I must say, the movie has a really good idea that's worth exploring. Sadly it never comes close to exploring said idea. It ends up being a generic Hollywood action movie and nothing more.
It's interesting to see how a society would function if part of the population's(The men's) thoughts were visible to everyone. There are interesting aspects to explore here about privacy. But the movie throws this concept under the bus and uses it just as a cheap gimmick.
Before the events in the movie, it's said that men and women lived together in Tom Holland's settlement. And then men became more and more suspicious of the women because they could not see their thoughts. This gradually drove the men to kill all the women. This is the movie I wanted to see. How did this happen? What were the internal struggles in the settlement? How did reading each other's thoughts affect the people? Instead, we are put after all of this and we follow the standard bad guy wants to kill girl, hero who has confidence issues saves girl from the bad guy and becomes self-realized in the process.
The thought-reading phenomenon was mostly used as a comic relief instead of being the center of a thought-provoking story. I'm kind of bummed out that this was the case. It would have been interesting to see how a society functions when everyone's thoughts are in the open. For instance, how courts work, how is trade done, etc.
If you've read the books...forget about them. LMAO. This movie takes the original plot and YEETS it ten minutes in...LITERALLY. Ten minutes into the set up and I'm whispering over to my friend, "Wait, did this happen??" (Spoiler alert: It did not.) My friend (shoutout Megan) and I were constantly asking "WTF IS GOING ON" but not necessarily in a bad way? If you're a stickler for the books, you'll be disappointed, but if you're willing to see where this adaption takes you, I think you'll be in for a pleasant ride. Disregarding book accuracy, I think the movie does a great job setting up a very complex premise and telling a rounded story (although it definitely helps that I've read the books and already knew the world). The way they depicted the Noise was absolutely gorgeous and genius; it was my main concern when they announced this would be hitting the big screen. How do you visualize something like that, you know? I think they really pulled it off, and Todd Hewitt's constant thoughts out loud with Tom Holland's dorky charm made this movie a lot funnier than I thought it would be.
If they don't make a sequel for this (I'd be surprised if they make enough money and attention to do so), I'm not going to be too disappointed. The movie ends on a solid note that is pretty satisfactory, but it does leave room for a sequel (especially for non-book watchers who definitely would have more questions than answers). Really, this movie at its core was just trying to cram too much stuff in, so some of the plot points come across as shallow and thrown in just to advance the plot. If you read the book, you can fill in the gaps, but if you didn't, it might come across as an overly ambitious sci-fi trying to capitalize on Holland's current stardom. Not that I'm complaining...we all know I'm only watching Cherry for him. HA.
Doug Liman's Chaos Walking has been stuck in development and plagued by production issues for over four years, but it is finally here. The story is set in a world where a virus wiped out all women and bestowed a phenomenon called "the Noise" on men, making their thoughts and feelings visible to others. The main character, Todd Hewitt, played by Holland, believes that all women are gone until he meets Daisy Ridley's character, Viola. The premise of the story has potential, but it is not fully explored or developed. The idea of the Noise could have been delved into more, but it is only touched on when it is convenient for the plot. The narrative is also rather uninspired. Despite these shortcomings, the performances by Holland, Ridley, and Mikkelsen keep the audience engaged, and the occasional action scenes are well done. The story is standard and efficient, but it is watchable and contains a few memorable moments. It is an uneven final product that is a bit janky and formulaic, but it can be enjoyed. With YA adaptations like The Darkest Minds and The Mortal Instruments, it has a chance to stand out but don't expect a sequel anytime soon.
Chaos Walking de Doug Liman ha estado atascado en el desarrollo y plagado de problemas de producción durante más de cuatro años, pero finalmente está aquí. La historia está ambientada en un mundo donde un virus acabó con todas las mujeres y otorgó un fenómeno llamado "el ruido" a los hombres, haciendo que sus pensamientos y sentimientos sean visibles para los demás. El personaje principal, Todd Hewitt, interpretado por Holland, cree que todas las mujeres se han ido hasta que conoce al personaje de Daisy Ridley, Viola. La premisa de la historia tiene potencial, pero no está completamente explorada o desarrollada. La idea del Ruido se podría haber profundizado más, pero solo se toca cuando conviene a la trama. La narrativa también es bastante aburrida. A pesar de estas deficiencias, las actuaciones de Holland, Ridley y Mikkelsen mantienen a la audiencia interesada y las escenas de acción ocasionales están bien hechas. La historia es estándar y eficiente, pero se puede ver y contiene algunos momentos memorables. Es un producto final desigual que es un poco torpe y formulado, pero se puede disfrutar. Con adaptaciones YA como The Darkest Minds y The Mortal Instruments, tiene la oportunidad de sobresalir, pero no esperes una secuela en el corto plazo.
More like a 7.5 to me, but, only because I did NOT know the books or the world, and, it took me a hot second to realize just WTH was going on. However, once I got my "noise legs", I found the movie to be interesting and humorous, even if I didn't always immediately follow where the story was going. Rey Skywalker, and your friendly neighborhood Spiderman, er, I mean, Daisy Ridley and Tom Holland struggle to get their non carnal relationship on as they learn to trust, and eventually depend on each other, in order to survive in a highly polarized society, where the women can hear every Harvey Weinstein, and Bill Cosby'ish machination of the local menfolk's minds, which results in the titular shizzstorm walking, especially when their testosterone fueled mania is amped up by the self made resident Manson in training Preacher Aaron, (played with malevolent believability by David Oyelowo) who sees the offspring of Eve as soulless Devils spawn, since they can read their (nasty) thoughts, but, are in turn a closed book to them.
Nicely rounded supporting cast, with the always watchable Mads Mikkelsen providing the creepy counterpoint to Cynthia Erviro, as the leaders of the two communities, who have agreed to go their separate ways do to the radical difference in philosophies, in order for each to survive the other. In addition, the story provides a sort of back handed commentary on the IRL conflicts we see between the "looney left, and the conservative right today, with no one seemingly being willing to give an inch, and each insisting that the other side is Satan incarnate, and, the only workable solution being the elimination and destruction of those seen as "the enemy".
Again, not being familiar with, but knowing that, this is based on a SERIES of Y/A books by Patrick Ness, it feels like they may have tried to cram too much into ONE movie, which in a way is understandable, as, the producers wanted to make a film that could stand on it's own, in case it wasn't well received enough to warrant additional sequels.
And, while I probably wont be running out to buy the novels, I would however be open to watching a follow-up if it is ever made.
for a dystopian film (of which i have watched entirely too many) this is pretty solid and its massive budget makes it a very beautiful watch. i agree about a lot of the complaints about it being what must be a very dumbed down version of the book but like... as someone who grew up with books like the giver, i really feel like there's no way to do some sci-fi cinematic justice. like the recent dune adaptation definitely did its source material justice, but it was also extremely fucking long and my friends who aren't familiar with the source material thought it was boring as fuck, SO. trade offs, i think. and since i haven't seen the source material for this movie, i do think i was able to enjoy it more than a fan of the books might, since it was cut down under 2 hours and told an abridged version of what must be some substantial world building. i love sci-fi so i have no problem filling in the gaps left in the storytelling, personally.
Oddly enough this movie perfectly encapsulates my fears for the Wheel of Time adaption. There are so many aspects to the Wheel of Time series and while certainly a LOT of it could but cut, so many plotline that could be reduced and just hinted towards, there's still so much that I would consider essential and "high wants" that the budget would need to be immense. I fear the result will look like this movie.
I haven't read The Knife of Never Waking or whatever that first book is called. But I can see even in this movie holes. There's just so much more that would be reflected in a world where men's thoughts are open and women don't exist. The movie is mostly good but it feels like it could have been more.
The casting was great top notch actually. Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley as Todd Hewitt and Viola Eade are both excellent. Our antagonists are especially well cast from the cowardly bully played by Nick Jonas to the war preacher by David Oyelowo, and the sinister Mayor by Mads Mikkelsen they're all excellently casted. Their acting is great. Unfortunately the writing doesn't give them much to do. Nick Jonas ironically enough is wasted. He's really got the cowardly bully character down but he's just so unused from a narrative perspective. He was far more reserved when he should have been hitting out at Todd. Oyelowo's Aaron as a fire and brimstone preacher is effective when he's on screen but his role in the movie is confusing. He doesn't represent an antagonizing force to anyone but he should. He's not with the Mayor or against him yet they're both hunting Tom and Viola. It's not like represents another faction because he's just himself and even in the end he only wants final absolution. "The Mayor" is somewhat presented as this insidious force corrupting the men, but how? No offense to Mads but he wasn't that charismatic. Or even that scary. I don't understand why everyone is following much less Todd's surrogate father Ben.
I kinda think this is a movie with too much telling and not enough showing in that regard. But the effects are pretty solid. Men's thoughts are broadcast and while it's amusingly PG thoughts. I kinda would like to see some explanation of that. Like are they completely over women? There are parts in Act II that suggest this isn't the case. If you show me a high school and tell me the nerds got together and killed a jock I have no problem with this but I'd like to see something about why they did it or how they did it and how this affected the student body. This movie has no interest in telling me any of that.
I'd totally watch two more of these though I'm not sure where there is to go plotwise.
THE UGLY: ‘CHAOS WALKING’
WRITING: 20
ACTING: 50
LOOK: 75
SOUND: 80
FEEL: 45
NOVELTY: 50
ENJOYMENT: 40
RE-WATCHABILITY: 0
INTRIGUE: 40
EXPECTATIONS: 45
THE GOOD:
The Noise is the most prominent aspect of the original novel, and it has been realized onscreen better than I expected, even if it needs some getting used to before it starts feeling natural. The visual aspect of the noise has been simplified but the basic features are intact.
There’s an atmosphere of urgency over most of this film, meaning that the action will keep the film running smoothly and is unlikely to make anyone feel bored.
THE BAD:
The constant Noise around the characters can get a bit annoying and at times, particularly if you aren’t familiar with the original novel. The fact that most of the thoughts exposed through the Noise aren’t in any way relevant to the overall plot doesn’t make things any better.
In terms of sound design and editing, Chaos Walking can turn into a bit of a mess. On the one hand, it realistically describes a world where everyone can hear everyone’s thoughts; on the other hand, it gets so messy at times, that it becomes difficult to follow the plot.
The script takes massive liberties with the source material, deviating drastically from the original story and following a different path. Most of these changes are in no way warranted and feel nothing but annoying for fans of the novel. Huge chunks of the original story have been shredded to pieces and reassemble to form a different cinematic narrative and one that is in no way as engaging as the original.
The pacing shifts from an unnecessarily dragged out first act to a criminally rushed second act, meaning that the story goes from one event to the other and leaves much of the context, filler and subtleties from between these events out. The resulting story lacks the depth and fascination of the original work, with most of the second half of the novel seriously butchered.
The novel manages to combine a simple and classic YA storyline with world-building and subtle plot details, but the film feels pale and bare in comparison. The first half spends so much time to get things going (compared to the rather swift beginning in the novel) that it leaves little time for the rest of the film to satisfyingly capture the different stages of the adventure from the book.
Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley are weird choices to play teenage characters, and Ridley, in particular, doesn’t convince me at all. She also lacks any of the natural chemistry with Holland that made Todd and Viola’s evolving relationship in the novel so interesting.
Chaos Walking has a villain problem. Despite the memorable rogues’ gallery offered by the source novel, the film fails to bring these characters to life in a satisfying way, with Mayor Prentiss being the sole exception. Moreover, that’s more down to Mads Mikkelsen’s portrayal than the way the character has been written.
I don’t know what they did with that ending, but it’s far from the pulse-pounding and majestic finale from the novel. I’m glad if this one ends up not getting any sequels.
THE UGLY:
I cannot believe they made Manchee just another faceless pet, rather than the hilarious and loveable character he is in the novel.
THE VERDICT:
Extensive reshoots and several delays have not helped to save this lacklustre, soulless and butchered adaption of a YA classic. Go read the book, it’s miles better.
45% = :heavy_minus_sign: = UGLY
Completely forgot about this but was waiting for it. Guess they decided not to do any marketing or I completely missed it. I am a bit surprised they decided to release a 100M+ film during the pandemic seeing as all the other films are not releasing. I guess cinemas are open in a number of countries but still.
A nice enough film but honestly some parts of it seem to work only as a first glimpse of larger stories in a sequel, I'm talking about the alien natives here especially.
The final fight and I assume the death of Mayor Prentiss seemed a bit silly too. He just said your noise is your power tricking Todd and now he is going to fall the essentially the same trick? (He fell for it once before with Ben too.)
I also wonder if they just killed Todd's family only to avoid the awkward moment in a possible sequel when they get executed like the rest of Prentisstown.
I think the cast was good enough. Daisy and Tom can hold it together throughout despite not being A+ actors in all honesty. To be honest, it does feel like Tom Holland was only cast because of his acting in the Spiderman films as an awkward teen which works pretty well.
All in all, it's a good film to see (probably once, perhaps a second-time years later with a couple of friends/family) but nothing worthy of an Oscar. And as said before, it lost so much money (unless it gets re-released in other countries when cinemas open there, plus digital/physical sales down the road) that I doubt they are going to greenlight a sequel. Everybody seems to say the books are different and better. I'll just remind people that this is an adaptation and sometimes having differences can be good, sometimes even improves on the source material (though not always). I'll probably read the books someday as I'm curious how the series goes on (I can't believe this is the whole story).
Review by Frank Carrizo ZiritVIP 9BlockedParent2021-08-22T21:59:41Z
I haven’t read the source material. I didn’t even know it was based on a novel until I read it in the opening credits. That said, I can’t make any comparisons, but if the novel is at least 50% the same as the movie, then it’s a waste of time.
Although I find interesting the premise of a planet whose atmosphere (or magnetic field) has that effect on all males species, I think it was poorly executed. I’m a linguist and I feel that the writers have no idea what cognitive science says about Steven Pinker’s “Mentalese”. The human brain doesn’t work with a specific language and the visible effect would probably be more abstract, with more images and fewer words. Also, given that Todd grew up in the planet, it’s only natural that he would become a freaking expert on how to control his noise and use it in the most creative ways, pretty much as the Mayor. After all, it’s nothing more than an extension of your way of expressing yourself. It’s just clumsy and lazy writing… the possibilities are endless. What I get is that the noise is gone when they speak, as if the brain stops thinking when they speak.
Instead, we get a story that doesn’t even explore what it shows. What about the native species? It leaves you with nothing.
I don’t know… it’s just a very lazy movie.