Review: "The Adam Project"

The Adam Project is a big film for the giant streaming service in Netflix that delivers in what it promises to its viewers. Filled to the brim with star talent, you can expect to have a few good laughs watching this film along with an enjoyable ride throughout the runtime. However, a lot of the Netflix original films haven’t been well-recieved by critics up until this one. A lot of that can be attributed to writer and director Shawn Levy allowing Ryan Reynolds, the film’s star, to do what he does best. Beyond the humor you could come to expect from a Ryan Reynolds-led movie, The Adam Project features some shiny action sequences along with some softer and quieter heartwarming moments.

The plot centers around a time traveling pilot named Adam Reed (Ryan Reynolds) who crash lands in 2022 mistakenly only to meet face to face with his younger twelve year old self. The two both have plenty of emotional baggage between them, but they help each other grow and better themselves while trying to save the future from a corrupt scientist that threatens to plunge humanity into its darkest potential future.

Time travel can always be tricky in any medium, but thankful, this film doesn’t take too much time focusing on the problems that time travel can create narratively, but instead it focuses more on the void placed on a child missing their father. Ryan Reynolds led movies don’t typically operate in a place that places such a heavy focus on emotional weight, but this one does as his character is largely flawed and hurt which he does a magnificent job of portraying and using his quick witted humor as a defensive mechanism for his inner turmoil. The same can be said of the young actor portraying the younger version of Adam Reed. Walker Scobell as the twelve year old Adam is a bit of a revelation as his mannerisms and quick witted nature make it easy to see him as a young Ryan Reynolds. The scenes featuring the two are the true highlight of the film. They have a tremendous amount of chemistry between them and the two seemed to relish in bouncing playful insults off of one another.

The first half is a great time as it focuses on the younger and older versions of Adam and their shared grief over their lost father. It also extends to their mother who is played by Jennifer Garner. Young Adam, in all his grief, uses his mother as a lightning rod for all his anger which only further hurts her and becomes a source of great guilt for the older Adam. It is surprisingly dramatic, more then you’d expect from a film that was advertised as a science fiction action film for that matter. The second half gets a bit muddled as the sinister machinations of the villain come to light and the science of time travel becomes more prominent which just muddles the film a bit and slows down the pacing. It is a typical gripe with most of the films Shawn Levy writes and directs as Free Guy and Real Steel all lose their footing toward the end. That being said, Levy does more good with the script then he does bad. Not surprisingly, Levy employs plenty of hit tracks from the 70s and 80s to really bolster the action sequences and it absolutely fits the film. At times, The Adam Project almost feels like a Spielberg adventure with a strong sentimental side to it that really hits home.

The biggest compliment to the film is again that it allows Reynolds to be himself but also not be too heavy handed into his sarcastic comedic chops. It is easy to fall into that trap but he proves again with this film that he is more then just a comedic actor who does have more to offer. At its core, The Adam Project is a fun family science fiction action comedy, which can be a mouthful and a lot to handle but it does it wonderfully in most parts. The familial bonds between the two Adams, their mother and father is the core of the film and carries plenty of emotional weight that’ll keep the audience intrigued all the way throughout no matter how much the film gets a bit complicated in the latter half.

The Adam Project embraces how it isn’t completely original and borrows a lot from other time travel films like Terminator and Back to the Future and they don’t try to hide it or run from it. It is probably even intentional that young Adam throughout the film seems to be wearing a jacket that you'd see Marty McFly wear. In fact, it even feels like it belongs in a time when those movies were releasing as they all have similar themes and have the same amount of fun infused into them. Doing so will surely be a source of great fun for those watching as it does invoke that same kind of wonder into kids that grew up watching Spielberg films in the 80s. Beyond that, every kid growing up will look at someone like Ryan Reynolds in this film and hope that they would one day be like him. They hope as they play video games or watch action films that one day they will be self-sufficent, in peak physical condition, and a hero. Young Adam is the embodiment of that very hope for every young boy.

The film doesn’t focus too heavily on the faults of time travel, because if it did, the interaction between the two Adams would change the two drastically in the moment. The greater focus on the family and the growth of the characters is a wise decision from the creative side. That being said, the film does hit a snag whenever it dwells on the time travel rules but then moves quickly into the next action scene. The film really loses its grip when the stakes become higher and the choice of casting Catherine Keener as the villain is a bit odd. She is a fine actress, but she doesn’t play the character too over the top nor as a truly credible threat. She’s just there, and incredibly flat which again makes the latter half of the film feel a bit off with the rest of its stellar first half. Even more distracting is when the viewer is introduced to a younger version of Keener’s villain that they attempted to de-age but looks like a terrible deepfake gone wrong.

Ultimately, The Adam Project does a lot more good than it does bad. It is a fun, heartwarming film that will surely find a big audience in the streaming numbers for Netflix and ultimately that is all we can ask for or hope for, it should, after all, be a fun film. The emotional notes are played perfectly and the dead-dad trope that is a staple of the 80’s films is equally done well here. At times while dealing with some of the more adult emotions that the film evokes, it is then undercut with sarcasm, which is the strong suit of both Reynolds and Levy, but it is hardly a distraction, instead, it is welcome. Seeing how the film starts off with a big banging action sequence to only be slowed down by the effective healing of a child and an older child's emotional state is unexpectedly affecting and enjoyable.