After the bizarre misfires that showed up in Free Guy, I’ll admit that I’m a bit apprehensive about seeing Shaun Levy and Ryan Reynolds teaming up again, especially so soon. But knowing that these two are also doing the next Deadpool movie after this, I’m also hoping that this serves as a better example of them working with each other’s sensibilities. I’m not expecting a masterpiece here; just something that will restore enough faith that Deadpool 3 has a chance of working, considering I can already see a creative choice for that film that has a high chance of screwing up. But we’ll get to that when that film comes around; for right now, we have this to take a look at.
It's a time travel action flick as filtered through an ‘80s Spielberg family adventure film. It involves Reynolds as the time travel pilot Adam who travels back from the future and accidentally finds himself face-to-face with his former self (Walker Scobell) in the present day. While the time travel logic itself can get a bit convoluted, that’s only in as much as most time travel plots get a bit convoluted, particularly when it comes to the causal logistics of what’s going on.
Besides, it’s ultimately here to prop up the emotional drama to do with past regrets and lingering daddy issues, and in that regard, I’d say this does surprisingly well. Reynolds is doing his usual schtick, and Scobell does a terrific job reiterating that, but it’s the handling of that kind of humour against the tone of the story that’s actually kinda impressive. Reynolds’ screen persona works by riffing on the stories he finds himself in; having fun despite what’s happening to him. Whereas here, both he and Scobell take time to appreciate how fun all of this is, that time travel is a reality and that they have a chance to gain some kind of closure with it, along with learning a thing or two from each other; having fun because of what’s happening to them. Balancing that much snark with that much wonder isn’t easy, since they tend to cancel each other out in most cases, but Reynolds, Levy, and the admittedly-crowded writer’s room manage to pull it off.
It helps that the presentation for the more genre-heavy aspects of the production are well-done. The CGI can be a bit conspicuous in places, with the de-aging work done on Catherine Keener being a particularly Uncanny example, the action scenes and the camera work therein show off some cool-looking fight choreography, and Reynolds (with his stunt double) gets to kick some arse in exciting fashion. The effects by DNEG and Scanline FX on the future tech especially looks very nice, with the kind of texture detail that holds up to some scrutiny.
I’ll admit that the film’s emotional punch is much stronger during the first act than it gets later, as that’s when it focuses the most intently on the relationship between the two Adams, but as a complete package, it’s a decent sci-fi yarn. Its approach to the ‘going back in time to change things’ conceit thankfully avoids endorsing the more unhealthy attitudes attached to it, which happens more than you’d think with all the time loop narratives of the last several years, the acting is solid, and it ultimately did what I wanted it to do above all else: Convince me that this director has a chance of making a good Deadpool movie.
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