“And I look at her sitting there and she looks across the river and we wait as the dawn fully arrives, each of us knowing. Each of us knowing the other."
Director: Doug Liman
Starring: Tom Holland, Daisy Ridley, Mads Mikkelsen, Nick Jonas, Cynthia Erivo, David Oyelowo
Rating:
I read the first book in the Chaos Walking trilogy "The Knife of Never Letting Go" at the end of last year. Patrick Ness had me hooked from start to finish, and I ended up giving it a 3/5. The movie will never be as good as the book (even though I am giving them the same rating, I know the rating will go up for the book on a second read-through), but Chaos Walking was better than the critics and ratings are making it out to be.
In Prentisstown, Todd has been brought up to believe that the alien Spackle released a germ that killed all the women in the New World and unleashed the Noise on all the remaining men: all their thoughts are projected for everyone see to and hear. After discovering a patch of silence out in the swamp, his parents tell him that he has to run, leaving him with only a map of the New World, a journal, and many unanswered questions. He soon discovers the source of the silence: a girl named Viola.
In my pre-movie research, I read that a lot of the Chaos Walking book trilogy fans were not happy with Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley being cast as Todd and Viola. This has nothing to do with their acting abilities, as they are two of the best in the business at the moment, but because of their age. Personally, I really liked their performances here and thought their age didn't take away from the believability of the characters. Actually, Tom and Daisy's acting carried the movie all the way to the end. Todd and Viola are beautifully paired for survival in the book, and that translates extremely well into the movie. Todd is physically strong, but his Noise keeps giving them away. Viola has no Noise, which means her thoughts stay a secret, and she is also able to survive on her own, but she is a girl. In Prentisstown there are no girls. They coexist on this planet even though they are pretty much aliens to each other, and that leads to their survival. I am glad that Patrick Ness was part of the writing team because the relationship between Todd and Viola was *chef's kiss.*
Aside from these two, Mads Mikkelsen is always a win. He brought so much color and evil energy to mayor Prentiss, a character that didn't get many pages to develop in the book. My last comment on casting is about Nick Jonas. Why? Was it necessary to put Nick Jonas in this movie? Usually, when celebrities are in movies, they make either a funny cameo or play the starring role. Nick Jonas was neither. He was just kind of in the middle as David Prentiss, the mayor's son. In The Knife of Never Letting Go, DAVID PRENTISS IS A BADASS EVIL CHARACTER! In Chaos Walking, he was irrelevant. A missed opportunity to write in a plotline for a really awesome character and to cast someone who could do him justice.
Now let's talk about how different the movie was from the book.
The Knife of Never Letting Go was FUNNY! Chaos Walking on the other hand had funny moments. My dad read that there were so many re-writes of the script that all the humor was taken out in hopes that it would translate into a movie better. In my opinion, I wanted more! One comedic element I wish they added was talking animals. In the book, Manchee (Todd's dog) has his thoughts projected in the Noise, and so did all the sheep and horses. It's the small details from the book that really could have helped the movie's appeal overall.
From what I remember in The Knife of Never Letting Go, I do not recall that Todd was ever able to control his Noise as well as he did in the movie. In Chaos Walking, the evolution of Todds powers seemed really abrupt. He does one crazy thing in the beginning with a snake that impresses mayor Prentiss, but after that, it seems like his Noise is just used to talk to Viola and get them into sticky situations. Then, at the very end, we get this POWERFUL scene (no spoilers) where he is finally able to use the Noise to his advantage, but there wasn't any hint of this strength in the first 3/4 of the movie.
The book was entirely from Todd's perspective so it felt like we were always reading what his Noise was saying. In book form, the Noise is super easy to read because it was written in a different font, but in the movie, it took a bit to get used to. The editing team did make the Noise look beautiful and almost exactly what I pictured reading the book (Thank you Patrick Ness), but it felt like the writers were holding back. In the book, the Noise was EVERYWHERE, and in the movie, it felt like selective thoughts were chosen by the writing team.
Where was the knife? A lot of the important messages in the book are ABOUT THE KNIFE. “But a knife ain't just a thing, is it? It's a choice, it's something you do. A knife says yes or no, cut or not, die or don't. A knife takes a decision out of your hand and puts it in the world and it never goes back again." That is one of my favorite quotes from the book about the mental hold that this knife has over Todd, and all he did in the movie was throw it at trees and kill a giant eel. I mean, the title of the book the movie is LITERALLY adapted from The Knife of Never Letting Go. How are you going to make the movie without giving the knife more meaning?
I think the ending of the movie was a little bit abrupt overall. Let's just say that it is not the same as it was in the book. I actually enjoyed how the movie ends because it sets up for a second movie without leaving you on too much of a cliffhanger. There is no WAY that there is going to be a second movie because the ratings for this one overall are REALLY bad. Maybe with a different director, better script, and better use of their 100 million dollar budget, Chaos Walking could have reached its full potential as a successful book to movie trilogy adaptation.
Chaos Walking was best in its quiet moments when Tom Holland could just be Todd without the chaos of the Noise. The peaceful walks in the forest with just him and Viola. The scene where Viola reads a journal for him because he never learned how to. The very ending where everything seems at peace and they hold hands for just a moment. Tom Holland seems to be very good at acting as young teenage boys as we can see from this and Spiderman. However, I am excited to see what his performance is like this weekend in the upcoming Apple TV+ movie Cherry.
Even though it seems like I criticized a lot of aspects of Chaos Walking, I did really enjoy watching it. Yes, there were things about it that I wish were different, but it was a fun trip to the theater! The action scenes were intense. The music was beautifully crafted for every scene. The romance was just enough to get me giggling and smiling in the cute/awkward/teen moments. It felt enough like the book for me to have a good time, and my dad enjoyed it not having read the book. Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley are the reason that I have the entire book trilogy set in my Amazon cart right now. Give Chaos Walking a chance and let me know what you think!
Quotes From The Knife of Never Letting Go
(the book quotes are better!):
“The Noise is a man unfiltered, and without a filter, a man is just chaos walking.”
“What else is there to say? Everything and nothing. You can’t say everything, so you don’t say nothing.”
“I don’t let go of the knife. I will never let go of this knife, no matter what she says or how she says it.”
“And I look at her sitting there and she looks across the river and we wait as the dawn fully arrives, each of us knowing. Each of us knowing the other."
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