Chaos Walking starring Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley released today. Directed by Dough Liman, the film is an on-screen adaptation of the first novel from Patrick Ness's sci-fi adventure trilogy of Chaos Walking, The Knife of Never Letting Go. A dystopian world where all women are killed by an alien force. The men can hear each other's thoughts, termed Noise. Things go further south when a spaceship crash lands and a woman named Viola Eade (Daisy Riddley) from the earth is introduced. It's up to one young boy Todd Hewitt (Tom Holland) to save her. Cherry Movie Review: Russo Brothers’ Gritty Drama Starring Tom Holland Is an Unfortunate Misfire (LatestLY Exclusive)

While critics are very upbeat about the unique premise of the movie, they are of the opinion that it looked good on paper alone. Chaos Walking was completed in 2017 but went through continuous shoots and reshoots over the years. The major beef the critics have is the way the character development has been neglected in the movie. Check out a few reactions here...

Hollywood Reporter: Some quintessential spark is missing. The characters are uninvolving, the emotional stakes never fully take hold and the physical action invariably promises more than it delivers. The core weakness is the adaptation by Christopher Ford (Spider-Man: Homecoming) and Ness, which lacks the subtler nuances and spiritual dimension the novelist brought to the screen retelling of his book A Monster Calls in 2017.

Guardian: It’s a film that should have been a major disaster but ends up being just a minor one instead, watchable enough in parts, with the lowest of expectations, but not enough to warrant the time and money that’s been funnelled into it. The biggest problem that the director Doug Liman (no stranger to tortured productions or cursed pandemic movies) has is trying to visualise the main conceit from Patrick Ness’s novel, a tricky idea that might have worked on page but on the big screen, it’s dead on arrival.

Variety: If you’ve ever wished you could read the mind of “Spider-Man” star Tom Holland, this is your chance, although the sad truth about director Doug Liman’s flashy would-be franchise-starter (based on novelist Patrick Ness’ “Chaos Walking” trilogy, whose Wikipedia page boasts, “The series has won almost every major children’s fiction award in the UK”) is that his latest character doesn’t have a lot of big ideas to share.

Chicago SunTimes: Despite the considerable talents of director Doug Liman (“Swingers,” “The Bourne Identity,” “Edge of Tomorrow”) and cast members Tom Holland, Daisy Ridley, Mads Mikkelsen, David Oyelowo, Nick Jonas and Cynthia Erivo, this adaptation of the young adult science fiction novel “The Knife of Never Letting Go” (the first in a trilogy) is sunk by the nearly unwatchable and unlistenable execution of the main premise.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 05, 2021 04:15 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).