Hi kids, do you like violence?

"Boy Kills World" is a bloody action thriller revenge comedy built for hyperactive, video game addled 12-year-old boys who think that blood and punching and Uzis spraying bullets while being held sideways are so, so awesome and the pinnacle of this thing we call life. Maybe some of them will see this movie and have all their beliefs reaffirmed. Others are likely to find this fanboy fantasy an agonizing and dreary barrage of hyperviolence, devoid of anything approaching human emotion.

Bill Skarsgård stars as he who is known as Boy — this world is so cruel he doesn't even have a name! — a deaf and mute man hellbent on revenge after his family is murdered by the evil Hilda Van Der Koy (Famke Janssen). Van Der Koy is the head of a dynasty in a dystopian future where enemies are picked off for fun and sport in an annual event dubbed "The Culling." Reference points include "The Hunger Games," "The Running Man," "Kill Bill" and "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World," among others.

Boy is tutored in the jungle by a shaman, played by Yayan Ruhian, who trains him to be a killing machine and sends him on his path of rage. Meanwhile, Boy's inner voice is supplied by H. Jon Benjamin ("Archer"), who essentially narrates the film in the Movie Trailer Guy voice, an effect that immediately wears out his welcome.

Credit is due to the fight choreographers and stunt crew, who work overtime to elevate stylized fighting into a sort of ballet of violence. But in the hands of first-time feature filmmaker Moritz Mohr, it's literally overkill: The endless punching and kicking and shooting and killing is all numbing and loses its impact, a reminder that one meaningful punch lands harder than 10,000 pointless ones.

Skarsgård looks the part, his gaunt features and lanky frame accentuated in a sleeveless vest that is the same color red that Michael Jackson wore in the "Thriller" video. But boy oh boy, "Boy Kills World" is a slog, a movie built for midnight audiences that proves it's sometimes better to just go to bed.

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'BOY KILLS WORLD'

Grade: D

MPA rating: R (for strong bloody violence and gore throughout, language, some drug use and sexual references)

Running time: 1:51

How to watch: In theaters Friday

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