‘The Adam Project‘, Shawn Levy‘s 2022 film, is one of those film projects that strives to prove that Netflix has become a production house that can rival any of the major studios. The film belongs to a hugely popular film genre – the all-family sci-fi comedy -, it is impeccably made from a technical point of view, promising quality viewings both in cinemas and in the living rooms of homes where Netflix streaming reaches, and manages to bring on screen an impressive gallery of famous actors. However, it lacks an ingredient that is essential in the production of a successful and quality film – a script fit to the other talents assembled in this production. Despite the promises, ‘The Adam Project‘ disappointed me.
The idea behind the film’s story is interesting, although not very original. Time travel is possible, has always been, even if in some periods it has not yet been discovered. Traveling from 2050 to 2022 or 2018 is therefore possible, and the way in which these journeys take place is rather similar to the space flights in ‘Star Wars’. The hero of the film, a time travel pilot, goes on such a journey to repair the loss of his loved one, is chased and injured, and finds refuge in his childhood home where he meets his own version at the age of 12. The two will get to know each other and will tram in an adventure whose purpose is … to avoid inventing temporal travel.
The filmmakers were well aware that temporal paradoxes are very complicated and chose to replace the solutions with lightsaber battles against regiments of… well, I’m not sure, but I think they’re robots, if not cyborgs or something else. Ryan Reynolds dominates the film and is really the only one who has a consistent role. As a viewer, I can only regret that actors like Jennifer Garner, Mark Ruffalo or Zoe Saldana don’t have more solid parts. The special effects are OK, but we don’t see anything new here either. Stories that combine family (and especially kids) troubles with time travel science-fiction have also already been told on screen in films such as the ‘Back to the Future’ or ‘Terminator’ series. The writers of ‘The Adam Project‘ did not try to hide these influences. On the contrary, the heroes of the film have seen all the previous films and even discuss them on the screen. Me, if I were to take my children or grandchildren to the cinema, I would prefer to take them to the original films.