CHAOS WALKING (2021)

CHAOS WALKING (2021)

Tagline: No One Escapes The Noise

(Action, Sci-Fi, Fantasy) [PG-13] 

The noise is a man’s thoughts unfiltered, and without a filter, a man is just chaos walking…

In this one, we are taking to the future (over 200 years from now) and earth is kind of off the radar. Instead, humans are flying around in a ship (or ships) trying to see if any of their settlements on other planets have panned out. On one particular planet, we are introduced to Todd Hewitt (played by Tom Holland best known for being the new SPIDER-MAN) who takes interest in a girl named Viola (played by Daisy Ridley best known for STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS, etc). She crash-landed there in a scout vessel and was the only survivor. The problem is that this village doesn’t take kindly to women because they can hear men’s thoughts but the men cannot hear theirs, and the next thing you know Todd is forced to make a decision between the village he knows and helping this complete stranger. Along the way, the sins of the past will be thrust forth as both fight for survival in an effort to contact the rest of her crew (on a bigger ship) before they leave the planet's orbit.

There is a ton to unpack with this thing, but the first thing is that it’s not a bad movie by any means. In fact, I thought it quite intriguing and that it asked a lot of important and extremely interesting questions. If someone could see your thoughts, would they be loaded with darkness and sin or would they be mostly normal non-violent or sinister things? Then on top of that, which of those thoughts are fleeting nonsense and which would be acted upon? Would anyone around you truly be able to rightly handle it? The movie dives into motives, control, lies, and how good some people are at hiding what’s really going on. I thought those aspects of the film were mind-blowingly fascinating especially from a Christian perspective. Since Christians ought to be at things from a “yes, thoughts matter” perspective and have the realization that we are in a constant fight against what the flesh wants in regards to sin. That is not to say it’s not a fascinating subject for anyone. 

Storyline wise I thought this one was strong and the concepts were well executed. It’s possible that they could have included some more information on some of the local wildlife and beings on this planet, but it isn’t necessary to follow the story or care about the characters. I guess Tom Holland hates this thing, but his performance is fantastic as is Daisy Ridley. Mads Mikkelsen (probably most famous for ROGUE ONE) plays Mayor Prentiss (one of the major villains) and is as hauntingly duplicitous as usual in his portrayal of the character. This is also a strong but frightening outing for David Oyelowo but he isn’t utilized as much as he was in COME AWAY. We also get a great performance from Cynthia Erivo as “Hildy”, who seems like the only character who might have at one time taken a stand against the evil that took over the central village in the film. Maybe the book ‘The Knife Of Never Letting Go’ goes more into her backstory, but we do get that message loud and clear in the movie. 

In spite of the reported issues with this thing regarding production and reshoots and whatnot, it’s incredibly interesting not only visually but from a more psychological standpoint. My guess is that critics that hated this weren’t willing to look at the final film for all it had to offer, but rather looked at the process and critiqued that. CHAOS WALKING is a great movie for anyone wanting to explore the deeper recesses of how thought works, how emotions work along with thought, and how far sick people really would go to hide the truth. Maybe that part of the plot…hit too close to home in regards to today’s reality to make this thing enjoyable for them. Cinematically it's extremely well done.

I give CHAOS WALKING a solid 5 out of 7. A few changes here and there could have put this thing over the top but as is, it feels complete enough to make it a nice stand-alone sci-fi effort if this is all we see from this possible series. 

*If you watch the BLU-RAY of this, the main menu is basically a very scribbly picture of Todd and Viola which immediately reminded me of Scott's scribble of Ramona Flowers in SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF 3 ARTS ENTERTAINMENT AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.  

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