The Adam Project (03.18.22)

 

More is not always better, especially when it comes to movies. Bruce the Jaws shark looks fake? Show him to the audience less. Your protagonist is going through some heartbreak? Show that on their face-- don’t have them say “hey, guess what, I am going through some heartbreak” and then launch into an explanation of why. In the same vein I find it a bit tiring how almost every action movie ever has grandiose stakes that usually include saving nothing less than humanity itself. The Adam Project is, partially, yet another example of this eye-rolling cliché, but I can forgive it because the smaller, more personal moments that it also features work quite well, as does the comedy and action itself.  

            The Adam Project is one of those time-travel movies, and as such it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense if you stop to think about it for even a moment. I certainly didn’t. As soon as Ryan Reynolds started to say something even remotely timey-wimey my brain shut off and I looked at my phone. I don’t think I really missed much, though; the saving-the-world-through-time-travel plot was mostly secondary, instead serving as the backdrop of the smaller story of a family learning to heal after great tragedy. Newcomer Walter Scobell plays the twelve-year-old Adam, who is visited by his future self (Reynolds), and the resulting duo is highly entertaining. Not only is Scobell a dead-ringer for a younger Ryan Reynolds, but he also nails the same comedic timing and snarky cleverness that made his older counterpart famous (I’m still not entirely convinced Ryan Reynolds exists and isn’t just Deadpool in disguise). The supporting cast is also impressive, featuring big names such as Jennifer Garner as the mom, Zoe Saldana as the wife, and Mark Ruffalo as the dad, and the brief runtime of 1 hour and 46 minutes means that nobody overstays their welcome.  

            The fight choreography is also well done, and the coolness of all the bouts is greatly boosted by the licensed tunes that kick in every time the fists start to fly (how Netflix could afford to license a Led Zeppelin song when the band members are notoriously picky over which movies they are featured in, I have no idea). This is the only good part of the soundtrack, unfortunately, as the original tracks are all highly unoriginal and generic. Speaking of highly unoriginal and generic, the futuristic tech showcased in the film, as well as the overall look, is that of your typical sci-fi fare with little to differentiate it from the myriad of other movies of the same ilk. Compounding the blandness is poor CGI, which I guess is to be expected and subsequently forgiven for a streaming original. The bad guys are also kind of just there to be bad guys. You don’t need to know or care why.  

            Overall I enjoyed The Adam Project. Sweet, funny, and exciting, it is the perfect example of small scale being the right scale. 

            The Adam Project is now available on Netflix.   

This review was first published in The Keizertimes on March 18th, 2022. Visit at http://keizertimes.com/

The Batman 03.11.22)

 

When the Comics Code Authority was established in the 1950s to appease those who thought the funny books were corrupting the minds of children with questionable themes, inherently dark characters like Batman entered an era of lighthearted camp. It was not until the 1980s that Batman would permanently reclaim his throne as the prototypical dark-and-troubled king of angst, despite LEGO and George Clooney-with-bat-nipples iterations. Before now, the darkest version of Batman to ever glide onto the silver screen was in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy, a series that helped elevate comic book movies to more “serious” cinema. But just when I thought the Caped Crusader couldn’t get any darker, Warner Brothers decided to double down with The Batman, an extremely well-made, intense film that, much like a black hole, does not let a single photon of light escape its inky depths.  

            Directed by Matt Reeves and led by Robert Pattinson’s almost uncomfortably unhinged, brilliantly subtle, and undoubtedly Kurt Cobain-inspired rendition of the titular hero, The Batman is not for the faint of heart. There is no comic relief to be found, the violence is regularly even more brutal than The Dark Knight at its bloodiest (it is still, somehow, PG-13), and the mystery at the center of it all demands your full attention and brainpower for the entire 176-minute runtime if you expect to understand everything that’s happening. If these things don’t turn you off you will find The Batman to be a fantastic watch. The supporting cast, which includes Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman, Jeffrey Wright as Jim Gordon, and Paul Dano as the startlingly creepy Riddler, is perfectly cast and act the heck out of a script that is sharp if not always compelling. Some of it feels like a horror movie (who imagined the Batmobile could be so scary?), some of it feels like a David Fincher-esque psychological thriller in the vein of Se7en or Zodiac, and none of it is what I would describe as “fun.” The Batman is not a movie you want to see if you want to escape the horribleness of the real world and watch a superhero bam, smash, and pow their way through a colorful rogues gallery for a few hours. “Colorful” is the very last word I would use to describe The Batman-- black, dark red, and various shades of gray seem to be the only colors that exist in this version of Gotham City.  

            This limited and dreary color pallet is one of a few nitpicks I had that kept The Batman from reaching loftier heights in my estimation. I had other issues as well, such as the soundtrack, which is overly bombastic, far too intrusive, and has a fixation on a certain two-note refrain that will drive you absolutely insane by the time it is played for the millionth time, as well as the script’s occasional dip into melodrama and self-importance (some of Batman’s brooding voiceovers come uncomfortably close to self-parody at some points). Yet despite these flaws, The Batman is a thrilling, well-crafted film that is well worth your time if you don’t mind your movies having a whole lot of dark and not a lot of fun.  

            The Batman is now available exclusively in theaters.  

 

This review was first published in The Keizertimes on March 11^th, 2022. Visit at http://keizertimes.com/