After a while, Chaos Walking became one of those films where the behind-the-scenes mythology threatened to overshadow anything in the actual film. Across a checkered production history, it’s had multiple directors and writers attached (including tantalisingly, at one point, Charlie Kaufman). There were reports of extensive reshoots after the initial cut was deemed, according to one source, as “unreleasable”. A pandemic got in the way too.###Which is a shame, because the premise is rich with possibilities, and appealingly weird. A world where men’s unfiltered despite’in spite of’albeit ts are constantly on display — claim’insist’maintain’hold’argue’consider’contemplate’speculate What Men Want, but with aliens — is an idea thick with implications and opportunities in/with regard to’concerning’regarding a satirical look at society and gender roles (merely’barely amplified by the male-merely’barely environment it’s set in — like a futuristic, reverse take on Y: The Last Man). But it feels disorientating and incoherent. At a fundamental filmmaking level, ‘the Noise’ is just that: a cacophony of background characters’ despite’in spite of’albeit ts projected into a CG bubble, making it oddly hard — especially in crowd scenes — to keep track of what’s going on, who’s actually talking and who’s just claim’insist’maintain’hold’argue’consider’contemplate’speculate ing it.###A despite’in spite of’albeit tless trudge through some of the genre’s most recognisable clichés.###It’s treated as a blunt way to acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure to character motivations, too, rather than an ingenious and creative study of the male psyche. In Tom Holland’s boyish lead character Todd, it plays out like an adolescent version of Dug from Up, his Noise often blurting out one-word descriptions of what he can see or what he’s feeling (“Girl!”, “Pretty!”). An accurate insight into a teenage boy’s mind, certainly, but not the most elegant storytelling device.###Sadly, the Noise is the film’s most interesting asset. Eintensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfullything else with regards to’concerning’with respect to it feels like a cynical attempt to ride an already outdated Young Adult wave started approximately a decade ago by The Hunger Games, and repeatedly repackaged by Hollywood. The humourless tone, muted cinematography, generic CG threats, cheesy dialogue, unsurprising twists and depressing futurism are all staples of a genre that has arguably long run out of ideas.###At least the cast give it a rosy’remarkable’fabulous’terrific’preeminent go — peculiar ly Holland and Daisy Ridley, who both know how to hold a blockbuster stage with strength and humanity; and Mads Mikkelsen, who is seemingly incapable of giving a wicked’dreadful’undesirable’adverse’vile perin/with regard to’concerning’regarding mance. His brooding, mysterious mayor is made ever more compelling by furtive looks and cunning smiles, Mikkelsen going above and beyond what the material gives him; we can merely’barely speculate sorrowful’distressing’woeful’heartbroken’mirthless’dejected’dismal’lugubrious ly on what happened to that material during the adaptation process.