Movie Breakdown: Chaos Walking
Pre-Screening Stance:
The trailer for Chaos Walking did not instill much excitement in me, but I’m pulling for it simply because I like the cast – Tom Holland, Daisy Ridley, Mads Mikkelsen, Demian Bichir, Cynthia Erivo, etc. – and I think that Doug Liman is a generally solid director (see: Edge Of Tomorrow, Mr. And Mrs. Smith, The Bourne Identity).
Post-Screening Ramble:
A mere 24 or so hours after watching Chaos Walking with my wife, I mentioned something about it to her and the response that I got back was: “I don’t remember anything about that movie at all.” And that, folks, is pretty much the review here – Chaos Walking isn’t bad, it’s just a forgettable slice of sci-fi. Here’s the overall story:
Humans have colonized a new Earth-like planet that has a neat feature – all men have their thoughts projected via what’s known as noise (it’s like a little puff of iridescent smoke around their head). Women, on the other hand, don’t have this effect, but that’s OK because there are no females anywhere on the planet … until a ship suddenly crashes and boom, enter Viola (Daisy Ridley). She’s pretty weirded out by the whole hear-and-see-every-dude’s-thought thing, but Todd (Tom Holland) is around to help. At some point they break away from Todd’s nutty hometown so that Viola can try and contact her mothership for help.
I mentioned that Chaos Walking isn’t bad, and I meant it. Todd is a young man who has never seen a girl before, so he has one very awkward moment after another with Viola, and 1) those parts are pretty entertaining and 2) Holland is the perfect choice to play a strong but fidgety, fumbly young man. Ridley isn’t given much to do aside from charmingly react to Holland, but she does a solid job. The same can be said for the rest of the cast, too. This film’s story doesn’t ever move about a simmer though – it’s straight just about two people trying to get from point A to point B – and that’s what keeps it from being memorable. There’s a humanoid-ish life form on the planet, but it’s not really explored at all. Nor is the way that some men can control their noise and manifest it into essentially what’s a hologram. Hell, Nick Jonas is in this and I’m not sure his character’s name is ever even said. If I had to guess, I’d say that this movie got hacked to pieces so that something, anything could get pushed into theaters. Release the Liman Cut?
The cast does enough to make Chaos Walking an accessible viewing experience, but you’ll forget everything about the movie before the credits finish rolling. The film opens this Friday, March 5.
One Last Thought:
You can’t have a hero named Todd. Seriously. The list of cool, heroic, noteworthy people named Todd is a short one, and we all know it.
