At this point in their careers, Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley have already been featured in some of the biggest and most successful movies ever produced. But almost like every actor in Hollywood, there’s always that movie that you sign on for that gets delayed over and over or has to demand for scheduled reshoots. Chaos Walking is that movie that Daisy Ridley and Tom Holland signed on for that a lot of people never thought would ever be released, especially during COVID-19. Now, this is a movie that experienced serious production problems, whether you’re talking about the massive rewrites, poor test screenings or the reshoots that happened about two years from when the movie originally wrapped up on its principal photography. It may not be on the level of New Mutants, where it kept getting delayed and the reshoots never happened, but it almost became of fore gone conclusion that Chaos Walking would ever get a standard theatrical release, and even if it did the movie would tank hard at the box office when you consider how unaware the brand is or how anticlimactic the marketing has been. Well, here we are. The movie hit theaters this most recent weekend and despite with the majority of critics have been saying, Chaos Walking is a lot better than it is. Part sci-fi & post apocalyptic western, Chaos Walking is an engaging and unconventional action flick that’s led by two solid and weighted performances from Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley. It’s visuals are slick, the music is intense and it’s concept is full of intrigue.
Set in a dystopian world where no woman exist, Chaos Walking tells the story about a young boy named Todd (Tom Holland), who was raised to believe that all women were slaughtered by some extraterrestrial beings and unleashed this thing called “Noise” on all the men, which causes them to walk around with all their thoughts and ideas being said without even saying a word. But once Todd stumbles across the first women he’s ever seen with Viola (Daisy Ridley), the two of them must navigate through dangerous parts of the land to obtain questions about the world that they live in.
As far as any weaknesses go, Chaos Walking is not a perfect movie. It is a bit schlocky at times and the pace of the movie is a bit inconsistent, but overall as one movie, it has a lot more positive qualities than one might think. The actual concept itself is interesting in its own way. The usage of the characters inner thoughts, particularly with the male characters in the movie, is something that definitely could have been over used and tiresome real quick and real fast. While it does take some time for you to get used to its form of storytelling with the characters not actually verbally speaking, it manages to find it’s groove as the movie establishes it’s world, conflicts and characters. The unconventional aspect of it might throw some people but it’s mainly why the movie has some charm and differentiations from your more typical mainstream movie.
Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley don’t have to star in a comic-book movie or a Star Wars movie just to show their gifts in this sandbox. However, they have shown great chops in the bigger tent pole movies and it’s up for a debate if Chaos Walking would be classified as a “tent pole” movie (even though the budget is $100 million), either way they both do more than a serviceable job of carrying this movie with their determined and engaging performances. We love to see Holland as the famous web-slinger, but to see him shift to a completely new role is always a great thing for any young talent and with this movie and the recent The Devil All the Time, Tom Holland continues to deliver on solid performances. As for Daisy Ridley, it’s almost a bit surreal that she has a movie coming out that’s not a Star Wars movie. This is a woman who deserved WAY MORE work since the release of The Force Awakens and aside from this and Kennth Branagh’s Murder on the Orient Express, she hasn’t had a ton of work. Which is unfortunate because she really is a talented performer and while her performance may not be Oscar worthy in this movie, she really does an adequate job with the material she’s given.
It’s not the end of the world if one decided to skip out on seeing Chaos Walking, however the massive criticism this movie has been getting is a little bit unwarranted. The performances are solid, the action is exciting and the movies mythology is unique and different.
My grade for Chaos Walking: B
Zane's take at the Cinema's 