The Adam Project - Movie Review

Critics Score - 7 of 10

General Audience Score - 7 of 10

Ryan Reynolds rockets onto Netflix in one of the streaming service’s latest exclusive films that takes us on an adventure into the world of time travel. Reynolds is a bankable name in the world of cinema, his voiceover work in Detective Pikachu helped that film clear over $430 million dollars worldwide, with no other actors of note among the cast. Girls show up for the looks and the bod, guys come for the sarcasm and laughs. While Reynold’s humor is an acquired taste for some, for those of us that have trained our palette to enjoy it, there’s a hearty meal waiting for you here. Unless Reynolds isn’t your type or you really don’t jive with his wit and humor, The Adam Project may prove to be one science project you might actually look forward to.

SYNOPSIS - This twist on Back To The Future begins in 2050 with Adam (Ryan Reynolds) escaping earth’s atmosphere in a spacecraft akin to the Avengers jet while being pursued by another that’s trying to blow him out of the sky. Reynolds has a naturally ironic sarcasm when speaking, his attacker warns him to stop when he cuts them off with “I’m sorry to interrupt what I’m sure is gonna be a really scary threat”. He then shoots a wormhole blast that he warps into and oddly enough, escapes back to 2022, all while The Spencer Davis Group cranks out Gimme Some Lovin’ in the background. The humor, action and groovy classic jam combination during the opening sequence starts this movie off on a fun and campy note. It reminded me of the scene in Armageddon when the characters get a taste of space travel with wild rides on high speed jet planes while Aerosmith’s Sweet Emotion cranks in the background. We know right off the bat to lower any delusions of grandeur for the film, we’re just here for a good time, though anyone going into a Reynolds led film with high expectations, that’s on them. Then we’re taken back to watch a preteen Adam (Walker Scobell) being chased through school by a couple bullies, they catch him flying down a staircase and he mouths off to them before getting a smack down laid on him. Scobell does a decent job playing a very young Reynolds, the quick wit and biting insults serve him well. After his mother Ellie (Jennifer Garner) shows up, she tells him this is the third time he’s been suspended for fighting, he retorts “I know, you’d think I’d be better at it by now.” As we ride home with them, the camera inside the car allows us to observe the relationship dynamic between these two and privies us to Garner’s alarm and frustration as she exclaims she doesn’t understand him and Scobell’s flaccid response “Dad would”. Young Adam interacts with his melancholic single mother in a way that would’ve gotten me smacked in the mouth growing up, but the sharp back and forth dialogue helps keep the film’s pace moving.

Once the 2050 Adam crashes his Avengers jet in the woods outside his old house, he meets his twelve year old self and Reynolds and Scobell start figuring each other out. In the pair’s interactions is where the movie really finds some firm footing that it’s able to operate well on. As young Adam plays with old Adam’s stuff, he pulls out a wand shaped device and asks “Is this a lightsaber?”, and the near constant snappy one-liners for the first act help to keep the audience engaged as the inferior screenplay works at unfolding our plot. Reynolds must fix some things in the past to prevent some bad things from happening to his wife Laura (Zoe Saldana) in the future. The whole purpose of Reynold’s existence in this film is to keep us smiling, and he succeeds. After the young and old Adam find his wife Laura in 2022, the adult Adam introduces young Adam to which she shouts concern that he’s contacted hisself from the past. He counters with, “Well, you’ve always said that you wished you’d met me earlier”. Reynolds may not be on the same level as some of the wise-cracking smart-mouths of the past like Martin Lawrence and Chris Tucker, but watching him constantly converse in what amounted to verbal jousting matches, especially with someone playing a younger version of himself and regularly trading insults with him, made the entertainment value of the film fairly high.

The Adam Project is overall is a pure popcorn movie, and it embraces itself as nothing more than that, although it does try for a couple scenes of, husband-wife, mother-son and father-son bonding moments. The film's attempts to find emotional resonance with the audience add very little and end up being the parts of the story that worked the least for me. The humor grinds to a halt, the film slows down for brief periods to try and establish some emotional stakes, which is fine but ultimately forgettable, much like the movie itself. For instance, a prolonged sequence of Reynolds sitting with his sullen mother in a bar talking about her son, while proves to be a decent attempt to get us emotionally invested, brought the humor and laughs to a standstill from which the film had to work to regain it’s momentum back. The premise of an adult son speaking to his mother who doesn’t realize who she’s speaking to is an interesting one, even if we’ve seen it before. And while it works in the moment due to Reynolds and Garner working well on the screen together, the movie digs its heels into some of these scenes that ultimately fail it in terms of what we want from the film and what it gives us. The film’s attempts to be anything more than a goofy, adventure-comedy, end up falling flat. There’s nothing outstanding or remarkable about this film from a technical standpoint, the visual effects are sufficient and the score is adequate. The production design is lacking, the home where young Adam and his mother live, as well as any time they’re in the woods, looks like a movie set, with trees and ferns spaced perfectly apart. The soundtrack of classic rock tunes that play over it’s sequences of action help the film lean into it’s campy premise and remind us, we’re only here for a good time and a few laughs. After all, not all films are going to challenge my intellect, make me contemplate the meaning of life or my place in the world, this isn’t epic cinema or high art, this is Ryan Reynolds. Ryan Reynolds . . . in a time travel movie.

SUMMARY - While this film is a fun little space-time continuum science adventure, at a hour and forty-six minutes, it may not keep you riveted but it also doesn’t have much wasted time bogging it down. The next time you swing by the science fair, there’s some fun, amusement and a couple laughs if you check out the The Adam Project.