The Adam Project starring Ryan Reynolds is now streaming on Netflix

Ryan Reynolds broke the rules.

In the first act of Netflix’s The Adam Project, Reynolds as the titular Adam explains to his younger self that he traveled back in time to find his wife. The younger Adam (Walker Scobell) is shocked that he would risk his life, not to mention the space-time continuum, all for a girl.

“You might feel different when you meet her,” Reynolds all but deadpans. It’s arrogant, dismissive, and a bit of a copout that saves the film having to explain its in-universe physics. It also works.

That’s the general formula of Shawn Levy’s sci-fi caper, written by Jonathan Tropper, T.S. Nowlin, Jennifer Flackett, and Mark Levin. Plot holes and worldbuilding take a backseat to charming performances and entertaining visuals that make this neat 100-movie worth a watch.

The story is simple — perhaps too simple. Between now and 2050, time travel is invented, implemented, and abused. Adult Adam (Reynolds) travels back from the future to stop time travel ever being discovered and to save his wife Laura (Zoe Saldana) — with the help of his 12-year-old self (Scobell).

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Scobell is a sheer delight in his feature debut, if anything impeded by the demand to recreate Reynolds’ signature snark with that incongruously sweet countenance. His Reynolds impression is also excellent, so this is not a critique so much as regret that we’ll have to wait for yet another role to showcase Scobell independently. Surrounded by adult A-listers, he exudes the presence and conviction of a seasoned star (again, maybe imitating Reynolds — and again, not a bad thing).

Reynolds brings the aforementioned snark, albeit nowhere near Deadpool levels and tempered with moving moments Adam shares with his mother (Jennifer Garner), father (Mark Ruffalo), and younger self. He and Saldana make the most of their limited shared screen time, selling a time-torn romance that at least one of them thinks is worth dooming the rest of humanity. Catherine Keener is mesmerizing but underutilized as the villainous Sorian, hunting Adam and Laura with the dangerous composure of someone who knows they never lose.

With Levy’s sensibilities at the helm, The Adam Project‘s visuals are vibrant and dynamic, even with the specter of dystopia in our future. The aircraft and weaponry are sleek but not distracting. People do not bruise or bleed in this universe — except Reynolds in an early scene meant to underscore his physical attractiveness — but instead burst into chaotic prisms of light and color when they die outside of their own timeline. The low point is a needlessly de-aged Keener, intended to look 30 years younger but also deeply uncanny. Sometimes we can just cast younger actors or ignore the laws of aging.

The Adam Project succeeds by not bogging down a strong emotional core with too much sci-fi minutiae. We don’t know why time travel was invented or what its purpose was before it got corrupted, nor do we know what went so wrong that adult Adam says of The Terminator: “That’s 2050 on a good day.”

And crucially, we don’t care. This is the story of a boy and his parents, a man and his wife, in which people sometimes zip through time and burst into colorful bubbles. Garner’s scenes showcase the maternal warmth here she executed so well in Juno, here worn on her sleeve with remarkable vulnerability. She and Ruffalo tap into their winsome 13 Going on 30 chemistry like no time has passed, and his role as father to the two Adams wonderfully anchors the film’s final act and emotional climax. These relationships give The Adam Project a strong foundation even if its genre elements have more flourish than depth, the way Stranger Things first struck such a chord with audiences by focusing on a separated mother and son.

Levy’s love of ’80s sci-fi is apparent. With this latest, he’s on track to create a nostalgic sub-genre that will inform its own generation of film nerds — as long as we don’t invent time travel.

The Adam Project is now streaming on Netflix.