A time traveling tale

Time travel: the hypothetical phenomenon that provides the power to jump between the future and the past. Although the sought after invention of a machine with the ability to slip in and out of eras still fails to exist, in the new Netflix Original film “The Adam Project,” I was able to get a glimpse of what a contraption of the sort could potentially do.

After accidentally crash landing in the year 2022, time traveling fighter pilot Adam Reid (Ryan Reynolds) teams up with his nerdy, smart-mouthed 12 year old self (Walker Scobell) on a mission to save the future from failure. Along the way, both Adams break every rule of time travel imaginable: reconnecting with past versions of themselves, informing others of events to come and changing the future.

Right away I noticed a major difference between “The Adam Project” and other Netflix Originals that I have watched previously like “Tall Girl” and “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before:” it wasn’t cheesy. Not only was the action packed plot entertaining, but the film had a strong line up of actors to aid in its execution. Without seasoned professionals like Reynolds, Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo the film would have soared downwards just as quickly as Adams spaceship did upon atmospheric reentry.

Throughout the film, future Adam and past Adam had a unique dynamic with each other that kept me laughing. The two’s mixture of friendly banter and annoyance with one another created an engaging screen presence that filled the gaps in between the adrenaline-fueled fights against evils from the future. Their sense of humor paralleled each other but there were still clear differences between them which helped to show Adam’s growth overtime. 

Although their relationship was certainly entertaining, at times it was frustrating. Future Adam continuously degraded past Adam for his quickie, scrawny and asthma-diagnosed self. It was clear that he had a loathe for both his past personality and his actions. I felt like this aspect was almost too exaggerated and it needed less weight in their relationship. 

Another relationship that I would have liked to have seen rescripted was the one between future Adam and his reentry specialist wife Laura (Zoe Saldaña). Her role in the movie was simply to save Adam a few times and then die at the hands of the enemy. I think that she should have played a larger role in the movie and stayed alive through the final action scene where time travel was stopped for good.

Past Adam was the hidden gem that tied the movie together. Even though he knew next to nothing about time travel, he still managed to teach future Adam important lessons about forgiveness. Following his time travel inventing father Luis Reid’s (Ruffalo) death, future Adam resented him, but past Adam was able to shed light on memories with him that were closer to him in time. 

“The Adam Project’s” strong acting, balance of action with emotion and frequent moments of character growth all took part in it changing past events and it became a movie on Netflix that I will be viewing again in the future.