A Milla Jovovich Movie That She's Hardly In

PLOT: A father hides his daughter on an island to keep her safe while he equips her for survival and the battles ahead.

REVIEW: Is anyone else really tired of Post-Apocalyptic creature features? Whether it’s Elevation or Love and Monsters, I’ve quickly found the subgenre to be quite tired and boring. For every A Quiet Place we receive, it seems there are ten other low-quality imitations. Unfortunately, Worldbreaker fits into the latter category, featuring generic monsters and characters that lack any dimension. And if you’re hoping for another “Milla Jovovich kicks ass in a sci-fi world” then you’ll probably want to look elsewhere.

Despite getting top billing, Jovovich is hardly even in the film, with her screentime maxing out at about ten minutes. Even when she’s there, she’s not doing a whole lot. Instead, the story focuses on Luke Evans and Billy Boullet, who play father and daughter. They’ve escaped the mainland and are hiding out on an island, trying to survive. Most of the story is the two family members surviving and training, with some stories in between. Evans sure does love to tell stories here. A girl washes up on shore, and it’s pretty easy to see what’s going to happen with her the moment she’s introduced. But the daughter is so lonely that she tries to keep her hidden and help her out. Evans and Boullet deliver good performances, but their characters are so directionless. And as much as I liked Jovovich in her early career, she’s essentially just the same person in every single film over the last two decades.

It really doesn’t help that the monsters are so generic. They feel like far too imposing a force one moment and are completely gone the next. I’m sure this is budget-related, but it just makes the world feel inconsistent. It doesn’t help that the rules for them don’t make a lot of sense and seem to change based on story needs. Then they introduce this hybrid angle, and it doesn’t really go anywhere interesting. They’re pretty much just smaller versions of the bigger creatures. Everything about them is half-baked and underdeveloped.

Ultimately, there’s really no point in telling this story. Things are damn near the exact same from beginning to end, with one less character or two. There’s not some massive moment of change, and if anything, the film ends up on such a cliffhanger that it makes the storytelling decisions all the stranger. I found myself literally saying “Wait, that was it?” when the credits rolled. This was more of a “day in the life” style film, only none of the characters are interesting enough to follow and make it worth it.

It’s honestly pretty depressing to think that this film was directed by Brad Anderson. Session 9 and The Machinist are such interesting films, and they really feel like an auteur is at the helm. Worldbreaker is often uninspired in both its blocking and its shot composition. It really just feels like a paycheck movie and bears no signature of the director.

I did not enjoy my time with Worldbreaker and every time I hoped it would have some kind of spark, it did nothing with it. The action is unimpressive and it ends right in the middle of what feels like would be the third act action spectacular. If I had to pick one decent thing it’s that Luke Evans can tell an intriguing story. But even then, they bash you over the head with it and he tells them at the most inappropriate times. Maybe someone will come along and breathe new life into this subgenre, but as is, let’s just put this one to bed.

Worldbreaker releases to theaters on January 30th, 2026.