Chaos Walking (2021)

Fairly close to being a good film, for me at least. I could see something positive coming from 'Chaos Walking' at differing moments, though unfortunately all in all it does end up being a pretty underwhelming 109 or so minutes. It holds an interesting concept and I was very much willing it to come to fruition in an entertaining manner but it never does. The 'inner' monologue thing does get a tad annoying, it isn't amazingly implemented via special efforts nor audio - less would've been more, especially of the phrase "control your noise" which is said too often for my liking. The characters, including the main two, could've been far stronger as well, though the acting talent themselves actually do OK. Daisy Ridley and Tom Holland are good names to have attached, though I didn't sense enough onscreen chemistry between the two. Mads Mikkelsen is alright, David Oyelowo's character is probably the only one who didn't intrigue me from the main bunch; the filmmakers could've utilized him better. No surprise to see that this has been received poorly. I didn't dislike it, though I can't really defend it all that strongly either.

In 2257 AD, the colonists of the planet New World, all men, have been afflicted with a condition called the Noise, which causes everyone to see and hear each other's thoughts. Judging by the level of intelligence the characters exhibit, this ought be a deafeningly silent planet. People who colonize a new world and literally call it "New World" can't have much in their minds (perhaps they should have called it Planet Faulkner, since everyone here seems to think in an uncontrollable stream of consciousness and/or has the mental faculties of a Benjy Compson). When sort of halo envelops their heads when they 'think,' it’s like the light is on but no one’s home. The only one here who manages to avoid appearing like a complete idiot is Mads Mikkelsen, and only because the Danish actor is too smart to play this dumb; his character, David Prentiss, is not particularly brilliant, but one can at least give him the benefit of the doubt — after all, he’s more insane than he is inane. Prentiss is the only one who has learned to control his "Noise", which shouldn't be too difficult; ever heard the expression 'think before you speak?' I don’t think it’d really be all that hard to 'think before you think;' these characters, however, are mentally incontinent. Either director Doug Liman and screenwriters Patrick Ness and Christopher Ford are as dumb as the movie they've made, or they assume the audience is. For some reason, women can see and hear men's thoughts, but men can't see and hear women’s — making the “Noise” nothing more than a clumsy allegory for female intuition. This actually has to do directly with the lack of women in Prentisstown (of which, as the name suggests, Prentiss is the mayor), in a twist preposterous enough to make M. Night Shyamalan himself scratch his head in disbelief.

It should first be noted I have never read (or even heard of) the novel this was based upon, so I don't have any preconceptions or expectations on how the adaptation was handled. With that out of the way, I found this to be... fine. A little messy in narrative and structure but I suppose moderately entertained. I also liked Tom Holland in the lead for the most part and Daisy Ridley grew on me though her character isn't very well developed. It's probably worthy of a rental but doubtful I'll revisit this very soon other than to listen to the commentary by Doug Liman considering the behind-the-scenes issues and major re-shoots. **3.0/5**

Adapting a series of books into a movie is often a daunting task. As anyone who has seen many Stephen King adaptations can attest; plot complexity, characters, and depth are removed in order to condense the story into a two-hour or less run time. The rise of streaming services has allowed many books to be adapted into series without having to cut much of the adult content in the books which would make it difficult for network television. As such it makes adaptations such as “Chaos Walking” a delicate undertaking. The film is based on a series of books and stars Tom Holland as Todd; a young ma living on a distant world where there are no women and people can hear and see each other’s thoughts by a process known as “Noise”. Their rustic colony is run with a firm hand by their Mayor (Mads Mikkelsen); who keeps those around him from seeing his thoughts which gives him a big advantage over those who rule. When a landing craft from a mothership filled with a new wave of colonists crashes on the planet; Todd is shocked to find that the only survivor is a woman named Viola (Daisy Ridley) whose arrival disrupts the community. The Mayor wishes to keep her from contacting her ship so they can seize it when it lands to maintain control of his empire as he sees the arrival of new individuals as a threat to his power. Todd and Viola escape trying to reach a distant colony where she hopes to find a way to warn her ship about the danger the Mayor and his men present and they pursue the duo to keep this from happening. The film lightly touches on the native race that Todd believes killed all the women of their colony but they are not visited save for a brief appearance. It is clear that the Mayor is hiding something and the reveal of what and why is fairly underwhelming which reduces him and most of his followers as thinly developed stock characters. There is also the mystery as to why the Mothership does not bother to do any sort of follow up when they did not hear from their lander and like many aspects of the film; require the audience to simply go along with things and not ask too many questions to make things work. Thankfully the two leads are interesting enough and they hold attention even when the story is slowly moving along with scene after scene of rivers, woods, and a little conversation. One big issue with the film is the Noise as the visualization of thoughts as well as hearing them mixed in with verbal communication can get very confusing as it is like multiple voices in a crowded room. Despite the issues, the potential is there and I found myself wondering what was next for the characters and hope that they do adapt future books in the series. While the film on its own does not work as a fully developed story’ as an introduction to the series it does enough to peak the interests for more. 3.5 out of 5