A Visually Arresting Dystopia That Never Fully Takes Shape

The main premise of Worldbreaker, a family-oriented dystopian thriller, is training to survive and thrive in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by arachnid-like monsters – Breakers. Shot in Northern Ireland, the movie boasts incredible landscapes, with scenic views and rocky mountains that seem to mask the bigger problem: a grossly underdeveloped narrative that undercuts its striking premise.

Directed by Brad Anderson – revered for The Machinist – and written by Joshua Rollins, Worldbreaker is too cautious to fully exploit the story’s intensity. Stellar acting from Luke Evans (Dad) and Milla Jovovich keeps the movie from completely falling apart. Worldbreaker’s problem, however, is not necessarily a lack of a grand budget but a prosaic script that underexplores the movie’s full potential, resulting in an experience unworthy of its own sci-fi ambitions.

Every Great Theme in Worldbreaker is Noticeably Underdeveloped

Worldbreaker explores a world ruined by monsters, “breakers,” who are framed as Earth’s retribution to humanity’s environmental degradation and destruction of vital ecosystems. According to Worldbreaker’s lore, “breakers” have been trapped underneath the Earth since time immemorial, and man’s destructive practices unearthed these man-killing horrors. However, what should make these creatures genuinely terrifying is their ability to infect humans, turning them into “hybrids” that serve as scouts with shared senses.

Breakers have the makings of gruesome monsters with frightful spider-like body structure that can evoke a strong feeling of terror if brought to life with the visual commitment they demand. These creatures have wiped out the majority of men, creating an opportunity for women to save the world from its ghastly nightmare. Nevertheless, Worldbreaker’s progressive positioning sets up a compelling narrative idea that the film ultimately fails to develop.

The story’s wilful protagonist Willa (Billie Boullet) dotes on her father and the stories of the old world that replay humanity at its finest, serving as a ray of hope in a bleak world. Willa’s mother leads a battalion of women soldiers who fight against the breakers. Consequently, Willa eventually has to join the ranks in combating the formidable beasts.

Despite having a solid story foundation, the movie compromises the potential of the breakers. It treats the breakers more as an abstract concept than a tangible threat, leaving their most dreadful capabilities frustratingly unexplored. It relies on secondary narrations and encounters to accentuate their intensity. Viewers are rarely given a clear view of the breakers’ physical features or behavioural patterns. Rather, the movie focuses on the aftereffects of their attacks or the actions of the hybrids, sidelining the most essential characteristic of a dystopian drama — visuals.

Regardless of Worldbreaker’s Horrendous Pacing, the Movie’s Characters and Thematic Message Give it Soul

A huge portion of Worldbreaker revolves around a father-daughter dynamic as they survive and train on an island away from the breakers. Through Willa’s father, Worldbreaker satirises environmental degradation, substituting typical consequential effects for breakers that are byproducts of humanity’s self-serving actions.

Just as Jo-Anne Brechin’s Killer Whale frowns on animal captivity and environmental sanctity, Anderson seems to have taken the same didactic path rather than incorporating elements of shock value in this survivalist thriller. For a 90-minute film, over an hour is devoted to Willa and her father’s survival routines.

The film builds to an inevitable clash between the young Willa and the breakers and their spawn. However, the final act barely justifies the large chunk of screen time dedicated towards training for survival or war. The movie opens with an incomplete scene and ends with the same incomplete scene, underwhelmingly exploring critical story progressions, leaving its audience to ponder on what could have been, and not in a positive way.

It would be untrue to say Rollins crafts an unimaginative tale with Worldbreaker. Worldbreaker has the skeletal framework of a great dystopian thriller, but never progresses beyond surface-level worldbuilding. Even so, it effectively captures the resilience of a family that doggedly battles the odds for survival in a world teeming with chaos.