In the not to distant future mankind has reached out to other planets to colonise. Todd Hewitt (Tom Holland) lives on one such planet where all the women have died and all the men are afflicted by ‘noise’. The ‘noise’ is where all thoughts are voiced and visualised in ephemeral clouds about their person. When Viola (Daisy Ridley) crash lands near Todd’s settlement, their mayor Prentiss (Mads Mikkelsen) sees her as a threat to be destroyed because women do not have ‘noise’. 

Chaos Walking has a lot of ideas swimming around in a chase movie. It is based on the first instalment of a ‘young adult’ trilogy of books written by Patrick Ness who co-wrote the screenplay with Christopher Ford. Whilst the sometimes brilliant action director Doug Liman (American Made, Edge of Tomorrow, The Bourne Identity) has been given the directorial reigns. It also has a stellar cast with Holland, Ridley and Mikkelsen joined by David Oyelowo, Demian Bichir and Cynthia Erivo. Pop fans can also spot Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brothers in an acting role as well. 

The setting is a futuristic frontier western. There are themes around toxic masculinity and the attempt at colonisation for me was reminiscent of Lord of the Flies, except it is adult colonists stranded here. The idea of what would men do if they could not hide their feelings is an interesting one indeed with the two main villains using their ‘noise’ to their advantage. David Oyelowo plays a fire and brimstone preacher who uses his to strike fear into others. Whilst Mads Mikkelsen’s character is able to manipulate his thoughts to create illusions and give him a fighting advantage. Demian Bechir’s surrogate father role is another interesting and underwritten role as well. 

Whilst the villains are really interesting and have under explained motives and backgrounds, are heroes are naive blank canvasses. Holland’s Todd Hewitt is a nervous young man unable to control his ‘noise’ who has never seen a woman, whilst Ridley’s Viola has never set foot off of a spaceship and has been thrown into an alien environment. 

The special effects portraying the men’s ‘noise’ are really good and must have been incredibly time consuming to complete. Every man has a whirling smokey representation of their thoughts spinning around them at all times and they can create comical and scary moments. 

An interesting science fiction setting. A western chase movie. Toxic masculinity. Space colonisation. Naive protagonists. Interesting but underwritten antagonists. Fun and intriguing special effects. And I have not yet mentioned a vilified native species on the planet and the cute dog yet. And yet, whilst really enjoyable it does not quite come together. The leads are not interesting enough and the villains who are interesting are not given enough time. And it all screams of set up for sequels that will not come thanks to the film being a flop. 

Well worth a watch, if only perhaps to inspire a look at the books. Something I am now very keen to check out.