Chaos Walking
With each new Tom Holland film in which he doesn’t play Spider-Man and Daisy Ridley project where she isn’t appearing as Rey, doubt grows that the actors’ gifts extend beyond their most famous roles.
Doug Liman’s Chaos Walking does little to change that disheartening trend, though the production’s troubled history — which includes a string of adapters tackling eventual co-writer Patrick Ness’ source novel, The Knife of Never Letting Go, and extensive reshoots by Fede Álvarez (Don’t Breathe) after a disastrous test screening — doesn’t exactly set the stars up for success.
The central concept of humans colonizing the distant New World, where they develop a mysterious condition called “Noise” that makes their thoughts audible, is intriguing in theory, but put into practice by Holland’s Todd Hewitt, it’s quite possibly the most annoying sound accompaniment in film since Oskar’s tambourine in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.
Todd’s whiny running monologue is occasionally tolerable thanks to the effects team’s colorful spectral rendering of the Noise as it emanates from his head, yet the surrounding characters and overall world are spottily constructed in a generally failed attempt at building mystery.
From Todd’s adoptive father Ben (Demián Bichir) to zealot “preacher” Aaron (David Oyelowo), no supporting player is developed beyond a single trait. That approach is especially frustrating in the case of Mayor Prentiss (Mads Mikkelsen, wearing Ben Mendelsohn’s exaggerated coat from Slow West), whose ability to control his Noise is as poorly explored as the native Spackle creatures, who are barely touched on past their alleged slaughtering of all the human women.
The addition of spacecraft crash survivor Viola (a blonde Ridley, looking eerily like Anya Taylor-Joy) inspires some amusing Freudian Noise slips from a smitten but confused Todd — who’s never seen a woman — and kicks the plot into high gear as the Mayor and his henchmen pursue the two young adults. However, she and Holland appear borderline upset to be in each other’s presence, Ridley isn’t given anything interesting to do, and Liman shoots their woodsy flight with the visual skill of a Blair Witch Project knockoff.
Though the eventual truth about what happened to the settlers’ women carries some intelligent commentary on masculine insecurities, the film’s foundation isn’t strong enough for the revelation to have the impact that Liman, Ness, and co-writer Christopher Ford (Spider-Man: Homecoming) assume.
As if realizing this shortcoming, the filmmakers settle for a muted, unimaginative finale that speedily reaches a resolution and all but assures that it’ll be a while before the final two installments in Ness’ titular trilogy make it to the screen.
Grade: C-minus. Rated PG-13. Starts March 5 at AMC River Hills 10 and the Carolina Cinemark
(Photos: Lionsgate)
