The Adam Project

Paying tribute to Back to the Future and other kid-friendly science-fiction adventures from a generation ago, The Adam Project winds up overshadowed by those influences.

This uneven comedy from director Shawn Levy (Free Guy) brings its own freewheeling attitude to a throwback coming-of-age saga about redemption, self-discovery, and curiosity about what’s out there. Yet its fanboy charisma and splashy effects-driven set pieces — lightsabers, anyone? — feel manufactured.

“Time travel exists. You just don’t know it yet,” opens this chronology-bending plot in which 12-year-old Adam (Walker Scobell) finds a pilot in his garage that turns out to be a 40-year-old version of himself (Ryan Reynolds) who has crash landed on a time-travel mission from 2050.

They bicker at first before bonding over memories of their late father (Mark Ruffalo), a scientist whose death leaves the youngster funneling his hostility toward his mother (Jennifer Garner). He needs to clean up his act before he winds up like, well, you know.

Details are gradually revealed about the older Adam’s motives for coming back, how he accomplished it, and why futuristic soldiers are chasing him with their high-tech vessels and gadgets.

It turns out he’s got a wife (Zoe Saldana) who needs rescuing, and a corporate tycoon from the future (Catherine Keener) who’s gone rogue. Trying to atone for decades of tragedy and regret, he can’t focus on the future because he’s stuck in the past.

The fast-talking wiseacre role seems written for Reynolds, but diminutive newcomer Scobell is a mischievous scene-stealer who proves equally adept with rapid-fire quips and witty banter. The dual Adams generate considerable charm with their chemistry.

However, the screenplay stumbles when it must inevitably get down to the business of explaining its concept, particularly the science behind the time-travel gimmick. Spouting mumbo-jumbo about how revealing too much will cause “catastrophic risks to the timestream” doesn’t cut it.

The buy-in is challenging for a story that doesn’t withstand much logical scrutiny, bogging down in melodramatic final-act contrivances about adult Adam’s perilous effort to save his own future, and that of the world for good measure.

While juggling sardonic one-liners with sci-fi mayhem, The Adam Project doesn’t yield the intended emotional resonance. Effective in spurts, its ambitious premise eventually becomes lost in space.

Rated PG-13, 106 minutes.