!

Rating: 1/5