The Adam Project

The Adam Project (2022)

Directed by Shawn Levy

Screenplay by Jonathan Tropper and T.S. Nowlin & Jennifer Flackett & Mark Levin

Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Walker Scobell, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Garner, Zoe Saldaña, Catherine Keener and Alex Mallari Jr

I was entranced in the Oscar season that I wanted to see a regular movie. This came out recently and I wanted to check it out.

The basic premise of the film is that Big Adam (Reynolds) time travels from 2050 to 2022 which he stumbles upon his younger self (Scobell) as they try to figure out how to get back to his own timeline.

Reynold's sarcasm can be hit or miss in movies. If he is playing the merc with the mouth or playing a vampire killer with nice abs, good. If he is playing a fighter pilot with a green construct suit or playing a romantic lead, it falls flat. I enjoyed the humor in this movie.

This preteen boy is dealing with a lot with bullies in school, dealing with being the smallest sixth grader alive or having to live without his father.

The dynamic between Young and Big Adam is the anchor of the movie. Without that rapport with each other, this movie was have not worked as it did. The third act of this movie was a lot to take in. Some people would think it was mushy. I enjoyed it. Reminds me of Field of Dreams. 

The biggest strike against this film is the serious rotoscoping of one of the characters. Took me out.

Rating: 7/10

Green Lantern

Green Lantern (2011)

Directed by Martin Campbell

Written by Greg Berlanti & Michael Green & Marc Guggenheim and Michael Goldenberg

Story by Greg Berlanti & Michael Green & Marc Guggenheim

Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Tim Robbins, Angela Bassett, Peter Sarsgaard, Mark Strong, Jay O. Sanders, Taika Waititi, Geoffery Rush and Michael Clarke Duncan.

I caught a snippet of Green Lantern when I was flipping through the channels. I looked through the information about it and it has a low rating. I heard that the movie was okay, but I didn't think that the movie was going to be that bad. When I saw the entire movie while I was waiting for DC Universe Online to download on my PS3, I thought the movie was truly awful.

As I said when I was reviewing X-Men: First Class, that I am a big comic book geek. Not a much as my older brother, but I know a thing or two. I am bigger fan of the DC Universe than Marvel. I was following this movie since it was in its casting phase when everyone was wondering who was going to play Green Lantern. Anybody from Bradley Cooper to Nathan Fillion were being mentioned. When Ryan Reynolds was cast, I was fine for the most part. Even though he played a hero in Paper Man and Deadpool in Wolverine and I made a big rant about it, but another than that, I was fine.

For those who don't know about the Green Lantern lore, a dying alien Abin Sur (Temuera Morrison) comes to Earth to find a successor. He finds it in cocky test pilot Hal Jordan (Reynolds) who gives him the ring and the lantern to power his ring. With the ring on, Hal can create constructs by using his mind against his enemies. The movie stumbles as it shows that Hal Jordan tries to be a part of this elite intergalactic police force known as the Green Lantern Corps, but is underestimated by the Corps.

My first impressions of the movie was the movie was so boring. A yawnfest! The first half of the movie meanders about the relationship between Hal and Carol Ferris (Lively). Whatever. There is also the weak relationship between Sen. Hammond (Robbins) and his son, the mad scientist Hector Hammond (Sarsgaard).

I thought that the bad guy of the movie was going to be Sinestro (Strong) like it was in the comic books, but turns out to be Parallax. Wow. This dust cloud with a head is the bad guy. Really? I guess, Hector was the bad guy as well. The Elephant Man was going to bring down Green Lantern with his ET finger. Please! The way that Hector screams in an operatic tone made me laugh out loud when he was infected by Parralax.

I thought that the movie was going to be like Iron Man. It was going to have cool special effects, dialogue or action sequences; it didn't have any of that. I was not thrilled with the action, which was clunky. The dialogue was laughably bad that I could not wait to mock it. There were four people that wrote that brick of a script. I expected more out of Greg Berlanti. I love his work. It saddens. I did not care about the characters, the action, anything. They made high ranking Lanterns, Kilowog (Duncan) and Tomar-Re (Rush) into bit players. WTF!

The only good thing about this film was that you get to see Ryan Gosling in tighty-whiteys twice. That is not enough to save this abomination to celluloid. This movie is worse than Catwoman and that is saying a lot. If you will excuse me, I have to wash the bile from my mouth.

My Rating: