The Adam Project (2022) – Film Review [Netflix]. A good Netflix family movie?!

Uncomplicated time travel movie starring Ryan Reynolds. Surprisingly successful, fun and full of heart. As the parent of a little boy, I visited him like a beaver! A great example that Netflix can still do that if it wants to.

I wonder if Ryan Reynolds stars in his movies. His characters are always the same – loud and frank mocking the other sentence. Interviews with him show that he behaves exactly the same way in everyday life, so I propose a thesis: Ryan is the worst actor in the world, because in every film he is simply the same and only presents the script. “Project Adam” director Shawn Levy, who also made “Free Guy” last year with Reynolds, decided to install his star and hire an actor who had to play Ryan, more precisely his younger version. And I must admit that Walker Scoble, who first appeared in front of the camera, did an excellent job.

Adam Project (2022) – movie review [Netflix]. Simple concept with a lot of heart

We start from the center of events. Adam Reed (Reynolds) escapes from someone in a spaceship, then travels back to the past. He travels home, where 13-year-old (Scoble) is arguing with his mother (Jennifer Garner) after he gets into a fight at school. You see, Adam lost his dad a while ago (Mark Ruffalo) and he’s been pretty naughty ever since. It’s his way of dealing with the pain of losing a parent. The men meet each other very quickly and begin to work together to save the world and Adam’s wife (Zoe Saldana). Simple but effective.

The problem with today’s film is that it puts the viewer in the middle of the action, but it doesn’t put the right context for it. In three words, he tells us what the future looks like, and the rest, dear viewer, imagine the rest yourself. We meet characters who share Red’s past, but we don’t know what exactly. You can see that guys don’t like each other, but why? However, I’m only talking about side evils, so she can be forgiven, but I ask the viewer to worry about Zoe Saldana’s fate, because “a cool girl, you’ll see” is not enough. I have no idea why she was so awesome, why her relationship with Adam was so strong, and when she finally appears in the movie in person, her performance is limited to throwing a few sentences and disappearing again.

Fortunately, Adam’s relationship with at least his parents was written correctly. Both the late mother and father have a chance to blink. Writers have something to say, and they can say it in a poignant and poignant way. The guy immediately wants to hug his parents or children and thank them for being there. I won’t darken, in the third trimester, literally every few minutes, tears were falling from my eyes on their own, in numbers I’m afraid I’ll dry up.

Adam Project (2022) – movie review [Netflix]. Solid effects and lightsabers

The situation with bad guys is even worse. Katherine Keener does her best to be a heartless “chew scene”, but her character is clearly uninteresting and backward – although she also comes across as imran. And the deepfake that rejuvenated her wasn’t the best I’ve ever seen. Its face is so lifeless that it’s more associated with characters from games from the previous generation of consoles (or even earlier ones), rather than what people usually look like.

Other visual effects look much better. Both spaceships and weapons look pretty good for TV productions, and their creators certainly have nothing to be ashamed of in that regard. There’s even a NON-lightaber that makes murdered aliens from another time beautifully decompose into a billion pieces, like Spider-Man in “Infinity War.” Tobias Schliesser’s camera isn’t afraid of long shots, and while this isn’t a movie that focuses on fight scenes, it should be noted that they were shot fairly efficiently. The camera then lets the carrier and the operator run between their actors, staying far enough away to never cover the action, and to make everything properly visible.

Adams are the heart of the film. If their story had not been shown, the entire movie would have been sunk. Fortunately, the creators were able to find a miniature version of Ryan that perfectly matches his style, sense of humor and speed of speaking. Basically the entire Red family does this movie. The events sometimes lack context, the action is OK, and the entire movie is shot in three intersecting places, but all of that doesn’t matter, because “The Adam Project” isn’t another stylized space opera, but an intimate family movie. About loss, suffocation in anger, the need to give up – not only to others, but also to oneself. It just so happens to have spaceships and lightning cars, too. And fun.