PG Score: 7/10
The Adam Project is available on Netflix.
Growing up there are so many things you don’t appreciate and take for granted that, as an adult, make you wince with regret. The Adam Project wonderfully tackles that, along with throwing in some good old-fashioned time travel. It is a sci-fi film, but at its heart, it is a story of family and loss and learning to appreciate what you have when it is still here.
Cast
Shawn Levy (Stranger Things) had an all-star cast to work with for this film with a number of A-list superstars. Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool), playing Older Adam, stars as the time-traveling pilot who befriends his younger self played by Walker Scobell. The two have decent chemistry and seem to be having a good time throughout the film, but Reynolds plays his typical self while Scobell as Young Adam does almost too good of a job being an unlikeable, smart-ass kid. Young Adam does have his reasons, and Reynolds does a good job of encompassing those feelings and actions in his older version of the character.
The supporting cast is chock-full of big names with Jennifer Garner (Alias) playing Adam’s underappreciated Mom, Zoe Saldana (Avatar) plays a small, but pivotal role as Older Adam’s wife, Laura, and is one of the driving forces in his actions. Mark Ruffalo (Avengers) plays Adam’s father, Louis. Catherine Keener (The 40-Year-Old Virgin) plays the corrupt Maya Sorian to round out this star-studded cast.
Plot
Time travel movies have a tendency to get over-complicated and contradict themselves. The Adam Project is fairly straightforward, though the film relies more on the character relationships than anything else.
Young Adam (Scobell) is a "small for his age" teenager with a big mouth and a tendency to use it at the wrong time. Constantly getting into fights and losing, he is a handful for his Mom (Garner) who, like him, is still dealing with the death of his father (Ruffalo). Old Adam (Reynolds) escapes from the future and crashes into his old back yard. Wounded and desperate, he isn’t quite up to the task of dealing with his younger self. As the two try to bond, Older Adam does his best to convey to his younger self the regrets he has. This gets more difficult with the arrival of Sorian (Keener) and her shock troopers from the future that are there to bring him back to the future, AKA his present. Cover-ups and plots all unravel through time as our duo of Adams makes one more jump to the past to prevent all the bad that has happened and see their Dad (Ruffalo) one last time.
CGI
The special effects were very hit or miss for The Adam Project. There were some scenes that looked great, such as the chase scenes involving the futuristic ships, but there were some severe misses. Most notable is the CGI for Young Sorian (Keener) which was consistently bad. The technology for it is available, as we saw with Luke in Boba Fett, but half the time Young Sorian looked like a completely different character and it took me out of the film.
Action
The other thing that stood out was the weapons; they were cool. Just think of a galaxy far, far away and you might get an idea of the weapon that Reynolds wielded. Not quite a lightsaber, but used similarly with a few new features. It was the action highlight of the movie. The fight scenes were well-choreographed, though some of the effects from the fighting left a little to be desired and some stereotypical bad guy behavior was a tad too predictable and detracted from the overall story.
A Solid Sci-Fi Flick
The Adam Project is a fun film for the family. The movie has a bit more depth than your typical sci-fi film by pulling on the emotional heartstrings, but still allows you to geek out with all the time travel and futuristic weapons. The movie is on Netflix, so if you have it, it is definitely worth a view. I enjoyed the film, but it isn't a must-see. You can see it at your leisure.
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