The logic behind Netflix’s newest time-traveling adventure The Adam Project is held together by pure will and decent special effects. 

After accidentally crash landing in the year 2022, futuristic fighter pilot Adam Reed (Ryan Reynolds) teams up with his 12-year-old self (newcomer Walker Scobel) on a mission, the specifics of which remain unclear for a good portion of the film. 

Within the first act, we learn that adult Adam did not initially intend to end up in 2022. Instead, he was trying to travel back to 2018 in an attempt to change the events that led to the death of his wife, Laura (Zoe Saldana). Adult Adam’s motivations only become murkier throughout the film as they shift from a selfish urge to fix his own life to a need to end time travel at its very inception. 

Bad movies tend to have either not enough plot or so much of it that other aspects of the story are left unaddressed. Somehow, The Adam Project manages to have both of these issues. 

There were times while watching this second collaboration within a year between Reynolds and director Shawn Levy — the other being Free Guy — that I could feel the gravitational pull of boredom beckoning my eyes away from the screen towards my phone. Those places where the film drags are then counteracted by its need to do too many things at once. 

On the one hand, The Adam Project wants to be an exciting time-traveling sci-fi adventure where the heroes are chased by the Walmart version of Stormtroopers and save the world. But it also wants to be a sappy family drama that addresses grief, parental relationships, bullying, the realization that time travel isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and that only you can change your future. 

When the filmmakers are able to combine these factions, however, The Adam Project hits its groove. Adult Adam is on a noble journey to make peace with his younger self and his parents, and the scenes where he’s able to accomplish that goal yield some of the film’s most touching moments. 

If you can get past the logistics, Levy’s latest effort might be a mildly enjoyable option to watch with middle school-aged children on a night when you have nothing better to do. Aside from that, it’s perfectly acceptable to skip. 

Grade: C. Rated PG-13. Available to stream via Netflix

(Photo: Doane Gregory)