The Adam Project is a Fun Sci-Fi Adventure

Movie Review:

The Adam Project (2022)

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars

Overview

Pros

• Good storytelling and entertainment
• Phenomenal actors
• Humor
• Heartfelt moments
• Strong special effects
• Fun action sequences
• Great pacing

Cons

• A little wishy-washy about the mechanics of time
• Some stuff just flat-out didn’t make sense
• Lack of consequences for certain things that probably should have had ramifications

Warning: Spoilers Below!

Review

In this movie, Adam steals a time-plane to try to investigate the disappearance of his wife Laura in 2018. Chastised by his superiors and chased by the police, Adam suffers a bullet wound and crash lands in 2022. While recovering from his injury, Adam meets his 12-year-old self, who is just as much a snarky, sarcastic loudmouth. The two of them make an unlikely team and struggle to get along. Adult Adam needs Kid Adam though, because his plane won’t clear him for flight or even let him in it while he is injured.

There are tons of problems with this. It seems like an overly convenient reason to keep Kid Adam around. Why would any plane not allow someone in it who was injured? After all, there are serious circumstances where a pilot would need to fly even when injured. And what happened when he was injured during the flight? Did the plane just freak out because an injured person was piloting it? How does that work? It seems like a safety precaution that is unnecessary.

And it won’t clear an injured man to fly, but it will clear a 12-year-old with no experience. Seems weirdly selective if you ask me.

This movie is certainly unwilling to make a commitment when it comes to the mechanics of time travel. It’s not a multiverse, and events in the past appear to sometimes affect the future and sometimes don’t. Adam seems to indicate he doesn’t remember meeting himself in 2022. But he also says there is no multiverse. There could be a third option, but the film doesn’t explore how time works, which is super strange for a film so dependent on time travel.

Kid Adam: Do you remember this? I mean, if this is happening to me, it already happened to you, right? Unless it works more like a multiverse. Each ripple creates an alternate timeline.

Adult Adam: It’s not a multiverse! My God, we watched too many movies.

The humor of the two Adams when they are together is what carries this film. Not that its storytelling is not good–it’s just that the mix of humor and heartfelt moments were the film’s high points. The best heartfelt moments were between Adam and his mother. At the beginning of the film, Adam keeps her at arm’s length while being incredibly rude. By the end, even when he does not remember what the adult Adam said about how he should treat her, he gives her a hug.

Adult Adam meets his mother earlier in the film, and without revealing himself, has an in-depth conversation with her. This is one of the most heartfelt moments because it helps him come to terms with the way he acted as a child and to at the same time give her some piece of mind.

Maya Sorian is the main villain, and it is easy to sympathize with her because the version of her in 2018 is kind and shocked at the evil things her future self is doing. She apparently was so lonely and work-focused that eventually her work became her whole life and she became obsessed with being recognized for it. That was why when Young Maya was killed, I was surprised that no one mourned her, even when she took the step and turned against her future self.

I felt like the movie lacked real consequences for the crazy time-meddling they did. They all pretty much got what they wanted, even though Louis still died. And that was something that happened originally anyway. Adam was able to patch up his life, reconcile with his mother, and meet the woman of his dreams all over again. Time travel ceased to exist, which creates an enormous paradox that no one bothered to consider.

Overall, this movie was entertaining if not completely satisfying. I would recommend it for anyone who likes sci-fi-flavored action movies.