The Adam Project (2022) is directed by Shawn Levy starring Ryan Reynolds, Walker Scobell, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Garner, Catherine Keener, and Zoe Saldaña. It follows a pilot from the future who goes back in time and encounters his younger self.
Production on the film first began in 2012 with Tom Cruise attached… thankfully this didn’t come to fruition cause Reynolds is awesome in the lead. It was ultimately released on Netflix on March 11, 2022. As I said over on my Texas Chainsaw (2022) review on Scaretissue, a direct to video (Netflix in this case) release generally isn’t a great sign. Did it work here? Let’s find out.
SPOILER ALERT: This review will talk openly about plot points of the film. If you want to be totally spoiler free skip this review until you’ve watched it. You’ve been warned.
The Adam Project Plot and Thoughts
The year is 2050. Fighter pilot Adam Reed (Reynolds) steals his time jet and crashes in 2022 where he meets the 12-year-old version of himself (Scobell). We learn he’s is looking for his wife, Laura (Saldaña), who was supposedly killed in a crash while on a mission to 2018.
Adam is being chased by Maya Sorian (Keener), who we learn is not only the leader of the dystopian world but also his father’s (Ruffalo) former business partner. Adam travel’s back to 2018 to destroy time travel. In the process he wipes out his present / future with his wife but ultimately sets things right.
I’m not going to go into a full plot summary. I will say this one handles the concept of time travel rather well in my opinion. It’s not nearly as confusing at the way Avengers: Endgame looked at things but not quite as straight forward as Back to the Future. I will say that with the exception of some language and a gunplay this is a relatively family friendly film. We sat down and watched it as a family, including my 7 year old who didn’t hear anything that he doesn’t hear on a daily basis from dear old Dad.
I’ll go on record as saying I’m a huge Ryan Reynolds fan. That said, I do have to admit that Ryan Reynolds does one thing REALLY well… he plays Ryan Reynolds. There’s a ton of Deadpool coming through here and it’s not just cause it’s the same actor. They even have a super on the nose reference to that film (super hero landing). That said, I love him in this film. His interplay with his younger self is spot on and he’s REALLY showing some acting chops here when he’s interacting with his wife and father. Let’s just say this… toward the end of this science fiction / action flick there were a couple of tears shed. I won’t tell you if it was me or the wife. That speaks to character development which really is here.
I haven’t mentioned Adam’s mother played by Jennifer Garner but she does a more than admirable job as a widow raising a 12 year old on her own. You can’t help to think about Dr. Bruce Banner when you see Ruffalo on screen as a doctor who’s the father of time travel but that doesn’t take away from the experience here.
Keener is a decent bad guy at best. I’m not sure if I didn’t care for her performance or the way the character was written on the page. Her demise seemed a bit convenient but by that point in the movie I’d had such a good time with this that I didn’t care.
The Adam Project Recommendation
I’m not sure how we determine the relative success or failure of films that go directly to Netflix. Without box office numbers to look at we really just need to look at reviews to see if The Adam Project was worth it’s $116 million budget. Here’s what I’ll say… it was a fun science fiction movie that we were able to watch as a family. It told a compelling story, had some good special effects and was able to develop characters that allowed for truly emotional scenes. That’s a RECOMMEND in my book. I’m not sure I’d subscribe to Netflix just to watch this but at 106 minutes of run time it is well worth your time to sit down and watch this one.
Have you seen The Adam Project (2022)? Leave me a comment with your thoughts!
