THE ADAM PROJECT (2022) - Movie Review

Director: Shawn Levy
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Walker Scobell, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Garner, Zoe Saldana, Catherine Keener
Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy
Writer: Jonathan Tropper, T. S. Nowlin, Jennifer Flackett, Mark Levin
Runtime: 106 min
Rated: PG-13
Buy This Movie: Netflix

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Synopsis:

After accidentally crash-landing in 2022, time-traveling fighter pilot Adam Reed teams up with his 12-year-old self on a mission to save the future.

Review:

"The Adam Project" finds Ryan Reynolds going back in time to 2022, but it might as well have been the 1980s. The nostalgia is strong with this one, as director Shawn Levy crams the movie with scenes that are either inspired or pay homage to some of those '80s classics like "Back to the Future", "ET", "Terminator", "WarGames", "Project X", "The Manhattan Project" and even "Field of Dreams". Even the movie's poster emulates the old school look of sci-fi adventures. It's obviously the "Stranger Things" effect, which Levy also executive produces, and it's funny that for a movie set in 2022, it doesn't reference any modern pop culture staples.

The movie also borrows heavily from "Guardians of the Galaxy", mixing sci-fi action with rapid-fire one-liners and a selection of music that as you may have guessed is also not from the 2000s. It's mostly entertaining, if you can look past the filmmakers' obvious content-filler cash-grab intentions, but it also never quite manages to get the nostalgia formula right, and the humor is mostly cringe-inducing.

Reynolds is mostly playing himself like in every other movie he's in these days. His interactions with his kid-self, played by Walker Scobell, are mostly annoying and the gags are poorly written. That's what happens when you just rip off the '80s without understanding what made those movies work. Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Garner are actually more entertaining and fun to watch in this movie, and I would have much preferred these two as the leads.

On a technical level there's not much to say. The visual effects look expensive and cartoonish at the same time, which breaks the immersion. All the action scenes are well shot and competently put together, but still feel empty and soulless. Apparently the movie cost around $116 million to produce, horrible overkill when the original "Back to the Future", for example only cost 19 million, which adjusted for inflation is around $55 million in 2024.

While "The Adam Project" isn't a horrible movie, it's just another corporate product, content for streaming devoid of authentic emotions and creativity, and basically everything wrong with modern filmmaking.

SCORE: 5/10