The latest from Brad Anderson, Worldbreaker, is a post-apocalyptic film following a girl (played by Billie Boullet) and her father (played by Luke Evans) as they try to maintain life in an escape from Breakers, which are alien-like creatures that can mutate and infect any human they come in contact with. The film, along with its filmmakers have so much ambition for this story, and you can easily tell that by just watching the film. The way the film was executed, though, was a little unexpected and felt like more of an anti-climactic film following the daily lives of these characters. I actually love movies that are simple and follow the day-in-the-life of characters, but this film felt like it wanted to be more than that. The film felt like it wanted to be an iconic action film, but yet it fails to introduce any new ideas or concepts to the audience.
I had fairly high expectations for this film, considering Anderson has proven himself to be an amazing storyteller, specifically with action and apocalyptic films. Unfortunately for this one, it felt like an extreme one-liner for me. The worldbuilding was a rather large issue for me, as we receive all the worldbuilding in small pieces throughout the film, whether it be in the form of a story or a flashback. With this choice, we never get to fully understand the world that these characters are living in. The film feels a little caustrophobic in that sense. I really wanted to see more of this world and get to know more of how and why this apocalypse occurred. Even though the film does tell us how, I wish it had dived a little deeper, and I think if it did, the experience would’ve been way more fascinating and saturated with original concepts that make this film worth a watch.
There was serious potential with this concept, and I really did think this film was interesting, but it just kept losing me with its strange way of worldbuilding and its seemingly unoriginal plot, which kept amusing me because of the cliches I kept catching. I really wanted to love Worldbreaker, and I really thought I would. Unfortunately, this film falls flat and really offers nothing too exciting, and also serves as a reminder that there are largely better apocalyptic movies available to watch as well.
Worldbreaker opens in theaters on January 30th.
Wyatt’s Takes 