It feels important before I start talking about this movie to give my periodic reminder that I’m amazed that any movie ever comes together. It requires so many people to work together on a shared vision to even succeed at putting together the most incompetent movies. No matter how cynical the motivation for a movie, there are people putting in real work and effort on it. Many films are more commerce than art, but I still respect them. While I often get flippant or reductive talking about movies, I don’t enjoy trashing any movie ever. When I get flippant or reductive, it’s out of my own laziness or because the more movies I see, the less often one stands out. That’s just how it is. With all that said…
The Adam Project feels like a movie created by the Netflix algorithm. Ryan Reynolds gets good numbers. So do action movies. They are low in the time-travel offerings. So, they popped the requirements into a machine and got this. A lot of that has to do with how little Netflix eventizes their releases. The box office release calendar is very specifically chosen. Films jockey for prime weekends and shift schedules to avoid conflicts with similar releases. So, when a major film gets released, it feels like a promise getting fulfilled. Netflix has trouble with that. They release so many films, shows, and specials that nothing gets the focus for long. They can’t build excitement in the same way. If they put a trailer for a movie on the home page too early, people just get annoyed because Netflix is teasing a movie they can’t watch yet. And removing the significance of the release date means people watch it on their own time. There aren’t even good public metrics to maintain excitement. Spider-Man: No Way Home makes $260 million opening weekend. That says 2 things: 1) Everyone is watching it. 2) I should watch it to keep up. That sustains a long box office run and pop culture domination. A film topping Netflix’s top 10 for a few days has no cache. Maybe a film is a hit or maybe it’s been slow for a few days and they just got Miss Sloane.
The Adam Project ends up feeling disposable, because instead of feeling like Netflix has anything riding on its success*, it’s just another film in their portfolio causing a blimp in numbers over time for assorted demographics. Hence, the feeling of being made by an algorithm.
*For Example. Warner Brothers needed The Batman to do well. The Fantastic Beasts sequel is doubtful to match previous installments and the next likely blockbuster after that isn’t until Black Adam in October. WB’s success or failure rides on the one movie, which gives them urgency to market it more.
Despite all my negativity, I liked The Adam Project plenty. Ryan Reynolds snarkily playing off a young person is reliably entertaining. Zoe Saldana is an all-time “plug into any action movie” actress. It is crazy how many major budget movies she’s been part of. Reuniting Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo has the nice 13 Going on 30 narrative, but more importantly, they are ringers for these kinds of supporting roles. Garner simply isn’t bad in things. Ruffalo has gotten very good at bringing the MCU-esque banter when needed then reminding you why his 3 Oscar nominations is unacceptably low. Both of them give the movie heart that Ryan Reynolds struggles to bring. I’m not crazy about Catherine Keener’s digital de-aging, but I love seeing Keener pick up a nice paycheck. Oh, and Walker Scobell does a pretty good 12-year-old Ryan Reynolds.
The action is competent yet not outstanding in a way that told me this was a Shawn Levy movie before I pulled up IMDB to check. Like, yeah. Of course this is a Free Guy follow up. The movie tugs at the heartstrings just enough. It’s an ideal 1h46m long. Just enough time to build up a world but not long enough to bore me with too many details. I liked this movie well enough even though it has strong Extraction vibes*.
*Remember Extraction? The 2020 Chris Hemsworth movie that was one of Netflix’s biggest hits ever (if you believe their numbers)? Even if you remember the movie, can you recall anything about it? I didn’t think so.
Verdict: Weakly Recommend
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