Ryan Reynolds’ sappy time travel fail

Fantastic science fiction should not be a sobfest. Which is the No. 1 situation facing “The Adam Job,” an artificially psychological Ryan Reynolds vehicle on Netflix about a time traveler who satisfies his kid self. The movie is drowning in sap.

You yawn by the uninspired action sequences — just 30 years from now, we apparently will wield low cost-hunting lightsaber rip-offs — and then are nauseated by overdramatic exchanges this sort of as this:

Character 1: “But what about your foreseeable future?”

Character 2: “YOU’RE MY Long term!”

Delicate, fellas.

The suggestion-off that “The Adam Undertaking,” which at one place was set to star Tom Cruise, would stop up as suburban tweedom with spaceships is the casting of wholesome Jennifer Garner as the mom of 12-calendar year-outdated Adam (Walker Scobell).  

He’s been bullied at university considering that his physics professor dad died, and his mom is starting to day again. One night when Adam is dwelling on your own, a stranger displays up in the backyard get rid of, and we quickly master that the intruder is Significant Adam (Reynolds) from three a long time down the line.

Allowing us know Major Adam’s identification from the outset is a enormous mistake due to the fact it gives the pair nowhere to go. It is like if Darth Vader dropped “I am your father” in the initially scene of “Star Wars.” From there, the motion picture is not significantly a lot more than Reynolds doing his common spastic shtick even though a preteen mimics him.

Major Adam’s objective was to hop back to 2018 to damage time travel and avert the loss of life of his spouse (Zoe Saldana) at the arms of Maya, an anodyne villain played by Catherine Keener. But he overshoots and lands in 2022. (Awful decision, gentleman.) Massive Adam’s father (Mark Ruffalo), it turns out, is the person who invented the technological know-how. Collectively, the Adams venture 4 several years into the previous.

Whom this movie is for, I could not convey to ya. It is secure and condescending ample for little ones. For instance, when guns are made use of in a combat to get rid of tremendous troopers, the baddies poof into a fume of pink dust. Demise has in no way looked so adorable! Although it is a smooth PG-13, “The Adam Project” is stylistically geared towards 5-year-olds who aren’t going to observe a movie about time journey and frayed dad or mum-kid interactions. 

Today’s teenagers and 20-somethings are too good for a movie so dumb.

Were being the material far better, it would be perfect for its director, Shawn Levy, who helmed the large “Free Guy” and generates a different youthful sci-fi adventure on Netflix, “Stranger Factors.” But “The Adam Project” is a return to his significantly less illustrious times of schlock and awww: “Night at the Museum 2” and “The Internship.”

To partly quotation Dr. Emmett Brown, Levy requires to go again … to the drawing board!