The Adam Project

A very weak family sci-fi, and I can't believe is written by the same people as Free Guy. Ryan Reynolds doesn't stand out significantly here, the Hulk and Zoe Saldana are ornaments rather, the action is little and boring, and otherwise there's basically just talk. It's uninteresting, has no drive and really nothing else worth watching. I'm kind of wondering who the target audience is, because it's too sterile for adults, too uninteresting for kids, and teenagers will be bored too... (19/03/2022)

One of the most pleasant surprises of the year. I admit that I’ve been quite saturated with Ryan Reynolds lately, which is why I kept postponing The Adam Project, but after watching it, I’m mildly enthusiastic. The film features a nearly Spielbergian drama about time travel and meeting your younger self. It offers a precise visual style, including a few successful action sequences. Reynolds doesn’t overact in the lead role; instead, he delivers a focused performance. The young kid is great and might have paved the way for a bright future. But what really captivated me was the story. In the second half, Mark Ruffalo joins the cast, and it honestly boosts the entire plot (in a positive way). I’m not afraid to admit that it even brought me to tears. Some scenes genuinely hit hard, leaving no dry eyes (the baseball throwing between the father and two versions of his son totally broke me). Excellent sci-fi. For me, it’s 8/10. (20/09/2022)

I was hoping for a fun movie, but what I got was a surprisingly dull experience bogged down by family drama that I could have done without. The action scenes did add a bit of life to it, but the overall plot plays fast and loose with the logic of time travel, bending the rules as it pleases. Even with Ryan Reynolds in the lead — who's been a solid fit for adventure films lately — this one misses the mark. (24/03/2022)

The first Netflix blockbuster of the year from Shawn Levy and Ryan Reynolds, who obviously hit it off, but sadly it’s just average for me. Free Guy was probably the director's peak that he won't surpass (maybe with Deadpool 3, we'll see). Anyway this sci-fi family adventure with a touch of Spielberg works story-wise and emotionally, but the humor is too family friendly and normal and the action is downright routine and uninteresting (for my taste), too family friendly. I found the first half entertaining, thanks to the novel premise and well explained time-travel plot, but the second half seemed kind of out of pace and I endured it until the end. I'm obviously not the target audience, the film will no doubt find its fans, but for me it unfortunately doesn't stand out on any level. Story 4/5, Action 2/5, Humor 3/5, Violence 0/5, Fun 3/5 Music 3/5, Visuals 4/5, Atmosphere 3/5, Suspense 2/5, Emotion 3/5, Actors 4/5. 6/10. (14/03/2022)

After Free Guy, like a lot of other people, I thought Shawn Levy had gone into his own and had finally grown from a routinist into a director who could be genuinely interesting. After Project Adam, I don't think so. Indeed, this Netflix family-action sci-fi film that pretends to want to follow in the footsteps of Back to the Future, E.T., and those adventure films that Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis once made, managed to impress in the trailers, but it's a lot weaker in feature form. It's as if Levy was given a ten-page manual on “how to make old-school family sci-fi flick in the twenty-first century quickly and easily”, just copied it, and then he ditched his own invention. With Project Adam, you can tick off all the Spielberg and Zemeckis stuff, either in the themes the film addresses or in direct references. Levy manages to offer solid action, Ryan Reynolds playing Ryan Reynolds (you decide for yourself whether to take that as a positive), and the film works quite well in individual. But unfortunately, those individual scenes don't really build on each other and the emotional moments alternate with the action or funny situations without any substance, and then it's all over. And it doesn't leave a strong impression, just the feeling that Levy is a solid executor, but without a really good script he can't really scratch above the average. (14/03/2022)