Behind “The Adam Project”
The Adam Project is one of those movies that I don’t even need to see the trailer before I want to watch it. Ryan Reynolds and Mark Ruffalo in the cast was all I needed to hear to peak my interest. The further I looked into it, the more excitement I had. A sci-fi film with comedy, adventure, and drama gave me high hopes about loving this film. In this media review, I will explore why this film attracts viewers to its characters and stories using the concepts from chapter 6 of Renee Hobbs’ book, “Media Literacy In Action”.
A time-traveling shuttle crash lands in the year 2022 with Adam Reed (Ryan Reynolds) piloting the plane. He then mistakenly meets his younger self and goes on a wild journey to save the world from messing up the timelines.
Personally, I felt that this film invoked a lot of emotion. During one scene I was laughing, and another I was crying. Without spoiling the ending, I will say that the writers and producers of the film are able to resolve the conflict in an unexpected way. They brought so much emotion into the situation and the characters, and although I have not gone through anything like what was being presented, I still felt like I was a part of their story. This is a Netflix production, which means only the people with Netflix are able to watch it. The trending movie was where I first saw the thumbnail. From what we have learned in this class, this thumbnail could have been specifically targeted to what I typically watch. Regardless of if it was the algorithm that got me to watch it or not, I definitely do not regret watching this movie and recommend it to anyone who likes science fiction and comedy.
Chapter 6 of “Media Literacy In Action” helped me understand and analyze what made me so attracted to this film, including its characters and the story line. One of the main topics from the chapter is the paradox of tragedy. This is when stories present a tragic event which invokes strong negative emotions for the viewer. In “The Adam Project”, there was a tragic event that was mentioned but ultimately pushed under the carpet throughout the whole movie. However, towards the end, it becomes a central point that begins the entire resolution to the story. This scene is where the concept of emotional truth comes in. Emotional truth is the reasoning behind what makes fictional stories feel like they are more real than nonfiction stories. Although there are a lot of aspects of this film that are clearly fake, this specific scene seemed so real. Obviously, time traveling as we know it has yet to be invented. The whole idea of talking to someone who is not really there is a new concept I had not really thought about. I am personally connected to someone who has experienced the same tragedy that the characters in this story go through. Because of this, I shared emotion with them and with the characters in this story. We cried together, and it was emotionally satisfying, even though it was sad. The final topic from chapter 6 that is very present in the film is some of the basic plots. One of which is the quest, where Adam goes through time and has a lot of loss which leads him to save the world. Another basic plot point is the voyage and return. This is when a main character goes into a strange world and has to escape. Although they try to keep it relatively realistic, the young Adam has no choice but to see the future world and also even go back in time. They together had to stop the creation of time travel in order to get back to their correct timelines.
Overall, this film is a very well thought out plot which I would recommend to everyone who has access to it. The mechanics behind how emotion provoking the movie is are very thorough and noteworthy. The value within this is immense because of the way the characters and story points develop and conclude. You will definitely have to watch this film to know more about the tragedy and emotional truth involved in Adam’s life. I have appreciated being able to further develop my skills of awareness when it comes to why we are attracted to characters and stories. It has helped me more easily find content that I know I will or will not like to watch.
Here is the link to the trailer if you would like to check it out!
