So many action movies begin with revenge these days. From Keanu Reeves’ amazing reawakening as John Wick to Jason Statham’s badassery in this year’s The Beekeeper, revenge has become a staple of the genre more than ever. If you aren’t avenging the death of someone you care about, why even fight? So, when trailers for Bill Skarsgård’s new action thriller Boy Kills World came out, it would have been easy to put it in the list of Action Movies That All Sound The Same. True, the impetus for Skarsgård’s Boy is revenge for his family’s murder, but the tone–equal parts absurd comedy and limb-ripping action–sets it apart from the format. And, by all accounts, it shouldn’t have worked.

There are three things to know about Boy: His family was killed by the totalitarian leader of his country, he was rendered mute and deaf by the incident, and he’s been training with a shaman in secret since childhood to get his revenge. The source of most of the absurd humor of the movie is thanks to the narration of his inner monologue. Since Boy can’t speak, he’s imagined his voice to sound like his favorite childhood arcade game (voiced by H. Jon Benjamin of Archer and Bob’s Burgers).

Since his inner monologue’s voice is so incongruous to what you’d expect coming out of Skarsgård’s mouth, it already brings a silly tone to the gore-fest. Matching it with his often bugged-eye stare and clear innocence when it comes to the ways of the world, it’s a combo that shouldn’t work. To say this aspect of the movie is ridiculous is stating the obvious, and yet…it makes the movie.

His inner voice isn’t just narrating his thoughts, though. If so, it would feel like a throwaway plot device. Instead, it’s used to great effect when Boy is conversing with the vision of his dead sister (the macaron scene!). Or when he meets Basho, a member of the resistance. Boy hilariously believes Basho that they’re equal parts of the team. Or when Basho introduces him to Bennie, who Boy has an impossible time reading the lips of, producing hilarious gibberish that had everyone in my theater cracking up.

At the center of Boy Kills World is a sense of hope, though. Boy’s motives aren’t blind or senseless. Although he has a one-track mind about his objective and he’s become a killing machine to achieve it, inside he’s still a boy who never got to grow up.

Boy Kills World skirts the line of predictability without ever stepping over it. The entire cast, from Bill Skarsgård to Isaiah Mustafa to Andrew Koji, helps provide that perfect blend of absurd humor, heart, and action to create something we haven’t seen before. A truly unique and original action thriller that doesn’t just follow the same revenge plot as every other movie, Boy Kills World is the fun take we all needed in the otherwise homogenous genre it’s landed within. ★★★★

Watch Boy Kills World, opening in theaters Friday, April 26, 2024.