Chaos Theory

I queued up Chaos Walking (2021) based on a preview that didn't give much away, and the stars: Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley. It was a reasonable choice.

The setup turns out to be: When humans colonized a fertile, earth-like planet, they came down with the Noise. All men's thoughts were audible (and visible as a kind of colorful cloud) at all times. The local humanoids were the same way. This didn't affect the women, but that's a moot point. They were all killed by the locals. So Tom Holland was the last child born on the colony. Now a teen (or young adult?), he mostly mopes around with his dog. His two fathers ride him hard to get the crops in, but he seems to be looking for approval from Mads Mikkelsen, the mayor. But the mayor's son, Nick Jonas, has it in for him, and Daniel Oyelowo, a sort of mad preacher, suspects him of non-approved thought.

Meanwhile, in space, Daisy Ridley takes a shuttle down to the planet but crashes. Holland catches her stealing food (barely catches her) but keeps her a secret from the community. She is traumatized from the crash, and for most of the first act, Holland thinks she can't talk.

When the mayor does find out about her (remember, everyone can hear Hollands thoughts), he plans to take over her ship, killing everyone on. So she makes her getaway, along with Holland.

The rest opens the story up a lot - as one character asks Holland, "You thought this whole planet had only two small towns?" There's still a weird reluctance to question anything or comment on weirdness. All of Holland's beliefs turn out to be wrong, and he doesn't actually ask about it for a day or so. 

So I'd have to say this wasn't very good - too scattered, too many ideas, not enough follow through. But, I still kind of enjoyed it. Tom Holland gets to do his self-conscious and un-self-confident teen, except here, everyone can hear all of his thoughts. Daisy Ridley gets to be beautiful, scared and strong. And even though she is the only woman Holland has ever met, she lets him know that she isn't going to let him kiss her.