Chaos Walking (2021)

Doug Liman’s latest feature comes after a strenuous four years in the making. Based on the Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness, the film adapts the first book of the series, The Knife of Never Letting Go. As a fan of the books, I was curious to see how the story would transpire on the big screen.

Chaos Walking takes place on a foreign planet, known as “The New World,” which has been conquered by humans. Prentisstown, ruled by the corrupt Mayor (Mads Mikkelsen), is an all-male community where every man’s thoughts are visible and heard in what is called “the Noise.” There are no women left in the world — they were allegedly slaughtered during a war against the native species. However, when the youngest boy in town, Todd Hewitt (Tom Holland), comes across a mysterious spacecraft, he meets Viola (Daisy Ridley), the only survivor of the crash and the first girl Todd’s ever seen. Once Todd informs the Mayor about the ship, Viola becomes an immediate target of the Mayor. The only way she can survive long enough to send a signal to her home ship is by teaming up with Todd and fleeing the town.

If you were obsessed with dystopian franchises, then this film feels nostalgic. After so long, entering an era of cinema that faded feels like a fever dream; however, it wasn’t played out too well. At one point, Lionsgate deemed this movie as “unreleasable.” Ouch. After that absolutely painful comment, Liman gathered the cast and crew to film extensive reshoots in 2019, which were excruciatingly noticeable in the movie.