TIME travel movies are always exciting because they offer so many storytelling possibilities, many of which tie into how we feel about the past.
If we have nostalgia for a particular time, we’d like to re-experience those feelings again, and if we have any regrets, we can go back in time and have a do-over. Sure, there are always risks in changing the past, but that pull of righting wrongs might be too hard to ignore.
The Adam Project, Netflix’s newest star-studded family-friendly adventure, explores some of these ideas, but not to the point that it distracts from the fun. There are some emotional tearjerker moments, with those scenes very much in keeping with the classic Amblin movies of the 1980s from which it draws inspiration.
To put it in simpler terms, if you enjoy Stranger Things, which has a similar nostalgic bent, then you will probably enjoy The Adam Project. This makes sense when you consider that director Shawn Levy is also a producer of Stranger Things, in addition to having directed a few episodes of that Netflix mega-hit.
The movie starts off with a bang in 2050 with Ryan Reynolds – re-teaming with Levy, who he worked with in last year’s Free Guy – playing a smartass (how surprising) fighter pilot being pursued by the bad guys. He flies into a wormhole – on purpose – and appears in good ol’ 2022. Very quickly, he runs into his 12-year-old self (Walker Scobell) and hijinks ensue.
Scobell does a great job portraying a younger Reynolds, you can understand how one would become another. Their back and forth throughout the movie are highlights, and it makes you wonder how you would communicate with a younger, or older, version of yourself. Would you be excited or disappointed (or both) if you were in a similar scenario?
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Eventually, Reynolds encounters his parents, his mum is played by Jennifer Garner, while Mark Ruffalo plays his dad. Yes, Deadpool and the Hulk are father and son. Once again, Ruffalo plays a ruffled scientist type, spouting Bruce Banner-esque scientific mumbo jumbo. Just don’t expect him to turn into a giant green guy when agitated.
The actual plot involves Catherine Keener adjusting the past to make herself rich and powerful in the future. Reynolds has to go back to stop that from happening, bringing him face to face with his past. It’s not terribly original or thought out, but it works well enough to push the plot along.
Why does Keener have an army of nameless and faceless cool-looking yet hapless stormtroopers? It doesn’t really matter, just go with it.
While at some points The Adam Project gestures towards time travel complications, as movies like this typically do, ultimately it’s all quite simplistic. This is more of a family-friendly adventure, not a knotty head-spinning science fiction epic. It’s about cool spaceships, futuristic weapons, and being nice to your parents.
Those sci-fi tools are employed in some exciting action scenes, used by genre veterans Reynolds and Saldana. There’s a pretty cool ‘lightsaber’ that causes shockwaves that sends enemies flying. The spaceship combat looks cool but is also pretty simple.
One lowlight that distracted from the movie involved an older version of a character interacting with a younger version, however, instead of using an actual actor, they used a CG creation, similar to what Disney has been doing on their streaming shows, but nowhere near as good. In general, the special effects are nothing extraordinary.
Really, The Adam Project is as much a tearjerker family movie as it is an adventure, with several poignant scenes between Reynolds and Garner and Ruffalo. The scenes between Reynolds and Scobell also underscore how much we can learn from ourselves. It’s not at all a story where the wisdom is one-sided and it makes the point that we forget important lessons as we grow up.
These emotional scenes are not exactly powerhouse dramatic showcases, and the action sequences are not revolutionary. The Adam Project is a fun time for the whole family, but it’s nothing especially deep. It’s an exciting enough time that doesn’t leave a strong impression. – The Vibes, March 11, 2022
*The Adam Project launches globally on Netflix on March 11
