Director: Shawn Levy

Writers: Jonathan Tropper, T.S. Nowlin, Jennifer Flackett, and Mark Levin

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Garner, Walker Scobell, Catherine Keener, Zoe Saldña

Rating: ★★★

Director Shawn Levy reunites with Ryan Reynolds for The Adam Project on Netflix. The pair previously worked on Free Guy and Levy is soon to direct Deadpool 3. The Adam Project started life almost a decade ago with Tom Cruise attached to star, which fell apart in the years since. Now the film has found a home at Netflix.

Adam Reed (Ryan Reynolds) travels back in time from 2050 to investigate the death of his wife (Zoe Saldña), who died mysteriously while in 2018. Reed travels to the wrong time and ends up in 2022 with his younger self (Walker Scobell), and they must work together to get back to 2018 to stop time travel from ever being invented.

The Adam Project is pretty much exactly what you’d expect from a Ryan Reynolds film, fast paced, quick humour and a general good time. Reynolds is doing what he does best, with plenty of quips throughout the time travelling adventure. There’s a lot of laugh out loud moments between Reynolds and Walker Scobell, with them working really well together on screen. Scobell is a convincing younger Reynolds.

Story-wise, it’s nothing revolutionary. Once you strip away the good effects and decent action it’s pretty simple and straight forward. It tries to come across as more complicated, but it’s essentially just Reed going back in time to stop time travel from being invented to save his wife. There is an emotional centre to the film with Reed going back in time to meet his former self and telling him things he wishes he knew at the time, there’s also Reed meeting his father, played by Mark Ruffalo, who died when he as a kid. While it doesn’t ever hit you like an emotional gut punch it does add another layer to the film that makes it more than just a formulaic film.

Villains acting like complete idiots is where this film is really let down. There are so many moments where they could stop Reed and co, but just don’t because then the film would be over. Moments where they have him surrounded with guns pointed at him, but they just wait for someone to save him. That happens more than once. There’s also some dodgy dialogue splattered throughout that’s unintentionally funny. It’s easy to overlook it though, but this is mindless fun.

Levy and Reynolds have created another entertaining film, proving that Free Guy wasn’t a one-off. While it’s not as good as the previous film there’s still a lot to like and it leaves high hopes for Deadpool 3.

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