The Adam Project

 This review may contain spoilers!

 

The Adam Project follows Adam Reed, a young kid struggling with school bullies and the recent loss of his Dad. His entire world is turned upside down when his future adult self travels back in time in an epic adventure to save their wife and prevent the creation of time travel from ever occurring. At its core this is a film about relationships, the bonds we have with one another and how these connections affect our emotions. I loved seeing the dysfunctional relationship between Adam and his future self, the way his younger version was quite annoying and rude while the adult Adam was blunt and sharp-tongued. They both dealt with personal pain in extremely different ways, but only through understanding one another were they each able to personally grow from it. I loved the more turbulent relationship between Adam and his mother, a woman who is trying to stay strong even though she really struggles with her own grief. Also the extremely loving relationship between Adam and Laura was really right at the heart of the film, their chemistry was so immediate in spite of the short screen time it got. Finally, I think this film even wrapped up pretty positively by reonciling the feeling each of the Adams had towards their father, it was a moment of open and sincere love that I really liked.

 

Ryan Reynolds, who played Big Adam, actually leads this film quite well; despite it being somewhat outside of his usual role he portrays a character with a chip on his should well and pairs it nicely with his usual sharp wit. Jennifer Garner, who played Ellie Reed, is such an empathetic maternal figure; I loved how Garner portrayed the private struggle her role was facing with raising her son and grieving over the loss of her husband. Braxton Bjerken, who played Ray, is actually quite a good classic bully; I like how he flares up in retaliation to verbal barbs and was a nice minor antagonist for Scobell's role.

 

However, the best performance came from Zoe Saldaña, who played Laura. This may very well have been the main character with the least physical screen time but Saldaña puts the work in to have you absolutely hooked from the start. Her introduction is fast moving, high octane action that sets the bar for the best action sequence in the feature. Laura immediately becomes this tough fighter who handles herself almost better than Adam can, she is certainly more objective oriented throughout the fight. Saldaña and Reynolds have insane amounts of chemistry before they even start speaking, which is applaudable on Saldaña's part considering how late she arrives in the feature. But the way these two reunite with one another is full of yearning and this immense amount of joy that feels real. I was really impressed with the pain Saldaña portrays when she has to explain that Adam has to leave her yet again and erase their timeline, I think it was the best moment of acting in the entire film.

While I think the heart and true intent of this film tends to shine through it often lets itself down in the execution and the structure. From a narrative perspective I felt The Adam Project could've worked a little harder to find some consistency. When the two Adams first meet it takes a long time for the film to really narrow down on how it wants adult Adam to be. He has moments where he can be very broody and grim, and others where his sharp wit is as fast as his younger counterpart and he wears his heart on his sleev quite openly. This awkward beginning with our two main stars is a good example of how this film knows what it wants but struggles to gel things together. The entire antagonist sci-fi storyline is always less appealling than the characters themselves, and if you pay too much attention its certainly not the sort of sci-fi story built to engage the viewer. Watching both Adams rather abruptly go from missing their Dad to meeting an abrasive version of him, whom they trade punches with to get one another to listen for some reason, isn't a great segue into the final act of the film. I also couldn't really fathom why the film struggled so much to place younger Adam in the forefront as the film moved along, especially when we'd been seeing so much of the sotry from his perspective up until that point. The cinematography is very rarely good, often keeping to shots that set up the big special effects reveals. However, that visual choice is let down by the overwhelmingly poor special effects. The entire sci-fi jet chase before the final act looks horrible and a lot of the CGI seems separate from the other elements of any given shot. I thought the score was very generic action fanfare, while the soundtrack wanted to be a blend of Guardians of the Galaxy and Top Gun  but just came off as dated.

Walker Scobell, who played Young Adam, is a performance I was initially impressed by but found myself less so throughout the feature; the fact is Scobell is good at imitating Reynolds' witty delivery but flounders at portraying the emotional range required for his role. Mark Ruffalo, who played Louis Reed, is difficult to ever really like as this stoic and abrupt role; his portrayal of a distant father married to his work is quite two-dimensional and something I've entirely seen before. Catherine Keener, who played Maya Sorian, is shockingly offbeat as the major antagonist for the feature; her entire self-serving plan is never convincing and she just feels like your stereotypical big evil corporate figure. Alex Mallari Jr., who played Christos, is one antagonist role too many in my opinion; nothing is ever gained by giving Keener's character a henchman with dialogue so Mallari has no reason to be here.

It's an inspired cast with some good messages but ultimately tends towards quite a shallow blockbuster venture. I would give The Adam Project a 6/10.