Director: Doug Liman
Distributor: Belga Home Video
Duration: 109 minutes
Chaos Walking (DVD) – Movie Review
When several months ago we saw the trailer for Chaos Walking, we were immediately fascinated by the idea of people being able to see your thoughts at all times. The Noise, as it is called in the movie, causes men to project their thoughts, making them audible and even visible to those around them. The trailer showed us a glimpse of a world where the population only consists of men, and things get thrown upside down when a young girl literally crashes her spaceship close to the community. Not affected by The Noise, it seems this hostile world will not treat her kindly.
Even though the movie has a certain depth, the overall story is quite simple. We are taken to one of Earth’s colonies on a very distant planet, where people are affected by a phenomenon called The Noise. The Noise makes your most inner thoughts public, as they are audible (and even visible) to those in close proximity. We get to meet Todd (Tom Holland), who is the youngest inhabitant of the colony where only men have survived. All women were supposedly killed by the planet’s native inhabitants. Even though Todd is not very good at controlling his Noise, he does seek praise from mayor Prentiss (Mads Mikkelsen). It’s quite easy to see that the mayor is not the nicest person around, however. When Todd finds a spaceship that has just crashed, he thinks he will get even more praise by reporting it to the colony. Upon further investigation, a young girl survived the crash, and even though she is ‘kept alive’ by the mayor, it’s clear that she won’t survive for long in the hands of the colonists. The girl, Viola (Daisy Ridley), escapes and ends up at the farm that Todd lives on. Todd’s guardians advise him to lead her to safety, by venturing to a location where ‘nobody ever returned from’. The trip will be daunting with the colonists chasing them, and Todd is also finding it difficult to travel with Viola, as women are not affected by the Noise. He is unaware of her intentions, while he constantly emanates awkward thoughts.
We found the flow and pacing of the movie to be spot-on, safe for the very abrupt ending. The ending gave us the impression that it was a buildup for a sequel, or just to cut off the story at a satisfying point. That being said, the movie has a proper introduction, it gives you enough information to process what is going on in this remote planet colony, and it clearly shows you what to expect from most of the movie’s characters. After that, the film alternates between action scenes and story segments, making sure things stay in balance, up until the very short climax. We are not sure if a sequel should be made or not, as this film as a whole is a very satisfying experience, but it feels like there is more to tell.
The acting performances in Chaos Walking are splendidly handled. We have Tom Holland playing the very gullible and curious Todd, who is clearly not prepared for the task at hand. As the youngest human inhabitant of this world, he has grown up with The Noise, yet seemingly is the one that cannot control it very well. He plays his part perfectly, and even though he is starting the get typecasted, he still gives the role an original twist. Daisy Ridley also does a formidable job portraying Viola, and she actually does so with more depth than her Star Wars performances. We do wonder if it was an intentional choice to have her wear an outfit very similar to the one being worn by Milla Jovovich in The Fifth Element. Mads Mikkelsen and David Oyelowo play perfect ‘villains’ in this film, and all other minor roles have been filled in by experienced cast members as well.
Chaos Walking comes with a fair amount of special features. The DVD contains roughly 45 minutes of additional content, all revolving around the creative process behind the movie. Outside of the run-of-the-mill commentaries, we also get insights from the main cast members about the director, Doug Liman, but we also learn more about the movie’s musical score, as well as how certain scenes came to life. As a whole, these extras proved to be quite interesting and added a lot of value to buying a physical copy of the film.
Conclusion
In a movie landscape that is seemingly only filled with sequels, reboots, and remakes, Chaos Walking is a breath of fresh air that we enjoyed through and through. The movie tells us a very interesting and original story, while the acting and environments add the cherry on top of what is already a very fascinating concept. While we didn’t very much like the abrupt ending, the movie is certainly worth a watch. Even though this movie is not classified as Sci-Fi, we believe Sci-Fi enthusiasts can easily enjoy this one too.
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