Where to watch The Adam Project
2 Stars
Adam Reed, age 12, and still grieving the sudden death of his father a year earlier, walks into his garage one night to find a wounded pilot hiding there. This mysterious pilot turns out to be the older version of himself from the future, where time travel is in its infancy. He has risked everything to come back in time on a secret mission. Together they must embark on an adventure into the past to find their father, set things right, and save the world. The three working together, both young and grown Adam come to terms with the loss of their father and have a chance to heal the wounds that have shaped them. Adding to the challenge of the mission, the two Adams discover they really don’t like each other very much, and if they’re going to save the world, they’re first going to have to figure out how to get along.
I love the magic Shawn Levy can bring to a movie, it’s a kind of Spielbergian joy, and while there are moments of that here, even the charismatic Ryan Reynolds can’t make The Adam Project an enjoyable outing. To say this is a popcorn flick is an understatement. Even popcorn flicks have some level of substance, I couldn’t give one shit, let alone two shits what happens to any character here, and quite honestly it feels like neither could the screenwriters, director or star.
With any movie that deals with time travel it’s important to understand the rules. The moment this should be explained, when young Ryan Reynolds asks older Ryan Reynolds how time travel works, he’s shut down and told it doesn’t matter. Really? How lazy, which is the most accurate description of this movie, lazy. There are moments of complete wonder here though, as the music swells and you forget the nothing in-between moments, but they are too few and far between.
There honestly isn’t much to say, it really feels like the film doesn’t try. As bad as a movie like Battleship may be, it at least attempts a great many things, most of which it fails at, but The Adam Project plays as if it expects you to just go with it. Sorry I’m not that cheap, even for Shawn Levy and Ryan Reynolds. A team-up I was very excited for, and still would be if they actually wanted to give it a real try.
There’s big budget blockbuster effects here, but little to no substance beyond that, and even time travelling science fiction action popcorn flicks need a little substance. The Adam Project is an unfortunate boring misfire that feels like just more “content” in a streaming sea of “everybody watched it once so it counts” flicks.
Directed by: Shawn Levy
Written by: Jonathan Tropper, T.S. Nowlin, Jennifer Flackett
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Walker Scobell, Mark Ruffalo