The Adam Project passes the Netflix algorithm test.

Maybe Watch It?

It’s been a little while since I have watched a Netflix original movie. What I remembered from the last few I watched were they felt like they were created by an AI that just looks for the buzz words it can find from viewer patterns. I figured though, why not check out The Adam Project. Director Shawn Levy makes fun movies, and I enjoy the Ryan Reynolds humor. Well, this movie still feels like it was made by the Netflix AI checklist, but with the exact things I just described.

The Adam Project is a solid, unoffensive, pre-teen adventure movie. It has a simple sci-fi plot about time travel, which gives the excuse for some flashy special effects. It has very clear lines of good, Ryan Reynold’s Adam Reed, and bad, Catherine Keener’s Maya Sorian. It even gets MCU alums Mark Ruffalo, and Zoe Saldana in the mix to give it a little more star power. It’s simple, the plot moves quickly with little time to really think about what’s going on and isn’t really trying to do anything that will stick in your brain. Typical Netflix content.

I won’t waste time nitpicking the plot because the movie isn’t trying to blow your socks off in that department. It’s simple stuff, think of an even more bland version of simple MCU plots and you get the idea. The most interesting about this movie which happens to be the heart of the movie is the dynamic between Reynolds’ adult Adam Reed with Reed’s twelve-year-old self played by Walker Scobell. Reynolds has a very specific kind of humor and Scobell does a pretty great job nailing that style but in a young boy’s delivery. They have solid chemistry and honestly if it wasn’t for that this movie would be a slog to get through.

What you get is once more another by the numbers movie that you can put on with the family or have on in the background to pass the time. Do you NEED to watch this movie? Not at all, but if you enjoy simple action-adventure movies for families or family-friendly Ryan Reynolds you might want to give The Adam Project a watch.