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The Adam Project Movie Review: Ryan Reynolds' Sci-Fi Film Has The Nostalgia And Simplicity Of Old Family Films
The Adam Project follows a time-travelling pilot Adam Reed played by Ryan Reynolds who accidentally crash-landing in 2022 and teams up with his younger self to stop time travel
Available
On:
Netflix
Duration:
106
Minutes
Language:
English
Plot: The Adam Project follows a time-travelling pilot Adam Reed, accidentally crash-landing in 2022. He ends up having to team up with his 12-year-old self for a mission to save the future and their lives from being destroyed by an evil company.
Review: Directed by Shawn Levy, The Adam Project is similar to the 80s family films like Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, E.T, . The Last Starfighter and others with the additional advantage of better technology and CGI effects. The writers keep the story tight on the family front and take plenty of unexplained liberty on the sci-fi front but, it still works.
The film begins with a young Adam Reed (Walker Scobell) getting into a fight at the school with his bullies. When his mother (Jennifer Garner) rushes to talk to the principal at the school, we find out it's just the two of them. At least for the past two years after his scientist father passed away in an accident. During his suspension from school - which frees him up for time travel - Adam is visited by another older Adam (Ryan Reynolds) from the future.
Older Adam who is a time-travelling fighter pilot accidentally lands in 2022 when his jet is shot out of the sky. He planned on landing in 2008 to talk to their father but with a bullet hole in his body and the jet at its lowest capacity, he has to use his younger self's help to set things right. While the younger Adam admires Ryan for the physical changes in his life, the older Adam despises his younger self for making all the wrong choices. After being attacked in 2022 as well by the evil company, they set their differences aside to travel to 2008 to talk to their father and stop time travel from being invented.
The film brings back the simpler time travel, a notion from the early sci-fi of one timeline bard of any multiverse. The plot point, 'where sharing too much information about the future can disrupt the past' helped keep things simple and straightforward. The screenplay has little to no comic moments but Ryan Reynold's banter with the co-stars is enough to keep the story light-hearted even with death and doom at the centre of it.
The Adam Project, also the name of the time travel project which Adam's father creates, explores the different perspectives of the same character. How differently the young Adam remembers his father, and how the trauma of the older Adam changes his mindset. Both end up helping each other at the end reconcile with their dad never to see him again. The sweet family moment is just enough to make the audience emotional and teary-eyed at the right moment.
Ryan Reynolds remains his usual self in the film as Adam Reed, however, it is Walker Scobell who surprises with his performance by keeping up with Mark as well as Ryan. Mark Ruffalo plays off some of his 90s sweet guy characters as the papa Reed with a mix of his Marvel character Dr Bruce Banner. Watching Ryan and Mark play father and son is unusual given their big on and off-screen presence, let alone the Hulk-Deadpool dynamic, but they pull it off easily.
Overall, The Adam Project is an easy, relaxing watch, a step up from Red Notice and a development from Free Guy. The sci-fi entertainer is worth its time this weekend for a family session.
