REVIEW: Chaos Walking Is Complete and Utter Chaos
Based on the first book in the Chaos Walking trilogy, The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness, Chaos Walking is set on New World where men’s thoughts are pushed front and center for everyone to hear (“The Noise”), and women’s thoughts are kept to themselves. The story follows Todd Hewitt (Tom Holland), a young man who lives in Prentisstown on New World. Prentisstown is a town filled with only men and run by Mayor Prentiss (Mads Mikkelsen) and his son, Davy (Nick Jonas). There have been no women in Prentisstown for years, until the day Viola’s (Daisy Ridley) spaceship crash lands outside of town. Viola is dead set on finding a way to get communication to her fleet of her crash, but the Mayor has other ideas for Viola. Now, Todd must protect Viola from the Mayor and the town before it is too late.
It makes sense now why the film’s release date was pushed back as many times as it was these last few years. However, it bears the question as to what the first draft looked like compared to what audiences are viewing now. Could it really have been even worse than this? The story is overflowing with so much information, yet there is still not enough detail to build a solid enough foundation. The other problem is the characters aren’t developed. You never really gather why any of them are doing what they are doing. Take David Oyelowo’s character Aaron for instance. Aaron is a preacher seeking redemption and is after Todd and Viola, but you never know why he is after Todd and Viola. It is finally revealed why he is evil, but you never fully understand what is driving him to chase after Todd and Viola.
Another big issue was “The Noise”. The CGI surrounding a man’s “Noise” could have been better. It was hard to tell when the characters were actually speaking to one another or communicating through their “Noise”. Yes, the swirls of colors around the men’s heads helped differentiate the two, but when words were being repeated, or the characters were being distracted by the “Noise” in their head, you couldn’t tell who was really doing the talking.
Holland, Ridley, Oyelowo, Mikkelsen, Cynthia Erivo (Hildy Black, the leader of Farbranch), and Jonas are far too talented of a group for this nonsense. When viewers establish more of a connection with the animals featured in the story then they do with the characters, there is an issue. None of the characters carry an ounce of personality, which makes it hard to want to watch the film the full way through. Which is a shame because you have such a great cast leading this movie.
A movie adaption of Chaos Walking was a risky endeavor to undertake and, unfortunately, it did not pan out. The film is far too jumbled, the characters lack charisma, and the CGI fall flat. If you do plan to watch the movie this weekend, and have not read the novels the movie is based on, read them. If you hope to have any clue what is going on, read them. I did not read them and I spent a lot of the movie searching for information about the book online to get a better idea of what was going on.
Grade: D