Before dominating the box office with Deadpool and Wolverine, Ryan Reynolds and Shawn Levy had already successfully collaborated in Free Guy and in this 2022 Netflix science fiction film, where they brought back the spirit of family-oriented cinema from the eighties. 

Reynolds plays pilot Adam Reed in The Adam Project who makes an emergency landing after being injured while stealing a time-traveling jet, and after a bumpy interstellar journey, returns to Earth to meet his 12-year-old self. 

Alongside that preteen version of himself and his late father, Adam will reconcile with his past while trying to save the future of Maya Sorian, the leader of a dystopian world and director of her company Sorian, who plans to monopolize time travel.

Science fiction for the whole family

This is the story of a time traveler who escapes from 2050 to his past and who must save the world in less than two hours, inspire his preteen self, forgive himself, prevent time travel from being possible, and confirm that couples united by true love are destined to find each other in this and all other lives.

With a stellar cast that also includes Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Garner, and Zoe Saldaña, The Adam Project combines entertainment and escapism cinema with decent special effects, the self-aware humor typical of Ryan Reynolds, and nostalgia for the emotional productions from Steven Spielberg's Amblin production company.

There are spacecraft, robots, weapons with disintegrating rays, lightsabers, a charming child actor, and an adorable dog. The Adam Project is not an epic adventure or intellectual science fiction, so the best approach is to watch it without expecting a scientific basis, or delving into the whys and hows of certain events being resolved, because what really matters is the emotional part.

It's a mix of comedy, family drama, and romance that uses science fiction as an excuse to give its protagonist a second chance, and while there is no narrative ambition, there is also no cynicism or nihilism.

Cinema doesn't always have to be transcendent. This movie certainly isn't. And while you leave it the same way you entered, at least it will have been very good company for almost two hours, and that is often all we need.

*This article has been automatically translated using artificial intelligence