"Chaos Walking" a YA franchise-starter that barely explores intriguing concept

Chaos Walking (2021)


It's not unusual for a studio movie to have its theatrical release pushed around on account of rewrites, reshoots, and behind-the-scenes troubles rather than solely a global pandemic. Lionsgate’s long-delayed “Chaos Walking” is not the expensive disaster one might expect, but if this is another hopeful franchise-starter that may or may never see its next installment, what's another decade-long delay? Based on Patrick Ness’ 2008 novel “The Knife of Never Letting Go”—the first in his “Chaos Walking” trilogy—this particular sci-fi adventure results in an also-ran with an impressive high-caliber cast mostly gone to waste and thoughtful ideas that only receive cursory exploration. 


On the planet New World in 2257 A.D., the settlers are all men who can’t always conceal what they’re thinking. Hearing and seeing the men’s thoughts but able to hide their own, all of the planet’s women were allegedly killed by indigenous creatures known as Spackle. In the case of illiterate Todd Hewitt (Tom Holland), who lives with canine companion Machete on a beet farm with father Ben (Demián Bichir) and other guardian Cillian (Kurt Sutter), he has never laid eyes on the opposite sex before or seen anything beyond the village of Prentisstown. Not being able to control his “Noise” gets him in trouble when he finds the “Noise”-free Viola (Daisy Ridley), the sole survivor of a colonization spaceship crash on his home turf. (He also can’t hide how he feels about this pretty girl who can actually take care of herself.) Todd mistakenly reports what he saw to Mayor Prentiss (Mads Mikkelsen) before hiding Viola in his family’s barn. When the mayor and his posse arrive on horseback looking for the girl, Todd and Viola must persevere and stay out of harm’s way in the forest to reach Farbranch, a safer settlement, and contact Viola’s mothership. 


To the point that one almost expects Tris and Thomas from their own dystopian YA franchises (“Divergent” and “The Maze Runner,” respectively) to cross over and fight the good fight, “Chaos Fighting” is ultimately too banal and nowhere near as adventurous as it needs to be. Director Doug Liman (2021’s “Locked Down”) at least brings his skills to some of the action, particularly during a river-rapids sequence, if no real distinction that we are watching a Doug Liman joint. For a sci-fi adventure, the film plays on a small scale, and none of it breaks free of its derivative dystopian YA-ness. The only real chaos here is how the unfiltered thoughts of every man literally talk over each other. The “Noise”—visualized as purplish, often holographic clouds swirling around each male character’s head—doesn’t exactly work. Such a conceit must play more effectively on the page in our imaginations because it’s silly and irritating on screen. Even if author Patrick Ness (2016’s “A Monster Calls”) himself has co-adapted the material with Christopher Ford (2017’s “Spider-Man: Homecoming”), the metaphor of patriarchal power is the only intriguing wrinkle in what is otherwise an generic A-to-B chase picture with barely-there characters. 


Tom Holland proves his boyish likability is no fluke as Todd, while Daisy Ridley has the more detached role as Viola that luckily doesn’t completely strip her of her commanding presence. Mads Mikkelsen gets to wear a comfy pimp coat to complete his villainous aura, but the wardrobe is more interesting than anything else about the weakly defined Mayor Prentiss. Unless they were promised more to do in "The Ask and the Answer," one also questions what the misused David Oyelowo, as an angry preacher who literally radiates a flaming fire and brimstone; Cynthia Erivo, the badass leader of Farbranch; and Nick Jonas, as the mayor’s craven son, saw in any of their restrictive, underwritten parts. Setting the table for more character depth and more expansion of its world-building, “Chaos Walking” is functional but unfinished.


Grade: C


Lionsgate is releasing “Chaos Walking" (108 min.) into theaters on March 4, 2021. 

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