The Adam Project Proves Reynolds/Levy Are A Winning Team
The Netflix time travel action/dramedy The Adam Project premiered on Netflix Friday, March 10. It marks the second collaboration between director Shawn Levy and star Ryan Reynolds, the first being the surprise hit Free Guy. Below is a spoiler-free review of The Adam Project, a movie that establishes the Reynolds and Levy team as the nerd movie partnership to beat.
The story of The Adam Project, with no spoilers beyond what is revealed in the trailers, features Ryan Reynolds as Adam Reed, a military pilot from the future who travels back in time in his jet to modern day and encounters his 12-year-old self, played by newcomer Walker Scobell. Military types from the future come back for the older Adam and at one point Zoe Saldana shows up as a badass. And from that point the plot happens over the course of the remainder of the 1 hour and 46 minutes.
The rest of the relatively small cast includes Jennifer Garner as the Adams’ mom Ellie, Mark Ruffalo as their dad Louis (I seriously just got that – Lou Reed? Really?) and Catherine Keener. Everyone does a good job, and Reynolds believably emotes in a way he hasn’t since the end of Smokin’ Aces. But the revelation here is Scobell. In his first credit of any kind, film or television, this newcomer kid manages to believably pull off playing basically a smart-mouth 12-year-old Ryan Reynolds. In snappy back-and-forth scenes with Reynolds, Scobell never misses a beat.
That works best in comedy scenes, but Scobell still does a good job in the dramatic moments as well. He’s not the kind of surprise find that was young Haley Joel Osment, but he is light years better than most actors his age and lack of experience.
The dialogue is solid if not inspiring. Clever often enough to stay interesting, though. The plot has a few of the dreaded plot holes but none so big as to ruin the movie. The same can be said for the treatment of time travel — it is not so bad as Back To The Future, but not so clearly defined as Avengers: Endgame. The plot and pacing move along at a brisk enough pace that the emotional slower moments don’t seem to be a drag so much as a moment to breathe.
Speaking of breathing space — the soundtrack is the one biggest weaknesses of The Adam Project. Not the needle drops — they are creative and well-placed. But the score at moments of revelation or astonishment is crushingly overwhelming. Like, Star Trek: The Motion Picture overwhelming. Let the moment breathe for the audience, would ya? We get that people on the screen are supposed to be amazed, but the special effects are good enough to sell that visually, and the actors good enough to act it.
Those special effects are pretty good for a smallish movie, with one notable exception. It’s a time travel story, so there is a face replacement de-aging tech used, and it isn’t the best in the game. More Robert Downey Jr. in early scenes of Captain America: The Winter Soldier than fake Mark Hamill in The Book of Boba Fett.
Like Free Guy, this movie has a surprising amount of heart, without seeming sappy or manipulative. And that seems to be the sweet spot for the team of Reynolds and Levy, which makes me excited that the pair are again planning to team up, this time for the upcoming Deadpool 3.
I give The Adam Project (Maximum Effort, 21 Laps, Skydance; PG-13; 1hr 46mins) an 8 out of 10.
If you like our work and want to show your appreciation, feel free to tip us at Ko-fi or become a patron on Patreon.
