The Adam Project (2022)

Title: The Adam Project

Year: 2022

Genre: Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi |

Runtime: 106 min

Director: Shawn Levy

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Jennifer Garner, Mark Ruffalo

In the second collaboration with Ryan Reynolds as the key player, Shawn Levy draws admirations from the 1980s classic sci-fi traits when creating a modern Back to the Future-esque saga that resolves on parentship like fatherhood and motherhood.

Films with Reynolds are often the same with the quick dialogue and frenzy NSFW-storyline that plotter the story and where Ryan doesn’t conclude anything with his performance. Free Guy, Deadpool are among his latest notable works. He’s good to have a quick funny mouth but without the Deadpool-personality, Reynolds has trouble keeping up with the comedy genre and the storyline when it breaks down to serious stuff that needs to wake a strong emotion from its audience.

The story follows a middle-aged Adam who from 2050 crash-lands in 2022 to meet his former self at twelve-year-old. While talking to his younger self most of the first act, establish the full films that await to play out, the story overall doesn’t get to the pinpoint that is worth it.

Despite keen cameo-roles from Zoë Saldana, and Mark Ruffalo playing Adam’s wife respective father, the films only stay on screen. The emotional impact the film screams for a not easy to catch. It isolates it with the untold villain story that doesn’t give the film enough space to evolve and is not easy to follow. The jokes and playing around attitude are far too dominant to make it serious. It’s difficult to see anything for a complete story other than actors rehearsing lines between each other. Walker Scobell’s performance is a most annoying, surprisingly decent actor for a newbie. But he’s not the key player, it’s more likely that he has experience actors around him that makes his performance slightly better.

The plot tries to pull the 80s sci-fi themes with time-travels and clutters the story with modern sci-fi references. The movie moves ahead quickly, worsening the experience to take the story in and understand the goal. Why the villains are acting the way they’re doing, are not spread out like white sheets.

It’s a decent film for those with lower standards, most are funny and entertaining but it’s not a good movie. It’s flawed and doesn’t provide any depth to the character other than spill out the whole movie in the first fifteen minutes. Then we have got the sci-fi parts and the whole shebang with the visual effects is misleading and feels copied pasted in the film with no resolution adapted to the scenes. Ryan’s fighting skills with the lightsaber are not on the top either. He’s chunky in his moves and there is no flow in his movements.

It’s a family film of PG-13 with Ryan Reynolds, who is the best thing in the whole movie.