Director: Brad Anderson
Writer: Joshua Rollins
Stars: Billie Boullet, Luke Evans, Milla Jovovich
Synopsis: A father hides his daughter on an island to keep her safe while he equips her for survival and the battles ahead.
There are movies that attempt big concepts like cataclysms and society crumpling in a macrocosm, but there is something genuinely gripping when that catastrophe is brought into the focus of a small group. It’s how we relate to the characters and are able to emotionally connect to the situation. Often films with smaller budgets are able to pull off this emotional connection much better than their mega budget counterparts because the smaller films can’t hide behind CGI. They have to arrest us with characters that can sell us on the world they live in. In some ways Worldbreaker is able to pull off this emotional feat.
The film, written by Joshua Rollins, has just enough heady sci-fi themes to keep us interested in the survival of Willa (Billie Boullet) and Dad (Luke Evans). The world is broken, literally, by creatures that lived under the earth and now want to live on top of it without pesky humans around. It’s a solid basis and when new details emerge the reason for Dad’s superstition or cagey behavior becomes clearer. Where the screenplay and the story falter is in how much exposition is given. At one point in the beginning of the narrative, there are two different narrator streams that are, thankfully, abandoned, but still don’t give us everything we really need.
Much of the downfall of Worldbreaker is that it needs more. Not more monsters, not more people, not more battle scenes, but it needs more to it. It’s a very straightforward narrative. It would work much better had Rollins chosen a more interesting thread to follow. Mom (Milla Jovovich) is a far more compelling character than Dad. It’s obvious why Dad is chosen to safeguard Willa as is established in the worldbuilding he’s more dangerous if he stays and fights, but there are just not enough details of interest about him and he becomes an archetype and not a real character. The questions that are unanswered by the lack of information in Rollins’ script aren’t completely important, but they could have added more emotional heft and more desire on our part to fully appreciate the solid basis for the story.
What works in Worldbreaker‘s favor is its effects. The CGI creatures are limited, which is a very good thing as they aren’t particularly interesting. They feel and sound like creatures in dozens of these types of films. Yet, the sound of the humans that the creatures infect is where the film sets itself apart and has something really scary. The sound from these human creatures, called hybrids, is like a guttural, mirthless laugh. It announces their proximity like a hunting call. It’s a pattern of sounds and then silence. Sound designer Matt Severin has created something otherworldly and truly terrifying.
What never makes sense is that this is a story about a world fought for, protected, and kept safe by women, but the most central figure of that world is sidelined. Milla Jovovich eats up every scene she’s in, but those scenes are sadly few. Her hero moment at the beginning of the film is never lived up to. Director Brad Anderson and cinematographer Daniel Aranyo have a tracking shot behind Jovovich as she carries a lit torch and surveys her troops who alternately call her mother and commander. It’s a great scene followed by a tense, and a, tragically, cut short charge into battle, but she’s never given much more than that. Worldbreaker is Willa’s story, of course, but there was room for more than that.
Worldbreaker follows a familiar pattern. It’s a post-apocalyptic epic that has an intriguing world and not much more. It’s short enough and tense enough that it will keep your attention. There are good scenes and some lush scenery when Willa and Dad are on the island. Yet, it’s never trying to be more than it is. It really could have been, but something holds it back. It’s not a bad watch, but it’s a bit of junk food and not a full meal.
