The Adam Project review: Netflix sci-fi movie lets Ryan Reynolds do his thing

The idea that the world is speeding up is, for the most part, a lie people tell themselves to deny that they’re getting older. Even onscreen, a perceived acceleration may be an illusion: Yes, an average 21st-century film has more and quicker edits than one made before 1980, thanks to developments in technology and the rise of the “MTV style.” But the back-and-forth in a 21st-century Marvel movie is no faster than that of a 1940s screwball comedy. Although it might seem slower. So while Netflix’s science fiction comedy The Adam ProjectIt may be like watching an Amblin Entertainment movie at 1.5 speed, but viewers who have seen those films growing up will understand the reason for this.

One major factor behind the film’s rat-a-tat energy is star Ryan Reynolds: He’s Deadpool, for God’s sake. His brand is built on his trademark rapid-fire sarcasm. Writer-director Shawn Levy has already collaborated with Reynolds (on 2021’s No cost to the Guy() Eight episodes were shot of Stranger Things,Combining the two would be a natural next step. When Levy and Reynolds — both co-producers on the film — play to their strengths, The Adam ProjectThis sci-fi comedy is a good laugher and a great source of humorous, friendly science-fiction fun. But in moments where undiluted sweetness is required, the film’s glib writing stands out in a negative way.

The film opens in 2050, just outside Earth’s orbit, where Adam (Reynolds) — a classic “hotshot pilot who plays by his own rules” type — is preparing to steal a time-traveling jet. Adam wants to return to 2018 for reasons that soon become apparent. But he accidentally crash-lands in 2022, with a bullet in his side and a bio-linked ship that won’t start until his injury heals. (The movie is full of “Okay, I guess” contrivances of this type.) He then enters the yard of his 12-year old self (Walker Scobell), a smaller and more asthmatic but smarter-mouthed Adam.

Doane Gregory/Netflix

Adult Adam needs young Adam’s DNA to start his ship. Young Adam is in need of adult Adam for help with issues related to their father Louis, Mark Ruffalo (a genius but lazy physicist). The two embarked on an exciting adventure across space and time, but only for five years, to prevent the Louis of 2018 achieving scientific breakthroughs that would make time travel possible. Sidelines with Zoe Saldaña as adult Adam’s courageous wife Laura and Jennifer Garner as both Adams’ predictably put-upon mom Ellie imply that women serve as tempering influences for Adam at both ages. But for the most part, this story is more about Adam’s relationship with his dad — and himself.

Reynolds and Scobell make a good team as Adams. They coordinate their bodies and bounce off one another throughout the movie. (A moment where the two giggle as Reynolds makes his bullet wound “fart” is surprisingly sweet.) The idea of a child meeting their adult self or an adult traveling back in time to right the wrongs of their childhood have both been explored in other movies — including 13 More Going on 30 Another film in which Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo were portrayed as a married couple was The Last of Us.The Adam Project’s four-person writing team is hyper-aware of that fact, just as they’re clearly aware that Adam fights with a weapon that looks a lot like a lightsaber, against a villain whose scheme to create a Terminator future resembles Biff Tanner’s plan inPart II: Back to the Future

These references are handled by Levy in a more relaxed manner than say. The Ready Player One, however. The Adam Project’s purpose seems to be more to make a movie in the spirit of an ’80s family-friendly sci-fi adventure than to leech off the goodwill audiences have toward pre-existing films. However, Levy still manages to stage action in the forest right out of “The Treehouse.” E.T.Young Adam is seen wearing a Marty McFly vest all through the movie. But again, these winks are wielded with the intention of creating the same type of wonder in today’s kids as Spielberg’s films did 40 years ago, while still nodding to the ‘80s-kid parents sitting next to them on the couch. And there are moments specifically designed to thrill viewers around young Adam’s age, like the scene where he takes down a gaggle of robotic bad guys with drones controlled by his VR helmet. This scene would have made for a Nintendo Power Glove in 1989.

Maybe it’s obvious that The Adam Project He glides through the paradoxes that come with time travel and acknowledges the fact that Adams is still hanging aroundShould unravel the space-time continuum, but never really explaining why it doesn’t. (Primer It is not. That’s forgivable, given that the film moves too quickly, and too cheerfully, to dwell on any scientific conundrums.

Image by Netflix

However, it shows how The Adam ProjectWhen the stakes get higher, it loses its hold. Catherine Keener is oddly cast as the film’s Big Bad, for example, playing her character neither as an over-the-top supervillain nor as a credible threat. Netflix has some other examples. Irishman technology to put Keener’s face on a body double in scenes where she interacts with her younger self.) The romantic interlude between Garner & Ruffalo feels a bit too casual for its own good.

One emotional noteThe Adam Project hits perfectly is dead-dad schmaltz — again, unsurprising, given the palette of influences Levy is working with here. Family storylines are a hallmark of the ’80s kids’ adventure movies being lovingly re-created in The Adam Project, and it’s worth noting that the film does slow down, both in terms of pacing and dialogue, for the sentimental scenes between father and son(s). When dealing with more adult emotions — say, corporate greed or romantic love — the film can’t help but undercut them with defensive sarcasm. The film’s exploration of the childhood wounds comes from an earnester place.

While the years seem to go by faster, our childhood traumas will remain inextricable until we heal them. This is how therapy works. The Adam Project This is both impossible and a bit too simplistic. But in a film that rockets out of the gate with such breakneck speed, it’s unexpectedly affecting when it gets down to the business of healing Adam’s inner child — or outer child, as the case may be. It’s a good film, but it is not a great movie. The Adam ProjectCould make E.T.It may appear slow but its heart is still in the same place of vulnerability.

The Adam ProjectNetflix debuts March 11