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Chaos Walking
2021
12A
Director: Doug Liman
Starring: Tom Holland, Daisy Ridley, Mads Mikkelsen, Demian Bischir, David Oyelowo, Nick Jonas, Cynthia Erivo
Overall rating 41/100
Chaos walking is about two unlikely companions who embark on a perilous adventure through the Badlands of an unexplored planet as they try to escape a dangerous and disorientating reality, where all inner thoughts are seen and heard by everyone. This film had such an interesting premise and such a charming cast, but I was left incredibly disappointed with how the film turned out.
My first few positives would be the interesting idea, creativity to the plot, the good worldbuilding and the fantastic cinematography. The idea and premise of the movie itself was intriguing and was explored well. The thought of all the men having all there thoughts out in the open really intrigued me and made me think of the lack of privacy that gives you with all the characters. This introduced some really interesting elements and some good worldbuilding. Learning that different characters with higher power within the town learned how to control their powers or use it to protect themselves was well done and established a good world for the audience to get invested in, especially within the first half of the film. Moreover, the cinematography was excellent. How the noise was visually conveyed was creative and interesting with an eerie almost mist like quality to there thoughts, and the colour palette for the different noise was excellently done.
My next couple of positives would be the set up for character development, and the promising set up for the main two characters. I thought that the film set up development between a lot of the characters, especially Todd (Tom Holland) and his parents as well as Todd and the Mayor (Mads Mikkelsen) they did some intriguing things with how Todd felt about the mayor and set up a good character arc for proving that he could be a man and rise to the occasion, whilst also balancing that with his more grounded homelife with his parents. It’s a shame this set up wasn’t executed (more on that in a future paragraph) but the set up itself was strong. I also thought the main set up for the relationship between Todd and Viola (Daisy Ridley) was also strong. It set up a great mystery of why she was the only woman and why her ship was coming to the mayor’s land. It also set up a clear fantasy and sci fi genre and tone and left me intrigued as to how the plot would develop from there and was a strong start to the film.
However, now lets move onto some negatives. There was a complete lack of character background, a lack of explanation to the plot therefore effecting the pacing, whilst also having some very irritating creative moments. The movie jumped straight into the setup, now if done right this could be a positive. But the audience had absolutely no clue who the characters were or any form of fleshing out of the story world before jumping into the action, this is frustrating because It made me really struggle to connect with the film or its characters from the beginning and that’s never a good sign. One of my biggest issues was the complete lack of explanation to the plot. It had a great set up but never developed that until about two thirds into the story, for so long the film kept the audience in the dark to what was going on, therefore this really effected the pacing of the film as it just wasn’t going anywhere, and I often found myself losing interest. There were also some extremely irritating creative decisions as well, the idea of the noise despite definitely being interesting soon wore very thin. It was overused and the film relied on it too much to attempt to develop the plot and characters, it just created too much exposition and got extremely irritating after a while.
My final couple of positives would be the great creature designs and the chemistry between the cast, specifically the two leads. I thought that the creature designs were very creative and interesting, despite only being in one scene possibly due to editing issues, the creatures proved that the money was well spent on the film and I wish they were Included more. I also thought the whole cast had great chemistry with each other. Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley are very charming and likeable and they both did solid performances here and definitely had great on-screen chemistry. The whole cast did a solid job with what thinly written material they had. Plus Mads Mikkelsen is great in whatever film he is in.
My next few negatives would be the lack of development to the relationships, how predictable the film was and how emotionally disconnected I was. The movie set up so many great relationships with the characters in the first act, and then went on to not develop them whatsoever, there was so many missed opportunities at character depth, the characters just stagnated and stayed the same, this made me completely emotionally disconnected. Character deaths had no impact on me due to not caring about the relationships and the lazily underdeveloped characters and was a massive disappointment. The film was also painfully predictable, it left the audience in the dark for so long and when they finally started to develop the plot slightly and reveal more, I had already predicted it and there were no other surprises, a good movie isn’t supposed to be so basic and structured in such a basic step by step way that you can predict it all.
My final few negatives are the mediocre villains, the lack of expansion to the story world and the underwhelming ending. Despite the strong performances from the actors the villains were very underwhelming. They had no depth and development apart from the simple point that they were threatened by the woman because they had no noise, they just needed more intensity and the film focused more on the conflict between the villains instead of developing them more. They also failed to take it to the next level in terms of developing the story world, there was some interesting elements to do with the noise and the dynamics between the different villages, but it always felt like it needed to up a gear and expand the story world and the stakes and it just never went there. The ending was also very underwhelming, there was no character arcs and it just wasn’t satisfying, it felt like a lazy set up for a sequel that most likely won’t happen.
Overall, Chaos walking had a very intriguing premise. And a solid start, but despite the charms of the two leads, the film fell flat. Leaving the audience in the dark for so long and when it finally revealed something it was painfully predictable. It just turned into a generic YA film that honestly felt lazily made and felt like it was edited multiple times, lazily setting up a sequel that I unfortunately don’t want.
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You know this was one of the first movies to come out in theaters when they had just started opening again and I can see why it was one of the first ones. Because they knew people wouldn’t see it and I think that was the right call. Chaos Walking is directed by Doug Liman who has directed The Bourne Identity and Edge of Tomorrow among other things. I want you to keep that in mind. It tells the story of a world in which only men live in the world and all of the women have been killed. And in this world your thoughts are out in the open above your head and it's called “noise”. Then suddenly a woman crash lands from outer space and suddenly causes a ruckus among this community. Believe it or not I was excited for this movie...in 2017. For those of you who don’t know, this movie went through hell. I remember actually following this movie and it had been so long that when they had announced the trailer I was like “That’s still happening?” Regardless of that I skipped the movie because of the reviews and I was being careful with what I saw in a theater being that I was taking a risk actually going to the theater.
Thankfully Hulu put this movie on there for me for free to watch and I must thank them because they spared me from spending my money on a steaming pile of garbage. Chaos Walking is exactly what the title says. It is an absolute chaotic mess from the literal first shot of the movie and does not fix itself in the slightest. The only real positive I can give to the movie is Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley. They seriously tried but in the end what they’re given is just garbage. Also there were a couple of sequences that were decent in the movie. Other than that there is nothing. Where to start? The whole concept of the “noise” is interesting but terrible in execution. It was so bad that I was actually becoming annoyed hearing Tom Holland’s voice so much. Every time it happened it just sounded like people talking over each other and it was even worse when it would happen with multiple characters. It was just annoying.
Nick Jonas is laughably bad in this movie. I was actually shocked at how bad he was acting. Not good at all. The pacing is awful. I thought the movie was at least getting to the end but I had the dark realization that there were still 40 minutes remaining. The movie is so generic that it becomes boring. Yes the concept is fresh but after a while it just fizzles out into nothing and just becomes another generic YA adaptation. I don’t understand how this cast and this director came together and this is the result. This should’ve been way better than it was. Also the ending was insanely rushed. Like after the third act stuff finishes there was another scene and then it happens and then I saw the credits and I was like “That was it?” Guys I honestly have nothing else to say. This movie is just another worthless YA adaptation that has nothing new to offer except disappointment and boredom. I’m going to give Chaos Walking a 4/10
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