Chaos Walking has been a long time coming. Bolstered by beloved source material and the promise of inspired direction by Edge of Tomorrow director Doug Liman, the film seemed to have everything it needed to be a worthwhile adaptation. Unfortunately, it’s almost everything but.

Chaos Walking is stodgy, self-important, and sporadically Biblical, toothless YA adaptation that mindlessly chews at ideas it doesn’t develop. It’s a frustrating reinforcement of its genre’s worst habits, with little redeeming it beyond brief glimpses of inspired storytelling. Based on Patrick Ness’s 2008 book The Knife of Never Letting Go, Liman’s insipid translation lacks the narrative boldness and broader appeal of its source material.

The plot takes place on a planet called New World and revolves around the young Todd Hewitt (Tom Holland) as he discovers that much of his existence has been a bold-faced lie, and that the people he...