Mikkelsen has played iconic villains before, and while Prentiss isn't nearly as memorable as Hannibal Lecter or Le Chiffre, he still manages to imbue Chaos Walking with a sense of danger.

While Chaos Walking has its faults, it is very much of ilk with YA novel adaptations such as Maze Runner and Divergent, while perhaps lacking the immersive depth of The Hunger Games, or at least the first couple entries of that series. Thankfully, its two charismatic leads share just enough chemistry to add the requisite stakes for a decently thrilling ride.

Beneath its perfectly entertaining surface, the film is a mess of contradictions that fails to live up to its own potential.

Despite its strange conceit and a few buried hints as to what a more courageous film might have done with it, the movie version of the first Chaos Walking book (published as “The Knife of Never Letting Go”) is such a dull and ordinary thing that it can’t help but get engulfed by the shadow of its own missed potential.

While this medium-budgeted action film clearly hopes to launch a cinematic series, the YA trappings feel familiar, despite some intriguing ideas about toxic masculinity and adolescent insecurity.