Friday 11 March 2022

Film Review: "The Adam Project" (2022).


"Past Meets Future" in The Adam Project. This science fiction action film directed by Shawn Levy and written by Jonathan Tropper, T.S. Nowlin, Jennifer Flackett, and Mark Levin. After accidentally crash-landing in 2022, time-traveling fighter pilot Adam Reed teams up with his twelve-year-old self on a mission to save the future.

In October 2012, it was announced that Paramount Pictures acquired the rights to Nowlin's spec script Our Name is Adam with Tom Cruise attached to star. However, the production went into development hell. In July 2020, the project was revived when Netflix bought the rights from Paramount with Levy hired to direct and Ryan Reynolds attached to star after previously collaborating on Free Guy (2021). Trooper, Flackett and Levin were hired to rewrite and polish Nowlin's script. By late November 2020, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Garner, Catherine Keener, Zoe Saldaña, Alex Mallari Jr. and Walker Scobell rounded out the film's cast. At the same time, principal photography commenced and wrapped in early March 2021. Filming took place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

The film stars Reynolds, Ruffalo, Garner, Keener, Saldaña, Mallari Jr. and Scobell. Reynolds and the cast refuses to let audiences leave the film without being entertained, no matter how silly matters get.

Though initially targeted at younger teenaged boys, the film has somehow made more of itself and become a feel-good movie both families and adult escapists will applaud. I don't know where your past self meets your future self on your moral spectrum, but I'd take a pre-teen to see the film, as long as we had a long talk afterwards about the consequences of time travel. The film envisions a future where your future self can meet your past self. Great special effects and cool fight choreography makes this a must-see. The film offers plenty of fun and engaging moments -- of both the human character drama and giant CGI sci-fi time travel variety. The ending is predictable and played out with all the drama that's typical throughout the film. I'd say Levy missed the mark on the target audience for this one. Even though the story is paint by numbers and there really isn't anything new being done in this it is still pretty enjoyable. The film has cliched high concept blockbuster written all over it and yet, miraculously, it is one of the most effective family films I have seen in many a moon. It's as corny as Kansas, but the mix of old fashioned heart and new fangled animatronic sci-fi tech will make this picture a winner. All things considered, it is a well-wrought piece of entertainment, confidently paced, although its necessary subplots are little more than dutiful filler sandwiched between fight sequences. A feelgood film about family, friendship and growing up, the film was always going to attract cynicism but it really does a fine job of delivering for a young audience. By no means is the film an original one, at least in terms of its base story, but that doesn't mean it's not an effective, tear-jerking kids movie.

Simon says The Adam Project receives:



Also, see my review for Free Guy.

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