How frustrated would you be with younger you? I mean if you could time travel and have a conversation with yourself, would it go well? I gotta believe mine would go ok. Somehow I can’t believe I’d bullshit me. And I’d be sympathetic, cuz I know how I’d react to most stimuli … even a younger and ever-so-slightly less mature version of me.
Anyhoo, I ask because this is another film in which a person gets frustrated with the past version of himself … which strikes me as very self-loathing. And while I generally do not like that as a subplot, I did enjoy The Adam Project.
The film starts in 2050 and stays there for about 30 seconds. Fighter pilot Adam Reed (Ryan Reynolds) has to retreat to the past to undue a wrong that has nothing to do with his mother or Biff Tannen. No, this one has to do with his father (Mark Ruffalo), the inventor of time travel. And he did so with darn little mention of a “flux capacitor” or “1.21 gigawatts” if you ask me.
And immediately, the screenplay has a 12 Monkeys problem … “science ain’t an exact science with these clowns” for Adam has undershot his target and arrived after the damage has already been done. But that’s OK, because it allows us to explore the relationship between 2050 Adam and 2022 Adam (Walker Scobell). This is the best part of the film … and there’s a lot of it.
In 2022, Adam is 12 and kind of exactly what you’d expect of Ryan Reynolds – a kid whose mouth gets him into a lot of problems that his puny 12-year-old fists cannot get him out of. Truth be told, I might be a little frustrated with the pubescent smart-mouth version of me. Spite and cynicism are not always the best ways to express humor, despite what 12-year-old you thinks. And 2050 Adam has to get the help of 2022 Adam 
because the older version got shot while stealing the time machine.
That brings up an interesting question … how long would it take 12-year-old you to recognize an older version of yourself? It would take me … a while. Luckily, this Adam was pretty sharp on the uptake. So … can 40-year-old Adam and 12-year-old Adam team up to save the planet from dad’s obtuseness? Oh, and Catherine Keener, who is pretty damn evil in this film.
We just had a lot of fun with Shawn Levy directing Ryan Reynolds in Free Guy. The Adam Project isn’t quite as fun as Free Guy, but it’s hard not to like the combo of wise-cracking Ryan Reynolds and a dystopia; that’s what made Deadpool so effective. Few people in the history of cinema were meant to critique their milieu like Ryan Reynolds … and the more ridiculous the milieu, the shaper he is. I cannot say this was a perfect watch; I wasn’t wild about the science and much as I enjoy Mark Ruffalo, I thought the film slowed considerably when accounting for dad and science. But the film is pretty darn watchable when you’ve got an Adam on screen with either mom (Jennifer Garner) or wife (Zoe Saldaña – when did Zoe acquire a tilde?); while this isn’t a perfect combo, I would likely never tire of Shawn Levy and Ryan Reynolds together.
It’s Ryan Reynolds and his Mini Me
Altering our world history
It’s totally cool
Picturing Kid Deadpool
But turns out this one is li’l R.I.P.D.
Rated PG-13, 106 Minutes
Director: Shawn Levy
Writer: Jonathan Tropper, T.S. Nowlin, Jennifer Flackett
Genre: Our screwed future-present
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Did you like Free Guy?
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Time travel purists
