The story of the production of "Chaos Walking" is so much more interesting than the actual film. This is the movie that had a first draft written by Charlie Kaufman, that was filmed in 2017 with an all-star cast and a big budget, and was subsequently delayed because Lionsgate executives deemed it "unreleasable." I'm so curious about what some of the earlier versions of "Chaos Walking" looked like, because the version that Lionsgate did deem releasable after reshoots is a middling science-fiction YA film with some interesting ideas. I would have much preferred the really ambitious disasterpiece that everyone was anticipating.
On a mysterious planet, dubbed the New World, teenager Todd Hewitt (Tom Holland) lives in a small colony of all men, called Prentisstown, controlled by the mayor, David Prentiss (Mads Mikkelson) and a radical preacher, Aaron (David Oyelowo). We learn that they are colonists from Earth, and that all the women of Prentisstown died long ago. One day a scout ship from a newly arrived colony vessel crash lands on the planet, and the sole survivor is a teenage girl, Viola (Daisy Ridley). Todd finds her first, and is immediately fascinated, since he's never seen anyone female before. The mayor, however, has a very different reaction to Viola's arrival.
The most interesting and inventive element of "Chaos Walking" is the concept of "Noise." On New World, all the male characters unwillingly project their thoughts via visual and aural phenomena. If Todd thinks about birds, hologram-like projections of birds circle his head. If he thinks Viola looks pretty, his Noise will say so outright, often at embarrassing moments. Though Noise can be controlled or suppressed to some degree, it makes privacy all but impossible. It also makes for some really fun cinematic visuals, which is probably what drew filmmakers like director Doug Liman to this film in the first place. Noise can be used to fill in exposition easily, to provide flashbacks to events we haven't seen, and connect disparate pieces of information, all without ever cutting away from the action. The first hour or so of "Chaos Walking," where we're getting situated in this universe, and learning the rules of Noise and Prentisstown, is pretty strong.
Unfortunately, it all falls apart pretty quickly. Todd and Viola quickly uncover truths about Prentisstown and New World that Todd was never told, changing his worldview and setting him on a new path. Their relationship and adventures are pretty generic survivalist stuff, and the film doggedly sticks to a rural aesthetic where there are no modes of transportation except horses and spaceships, without ever explaining why. The worldbuilding is pretty poor overall, setting up elements like the New World native population, dubbed "the Spackles," that don't ever pay off. "Chaos Walking" was based on a trilogy of books, and clearly the filmmakers were hoping to fill in some of the gaps in sequel films.
The performances are decent, but the characters are awfully thin. Actors like David Oyelowo, Cynthia Erivo, and Nick Jonas are stuck in shallow supporting parts that I suspect may have been significantly larger in earlier drafts of the script. Holland and Ridley are perfectly capable as the leads, but rarely given the material to be as memorable as they could be. Pains were taken to make the film family friendly, because despite being able to see and hear everyone's thoughts, nothing inappropriate ever sneaks through. Todd only has the most PG notions of romance, and the film focuses on his experience throughout, downplaying the horror that would be inherent in the situation from Viola's point of view.
"Chaos Walking" takes an interesting set of ideas and proceeds to be as boring as possible in the execution of them, in the name of being audience friendly. The portrayal of the Noise does work onscreen, and the filmmakers find some interesting things to do with it, but the rest of the movie is an undercooked pile of tropes we've seen in too many of these YA action films. And that's a terrible shame.
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