The Adam Project Deepfake Controversy: Why The Deaged Villain Looks So Bad
Warning: this article contains SPOILERS for The Adam Project.
Netflix's The Adam Project includes a strange deepfake that left many viewers complaining. The Adam Project marks the second time that Ryan Reynolds and director Shawn Levy collaborated, with their first movie together being 2021's Free Guy and their next upcoming project being Deadpool 3. Following the relatively original concept in Free Guy, which is about an NPC who gains sentience and autonomy in his video game world, The Adam Project is a standalone time-traveling movie beginning in 2050. Adam Reed (Ryan Reynolds) is on a mission to find his wife Laura (Zoe Saldaña) in 2018. However, a malfunction lands him in the year 2022, in which he runs into his 12-year-old self, played by Walker Scobell.
As the movie progresses, the general mission of stopping time travel altogether evolves. As is the case with most movies of its genre, The Adam Project establishes time travel rules that the main antagonist, Maya Sorian (Catherine Keener), disregards for her own gain. She travels back in time to tell her younger self what to do to control the means of the valuable discovery, and in doing so, she dangerously disregards the ethics of time travel.
Related: The Adam Project: Every Easter Egg And Time Travel Movie Reference Explained
Due to Catherine Keener's recognizability as an actress, viewers are saying that her younger self's deepfake conjures up the dreaded "uncanny valley" effect on top of poor execution. The uncanny valley effect regards the emotional response evoked by images imitating a human likeness. When something seems realistic yet not realistic enough, the image emits a sense of discomfort. That said, something that clearly doesn't mean to seem
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