When you’re making a studio film, usually you’re trying to appeal to the broadest audience possible, ages 5 and up. That means up the entertainment value, and keep the deep introspection to a minimum. Basically get people from explosion to CGI spectacle to fight sequence, etc. The Adam Project isn’t winning any writing Oscars anytime soon, but its breezy and fun, and does what Netflix does better than its streaming competitors: creates a gateway into science fiction for kids, so they can find the Loopers, Blade Runners, and Matrices later.
Adam (Walker Scobell) is a nerdy, pathetic smartass of a 12 year old. His dad Louis (Mark Ruffalo) died a year earlier, making Adam take out his anger/sadness on his loving but frustrated mother Ellie (Jennifer Garner). Adam’s life gets upended one evening when his older self (played by Ryan Reynolds) arrives from the future, trying to stop something in the past from destroying the future.
If you’re 10 years old, The Adam Project will be right in your wheelhouse. The action sequences remix stuff that you’ll see in other movies in fun ways. There’s battles on the ground, in the air, and with magnets, all executed fine. The glaring weakspot is poor Catherine Keener’s CGI deagain, which director Shawn Levy tries to quick cut through, but it still looks hella bad. 10 year olds love smartasses, so Ryan Reynolds is perfectly cast to do his thing, though that quickly wears its welcome if you’ve seen it before. There’s cool gadgets, planes, electromagnets, as well. And pieces of the story are about standing up to bullies and loving your parents, so The Adam Project at least understands its target audience and delivers what it wants to them.
Netflix has smartly built part of itself on these gateway genre movies. The Adam Project is to scifi what Nightbooks was to horror. 10 year olds simply aren’t ready for a time travel study like Primer; they need something simple to plant the idea in their head, which is what the Adam Project is for. The movie wisecracks through the inconsistencies, giving us a couple basic rules it uses as its guiding light for the plot. Like Back to the Future, The Adam Project focuses on how time affects your relationship with your family, which kids will understand. I know Ryan Reynolds was cast for his comedic prowess, but he shows decent emotional understanding here too; the best scene of the movie is with his mother in a bar talking about their shared loss of Louis. It’s not particularly deep, but it is handled sweetly, and in a way a kid can understand what is going on. Hey, kids gotta start somewhere right, and The Adam Project isn’t the worst example of a jumping off sci-fi movie I’ve seen, barring a curse word here or there.
Shawn Levy’s the studio family movie guy. The Adam Project is for those wide eyes 10 year olds with endless imagination, and their exhausted parents who need a 2 hour break for a glass of wine and to relax and zone out a bit. Friday night family fun time, TGIF! Just one thing parents, get ready to explain why Deadpool, Gamora, The Hulk, and Electra are in the same movie. Just say “time travel” to shut them up.