Chaos Walking: Was it Worth it?

A Chaos Walking Poster

Director: Doug Liman

Release Date: March 5, 2021

“In Prentisstown, Todd has been brought up to believe that the Spackle released a germ that killed all the women and unleashed Noise on the remaining men. After discovering a patch of silence out in the swamp, his surrogate parents immediately tell him that he has to run, leaving him with only a map of New World, a message, and many unanswered questions. He soon discovers the source of the silence: a girl, named Viola.” -Google

Review: Okay so please please please read what the synopsis says of the movie.

Go on.

Do it.

I wrote it above so you did not have to look it up.

Okay, you read it?

Now forget it.

This movie was nothing like it described. First, the germ was not mentioned in the movie at all. Like, not at all unless I was not paying attention enough. They did not “unleash” the noise on the men. He does not discover a “patch of silence.” He has no map and the girl is not the “source of the silence.”

That being said, I thankfully did not read that before I went into the movie. I just am a huge Tom Holland fan so I went to see it. But, my god, I would have been so confused if I had read the synopsis before I saw the movie. So, I am sorry if you have not seen it yet and had to read that. It just does not accurately portray the movie at all.

I think the synopsis goes along with the book and not the movie. But, that was just something I wanted to pick at before we went into the actual real review of the movie.

Just, if you are expecting what it says on Google, they only got it half-right. Trust me.

Now, dont get me wrong, the movie was good. Just, holy cow, not what I was expecting.

Also, the trailer is misleading too. Not as much, but holy hell there was a lot in the trailer that was not even breached in the movie.

UUUUGGHGHGHHDIHFdklfhsdfjklf clkjnlkvbitenfovtguv (oops sorry I was angry)

And holy cow I am going to have a few spoilers in the next paragraph.

So many questions were left unanswered. Like what are the Spackles? We get one glimpse but nothing else. Why do they not attack women? Why are women not affected by the noise? Why did the Prentisstown colony leave the original civilization? What does the original civilization look like? Like, where are the other civilizations? If Todd had a good or was supposed to have good control over his noise, why did he suck so bad at hiding everything? What was Nick Jonas’s role? Why were there so many supporting characters with no explanation? Who was the preacher? What did the Preacher want?

WHAT THE HELL?

Literally, so many questions. I went into this movie blind, and I came out with even more questions than I did when I knew nothing about the movie.

Photo of Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley in Chaos Walking

The story was exciting. It had a really good motorcycle/horse chase in it that really got my heart rate up. (SPOILER) But, then the horse just died (sorry grandma) out of nowhere. Like, they did not have to end the chase that way. (SPOILER) And do not get me started on the dog.

The story starts off really interesting. It opens with a quote that I did not have time to read because my roommate who I went to see the movie with was giggling the entire previews. (Our local theater played the same 3 ads for twenty minutes. We could not stop laughing at the heroine addiction commercial because it was a guy floating in an elevator. You had to be there.) It goes on to bring in Tom FREAKING Holland and his cute puppy. We kind of begin to understand the noise, but as I said earlier, I still have so many questions.

We get introduced to his town and then to his father and his father’s male partner? Lover? Roommate? Friend he shares a bed with? I am not sure. That was not delved into. I am not even sure it was his real father because the synopsis said surrogate parents. But, he kept calling him Dad. I dont know. It was kind of a confusing movie.

And then comes the spaceship, (not a spoiler it was in the trailer) and Todd finds it and here starts the adventure in the plot. He sees a girl for the first time and comically is trying not to freak out while also thinking she is hot while she is not trying to freak out because she can hear his thoughts.

She gets captured by a man who can do A LOT with his noise. Why can no one else control the noise like he can? UGGGGHHHH. Anyways, Todd tries to help her get out of that town and they go on a crazy adventure, yadayada, normal thriller movies plot line.

But, holy god the plot did not answer a lot of questions. Now, the books the movie was based on is a trilogy. So, it would make sense that they are laying the ground work for a sequel, but that much ground work is intense. I dont even think they will be able to make a sequel because this movie was just such a bummer. Like, the rotten tomatoes score is a 21% as of March 18th at 10:07pm PST.

Death Note (2017) got a better score than this movie. Pitch Perfect 3 got a better score. A movie called Lesbian Vampire Killers (2009) got a better score than this movie. Holy crap.

Daisy Ridley in Chaos Walking

I enjoyed this movie. I dont think this was the worst movie to exist. But, really. The disgusting, live-action Death Note got a higher ranking than this movie. Oh god.

Ugh, this is making my head hurt. Let me talk about something that did make sense; the casting.

Tom Holland in Chaos Walking

Tom Holland was fantastic. He played the dorky teenager seeing a girl for the first time really well. Also, he played the hero role really well, but, he was not as good as Daisy Ridley. He also had quite a few shirtless scenes that I very much appreciated. I, again, only watched this movie because I knew Tom Holland was going to be in it.

Now, they really are setting up their movie for failure in two ways. One, they got the movie buffs who read the premise or saw the trailer and thought it would be good, who are now all leaving the theaters confused and disappointed. Two, the hoards of teenage girls who came to see this movie because pretty Tom Holland was in it are going to be PISSED. you wanna know why? Because that the ass shot that we got WAS BLURRED. Like seriously. I mean he was great being the dorky kid who has never seen a girl before. But, you have got to be kidding me. The fact that I was teased with an ass shot and then not given it made me want to scream. Those two groups were probably a majority of the people going to see this movie and they are all not going to be giving good reviews of the movie.

Daisy Ridley in Chaos Walking

Now, Daisy Ridley was AMAZING. I have only seen her in the newer Star Wars movies so I was excited to see her play this role. And she did it REALLY well. I think she outplayed everyone in the movie. She was probably the biggest role. She passed the Bechdel test. She had an amazing performance. I think that if the movie wasn’t so confusing her role would have been even better. Like, her character was great, but she was only allowed to be awesome for a little bit. Like, just so much was going on it was hard to focus on her I feel like. I think that she somehow had a smaller role even though SHE WAS THE MAIN CHARACTER (you cannot tell me Todd Hewitt is the main character) because she was a woman. Women in film are not represented well. But, maybe that will be another post.

The other actors were great. But, those two got the most screen time. Shoutout to Cynthia Erivo, playing Hildy, who was the only other living female in the movie who got a speaking part. She was a badass town leader and mayor of the town.

So, now that I am unpacking everything, I get more and more frustrated. One, the movie was confusing. Two, the ass shot. Three, there will most likely be no sequel, I am calling it. Four, the female representation SUCKED, but what can you expect from a movie where they literally have no women in one town. Five, the animals.

When I was in the theaters watching the movie, I had a great time. When we left, I had exclaimed how I was a little confused, but I thought it was pretty good. My roommate chalked it up to the sequel needing to come out. But, now that I am here and did research and am reflecting on the events in the movie, I am unsure about my resolve that this was a good movie.

And, I try not to outright say I do not like things.

But, this movie, kind of sucked.

It is a great movie to watch once. I think it was cool. But, by god there was so much missing. I dont know. I dont want to deter anyone away from the movie. I actually want a bunch of people to watch it so that we can get a sequel. But, yikes.

Anyways, I hope you guys had a good week. I have been a little MIA and just putting out random stuff because the last two weeks I have been so stressed about finals so I have not read that much. But, today before the movie I did a lot of reading, and hopefully next week there will be a decent amount of posts.

As always, thanks for reading,

A Bookie

Star Rating: 2.5