The Adam Project

Vulture's Bilge Ebiri reviews 'The Adam Project,' the latest Netflix blockbuster from 'Free Guy' director Shawn Levy and Ryan Reynolds, co-starring Mark ...

When the two Adams meet, the older Adam assures us that the younger Adam is annoying as hell. And yet, the exact opposite seems to be true; the kid seems like a pretty average kid, while grown-up Adam is the irritating smart-ass. That is actually an interesting contrast between the two actors, and it could even be an interesting plot point in some future version of this movie that was put together with something resembling care. It’s all quite silly, but at least the latter parts of the film allow us to spend some time with Ruffalo, who brings the kind of emotional openness and engagement that Reynolds refuses to. Reynolds plays Adam Reed, whom we first see piloting some kind of futuristic spaceship in the year 2050, while nursing a wound in his stomach, right before he makes a time jump to the year 2022. And the strangest thing is that The Adam Project seems to know this.

NPR's A Martinez talks to actor Ryan Reynolds, who stars in the new film — The Adam Project — about a time-traveling pilot on a quest to save the future.

And I - you know, at that time, I was, you know, I put off going to the doctor. And I just - and it was - you know, it was also oddly emotional at times. I produced "Deadpool 1," "Deadpool 2," "Free Guy" and "The Adam Project." So with that is a luxury to able to work with the people that you really, truly trust in the foxhole, so to speak. I still have it just because I thought it was so funny. But I waited a couple of years, went and got an X-ray. And I found out I'd broken a couple of vertebrae in my neck. And I'm really - I know I really hurt my neck when I did it. Do you still do a lot of them or most of them or all of them? REYNOLDS: Yeah. I mean, it's - I would much rather have a kind of persona take over than, you know, have to sort of suffer through any sort of social interaction alone, in the naked light of day. And I used to try and just make people laugh as much as I could so that they wouldn't get to know me. So I developed a bit of a silver tongue as a kid. I mean, is that a little window or mirror to you as a 12-year-old? MARTINEZ: That younger version of yourself, that's played by a young actor named Walker Scobell. And he really seemed - if I could imagine you, Ryan, as a 12-year-old, that would be him.

"The Adam Project," directed by Shawn Levy, is a science fiction film that lets its engaging dialogs and an emotionally pickled narrative do the heavy.

Louis Reed stops his sons from telling him how he died, and the younger Adam gives a tight hug to his mom as he remembers what his older self had once told him. Just then, Maya Sorian, arrives on the scene, with the younger Adam in her captivity, and her younger self from 2018 by her side. Laura feels that even if the events get reversed, and the time stream is corrected, a transcendental echo stays with the person, and she is hopeful they will meet again. In the chaos, he didn’t have the time to double-check the coordinates, and by mistake, he landed in the year 2022. Both young and old Adam take a jump to 2018 and meet their father, Louis Reed. They became nostalgic as Louis Reed had died, and seeing him once again in 2018 was like reliving all those fond memories. What follows is a scuffle where Louis Reed and his sons fight the enemies. He uses junior Adam to start his jet as they do have the same DNA. So someone had changed the time stream, and so the future, from where the jet had left initially, had already been changed. Yes, the actor could be questioned for the repetitive and formula-driven choices that he makes, but what you cannot say is the fact that the performance lacks fervor. A time jet was returning from the year 2018, but the astonishing thing was that no one ever flew to 2018. Adam, from the future, was being chased by a woman named Maya Sorian, who happened to be his dad’s partner. The presence of the prolific Mark Ruffalo adds a garnish to an already appetizing platter.

Netflix's The Adam Project whizzes through its exposition to crack on with more action and jokes, so we take a step back to figure out how any of this ...

Young Adam is excited to meet his buff older self, but is naturally very confused and inquisitive about how time travel works. He wants to know if Adam remembers everything that’s happening, since they’re the same person and all. In the future, Adam has shifted his anger and grief from his mother’s shoulders onto his dead dad’s legacy: it turns out daddy Louis (Mark Ruffalo) was the one who accidentally invented time travel in the first place, causing a chain reaction that led to a very bleak future for everyone, including Adam.

Ryan Reynolds re-teams with Free Guy director Shawn Levy for this sci-fi thriller about a time-travelling fighter pilot who teams up with his 12 year old ...

Zoe Saldaña and Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds star in The Adam Project, a time-travel story about a man on an adventure with his younger self.

The form of therapy presented in The Adam Project is obviously impossible, and more than a little simplistic. But its exploration of the wounds of childhood comes from a more earnest place. (Netflix also trots out some of that Irishman technology to put Keener’s face on a body double in scenes where she interacts with her younger self.) And a romantic interlude between Garner and Ruffalo is a little too quippy for its own good. (The movie is full of “Okay, I guess” contrivances of this type.) So he breaks into the backyard of his 12-year-old self, a smaller, more asthmatic, but equally smart-mouthed version of Adam (Walker Scobell). When Levy and Reynolds — both co-producers on the film — play to their strengths, The Adam Project is zippy, agreeable sci-fi fun that produces a few good chuckles. Writer-director Shawn Levy has already collaborated with Reynolds (on 2021’s Free Guy) and shot eight episodes of Stranger Things, so combining the two is a logical next step.