Chaos Walking

 

Chaos Walking is a dystopian science-fiction action-adventure film adapted from the 2008 young adult novel, The Knife of Never Letting Go by the screenplay writer, Patrick Ness. Set in 2257 AD, on a novel planet called the New World, Todd Hewitt lives in Prentisstown, an all-male colony, run by Mayor Prentissn. In this town all of the people have all been afflicted with a condition called “the Noise”, which causes everyone to see and hear each other's thoughts. When a woman named Viola crash-lands on the planet, Todd must help her escape and get back to her people.

The plot was unique and engaging. The cinematography was creative in how they showed the thoughts of each character. The script was well written but the character development could have used some more depth for some of the main characters. I would have liked to have learned more about Hildy, the leader of Farbranch, played by Cynthia Erivo, Viola played by Daisy Ridley, Mayor Prentissn played by Mads Mikkelsen, and Todd's adoptive fathers, Cillian and Ben, played by Kurt Sutter and Demián Bichir.

Even with the lack in character development this star studded cast played well off of one another. Mads Mikkelsen has definitely been typecast at this point, but I thought he did well in the role as the cunning Mayor of Prentisstow. David Oyelowo’s choice in role was a surprise, but I liked what he did with it. He was able to successfully show the complexity of Aaron, a radical preacher who is deeply flawed. For me, Holland stole the show with his character, Todd Hewitt. He gave me a bit of his Spider-Man comedic timing and fast talking in this role but I liked it. I also appreciated the wide range of emotions that he presented as it made it easy to connect to his character.

Unfortunately a lot of critics were not a fan of this movie, and it didn’t fare well in theatres, so I’m concerned it won’t be green lit for the adaptation of the final two novels of the trilogy. Hopefully I’m wrong, as I would like to see how this story pans out.