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Rating: 1 out of 5
What would happen if all men’s thoughts were on display for the world to see? Like what would happen if you couldn’t hide any thought that the brain would hold. Shit will probably be quite crazy on Earth. Just think of all the nasty and crazy things people think of. Chaos Walking is a dystopian film that tries its best to show what would happen in a new world where every man’s thought shows. The film is an absolute chaos mess of a movie.
Directed by Doug Liman from a screenplay by Patrick Ness and Christopher Ford. The film is based on Ness’s science fiction trilogy Chaos Walking, adapting its first book, 2008’s The Knife of Never Letting Go. The film starts off in 2258 AD. The colonists of the planet New World, all men, have been afflicted with a condition called the Noise. The Noise causes everyone on the planet to see and hear each other’s thoughts. The only ones who have no Noise are women. Before the story, the colonists were involved in a bitter war with the native humanoid species referred to as The Spackle. This war ostensibly killed all the female colonists while half the men survived. Todd Hewitt (Holland) lives in Prentisstown with his adoptive fathers, Ben Moore (Bichir) and Cillian Boyd (Sutter). The residents of Prentisstown are unique and strange in their own way, which include the preacher Aaron (Oyelowo, who believes in nothing but fire and brimstone, the town’s mayor David Prentiss (Mikkelsen), who has the unique ability to hide his Noise and his son Davy (Jonas), who hates Todd. Life seems normal when a spaceship that lost contact with the First Colony sends a scout ship to investigate. When the scout ship hits the planet’s atmosphere, a rush of Noise comes through and crashes. While Todd is working, he spots someone stealing and chases the thief only to come upon the crash site and meets his first girl ever, who is named Viola (Ridley). Todd tries to hide his Noise, but soon the mayor learns the truth and wants to capture Viola at all cost. With no other options, Todd helps Viola escape. On their adventure, they soon discover the truth of what really happened to the women.
The film is a mess because the plot doesn’t give any background information on what is actually going on. Maybe I missed it, but I was like, what the hell is going on for about 75% of the film. My first question is, where the freak are we? I understand we are not on Earth anymore, and how did the inhabitants get to this new planet. Did we have to bounce from Earth and come to a new world? Also, you have technological advancement, but everyone looks like they are straight up from M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village. We have farmlands, and for some reason, no women are insight. My biggest question is, what the deal with the Noise, and why does it only affect men? I know we have some evil and nasty thoughts, but damn. It seemed like when the spaceship that Ridley’s character entered, the Noise hit, and people started freaking out. Why did the planet lose communication with others, and how long have people been on the planet. There are so many questions.
The story gets even more confusing when Viola crash lands on the planet. First, why are you even there but also, we see there are zero women around. Is there something wrong with the women where they couldn’t survive in the world? Why were Mayor Prentiss and Aaron so intent on capturing Viola? They freaking took everyone from town to find and capture the girl, and it seemed like there was no reason. Did women have some type of power, or was it because they didn’t have the Noise, they were a threat because no men knew what they were thinking.
Then the movie goes into this cross-country chase where Todd and Viola have to go to this settlement. Even this brings up more questions as there are humanoid creatures that seem evil and kill people. Then we find out that there is another settlement with women that live peacefully. So, the question is, are there any other groups on the planet that live peacefully or others that are cult like. During this time, the pacing seems really weird. We go into this fast motion, and then it slows down. Then it goes into why are we here and then people killing dogs and just craziness.
Another issue with this film is the character development. You will have almost zero feelings or care for any of the characters presented in this film. That’s a lie, you will feel something for Todd and Viola, but overall, you really won’t care. You see that Todd is a sweet kid that just wants to be accepted and acknowledged. Viola is someone you will care about because you don’t know why she is a threat. Besides that, we don’t understand why Aaron is a crazy-ass preacher and why the mayor can hide his thoughts or everything else. We get zero character development and reasons.
One of the bright spots, and it is a minor bright spot, is the visual effects around the Noise. I like the concept of it with only men showing their thoughts. I like how one could actually have the power to have static Noise or actually show images of what they were thinking. It was like a projector into the mind. Yet, it could’ve been explored even more. How did one hide their thought? How is one so powerful and in control where they could make many images of themselves? It left more questions to be answered.
Out of everything, the two that stood out in this film were Tom Holland as Todd and Daisy Ridley as Viola. Like I stated earlier, Holland was good as the nervous boy who tried his best to keep his Noise quiet. He wanted approval from the mayor but seemed naïve to his ways and manipulation. Ridley was equally good. She didn’t say much as she was afraid out of her mind most of the time, but she seemed to care for Todd after a while and trusted him.
Chaos Walking is a film that had a lot of potential but just messed up everything. The pacing, plot, and everything else is pretty bad and made absolutely no sense. The only good thing about this film was the visual effects and the performances of Holland and Ridley. I would say watch something else, or your mind will have a ton of chaos in your mind.
