Review: The Adam Project – Lacks Originality to Stand Out – Update

By all accounts, The Adam Project should’ve worked fantastically, what with its cast, director, and a plot like something straight out of a Steven Spielberg film. Unfortunately, it doesn’t hit the bullseye in its attempt to create a new sci-fi classic, or even anywhere really that close.

Still, there’s still plenty to like about The Adam Project. Zoe Saldaña, Jennifer Garner, Mark Ruffalo, and Ryan Reynolds all give stellar performances, particularly Reynolds in quite possibly a career-best performance. These actors’ interactions with each other are all pitch-perfect and full of heart and soul. Walker Scobell is, I suppose, fine as young Adam, although it’s pretty obvious this is his first film, especially since he’s with so many skilled and experienced cast members. Maybe he’ll get better the more projects he’s in, but for this film, the adult actors are the ones that steal the show.

The Adam Project balances comedy and drama to a mostly successful result. Really, it’s the acting and directing that makes the dramatic scenes work – even if the writing isn’t quite there, Shawn Levy still manages to pull greatly affecting performances from his cast. You might sob, you might not, but you will definitely feel something. Never in the film do the emotional moments feel cold or halfhearted.

All that said, while this was clearly a passion project for both Levy and Reynolds (who’s also a producer on the film), it’s hard to tell if the writers were on the same page. The writing certainly isn’t terrible, but it’s also very secondhand and paint-by-the-numbers. Young Adam in particular isn’t written very interestingly, acting like the stereotypical 12-year-old boy you encounter over and over again in films, books, and TV shows. He likes geeky movies and video games, he says “Woah” and “Awesome” to action scenes happening in front of him, he gets bullied by stock bully characters and even stops in the middle of the bully chase scene to talk to a girl he has a crush on. Everything you expect from a character his age is there. Given that Adam’s the title character, it’s disappointing there isn’t much more depth given to his younger self.

While the movie is funny enough, for every two jokes that land, there’s one that doesn’t. This may be a career-best performance, but Reynolds still has moments where it feels like he’s just playing himself. Given that his character is interacting with his 12-year-old self in this movie, it’s not surprising how many corny jokes there are, especially in conversations between the two Adams. It’s forgivable, I guess — you don’t watch a Ryan Reynolds movie without expecting his requisite humor to pop up every now and then.

What isn’t forgivable is how rushed the relationship between adult Adam and young Adam is. They go from hating each other to loving each other really quickly, so much so that it feels like the film is missing a scene or two to really develop their friendship. Again, this is paint-by-the-numbers writing – the writers need adult Adam and young Adam to get along in order to make the inevitable “learn from each other” scene effective and you can tell certain lines were written not because they felt natural to the scene but because the writers wanted you to believe the two Adams were getting closer.

The sci-fi elements of the film are uninventive and uninteresting. You can see the fingerprints of so many sci-fi films that came before it like Star Wars, Midnight Special, E.T., and even Meet the Robinsons. While there are worse things than borrowing heavily from your influences, that also means The Adam Project just doesn’t do enough to make it stand out and really be its own thing.

Ultimately, this is The Adam Project’s biggest failing — even with so many talented names, it still can’t compensate for its lack of creative ideas. This disappointingly feels like a film you watch on a lazy Sunday afternoon when you’ve got a few hours to kill and not one you’ll remember the same way you remember all the iconic classic sci-fi films that came before it.