The Adam Project, 2022.
Directed by Shawn Levy.
Starring Ryan Reynolds, Zoe Saldana, Jennifer Garner, Mark Ruffalo, Catherine Keener, Alex Mallari Jr., Walker Scobell, Braxton Bjerken, Mellanie Hubert, Ben Wilkinson, Jessica Bodenarek, and Kasra Wong.
SYNOPSIS:
A time-traveling pilot teams up with his younger self and his late father to come to terms with his past while saving the future.
For anyone that has ever wanted more than one Ryan Reynolds in a singular movie, The Adam Project might be for you. To clarify, this is not a case of a ghastly-looking beefcake CGI clone as seen in Free Guy, which was coincidently also directed by the helmer of this project, Shawn Levy. Here, the plot involves time travel with a 12-year-old version of the character acting alongside Ryan Reynolds, which is really just a 12-year-old mimicking Ryan Reynolds, considering the actor basically only plays himself. Sometimes playing to that strength works, and sometimes it doesn’t. The Adam Project is undoubtedly a case of the latter, mainly coming across corny with forced humor despite its admirable bighearted tone.
The film gets underway with a piece of on-screen text announcing that time travel is real. We just don’t know it. Simultaneously, the eponymous Adam (Reynolds) is seen in the skies stealing (or “borrowing the shit out of,” as he explains later on with his trademark smart ass line delivery) a futuristic high-tech ship that is capable of creating a limited number of wormholes for time traveling. Adam intends to jump to 2018 but, under duress from being shot at, messes up the coordinates and ends up in 2022.
In 2022, Adam happens to be a skinny 12-year-old (Walker Scobell making his debut performance, excellently capturing the rhythms of Reynolds’ quips when delivering his own) frequently bullied for being nerdy and small. He is also roughly one year removed from the loss of his physics professor father Louis (Mark Ruffalo), still grieving and lashing out at his mother, Ellie (Jennifer Garner). She tries to put on a smile and move forward, setting an example of resilient bravery for the boy. Ellie is also regularly going on dates with different guys, which Adam routinely blows up by drawing from that familiar Reynolds wisecracking backtalk.
While Ellie is out on one of those dates, future Adam decides to stop by his childhood home for supplies to bandage up a bullet wound, unintentionally coming across his younger self. Initially, he hides that he is from the future until having a moment of somewhat feeling sorry for himself, combined with the intelligence of young Adam connecting the dots. Amidst what is essentially Ryan Reynolds playing off of Ryan Reynolds (which is a compliment to Scobell more than anything, as the jokes themselves mostly elicit cringe), the boy becomes enamored with the idea that he grows into the handsome and shredded pilot, and doubly so upon learning that he is married in the future to another pilot, Laura (Zoe Saldana). It also comes out that the actual reason future Adam was trying to revisit 2018 is because Laura disappeared, with that year being her last known coordinates.
Unsurprisingly, future Adam has been followed to 2022 by his enemies, which consists of Catherine Keener as Maya Sorian, a business partner of Louis that would betray the family and use time travel for malicious purposes. Her motives are as generic as hiring henchmen led by an equally lame commander in Christos (Alex Mallari Jr.). However, the more significant issue is that visually, The Adam Project lacks a distinct personality and identity, settling on cribbing from numerous designs that feel ripped out of everything from Star Wars to Halo. At one point, young Adam blurts with excitement that his future self is fighting with a weapon reminiscent of a lightsaber, which comes to feel like an acknowledgment of this laziness on behalf of the filmmakers. Every attack also lands with a massive shockwave that adds to the already unflattering onslaught of CGI (the backdrops in the sky are especially shoddy).
Some of this can be forgiven considering that The Adam Project is a lightweight story about a family learning to make amends and speak to one another across different times, versions of themselves, and dynamics such as alive and dead. Even when the dialogue feels a bit too hammy and sentimental, the scenes themselves do carry a slight emotional touch and cleverness (most notably a dialogue exchange that sees future Adam presenting himself as just another bar patron, talking to his unsuspecting mom and giving advice that it’s okay to show vulnerability around his younger self). There is also too much generic action cluttering up the character dynamics worth caring about. The climax is a CGI sludge fest with little tension since everything looks fake. I’m also aware that it’s strange to complain about activity in a sci-fi movie, but the sci-fi aspect is legitimately the worst part you also a sizable chunk of The Adam Project.
Another headscratcher is the upbeat licensed soundtrack that can’t help from using timeless classics such as ‘let my love open the door’ freely and out of place. If the target demographic for The Adam Project is teenagers, do they want to hear any of these cheesy songs? Honestly, I didn’t even necessarily want to listen to these songs. The needle drops are goofy and further take one out of the action, even if the pieces technically fit contextually.
Still, the enormous heart The Adam Project has going for it is worth applauding, especially considering there are genuinely funny moments here and there (although the dueling Ryan Reynolds personas can be a tad much at times) and the occasional gnarly combat move. But it also leans too heavily on sci-fi tropes and unsuccessfully tries to re-create Amblin magic. It’s a movie you can tell was written by multiple people (Jonathan Tropper, T.S. Nowlin, Jennifer Flackett, and Mark Levin) since some aspects of the script are much better than others. Shawn Levy can’t quite pull it all together, but the effort is there. Perhaps a jump to the future was needed to recognize and iron out the flaws.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
