Aside from comic-book adaptations, few family-friendly science fictional films have made it into the mainstream in the last decade. There have been a few animated ones, such as Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, but The Adam Project harkens back to a long-dormant genre in terms of live-action science fiction adventures. The genre was flourishing in the mid-2000s.
So, if Ryan Reynolds’ latest has left you feeling nostalgic, here are some family-friendly science fiction adventures to watch after The Adam Project.
1. Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005)
Director- Jon Favreau
Walter and his six-year-old brother, Danny, are bored to death. They discover a forgotten 1950s space-adventure board game in the dusty basement. The boys immediately begin playing the game. Before they know it, a furious meteor shower has destroyed their living room. The mystery game has uprooted their entire house, transforming it into a fantastic spaceship on its journey to Saturn. Whether they like it or not, the brothers and their adolescent sister, Lisa, will have to find out a way to work together. In order to escape the perilous asteroid zone and survive the attack of the Zorgons, a vicious reptilian race.
2. The Mitchell vs. The Machines
Director- Michael Rianda
Katie Mitchell, a quirky, Michigan-raised wannabe filmmaker, has been accepted to the famous California College of Film, brimming with inventiveness. Katie is excited to spread her wings and pursue her cinematic aspirations. But she is taken aback when her well-intentioned father Rick plans to take one last cross-country family road trip to her college instead. As the technological divide between parents and children deepens, evolution gives birth to rebellion elsewhere in the cosmos. An all-out, full-scale invasion begins. They now have the upper hand since everything with a chip is alive.
3. The Shaun of the Sheep: Armageddon (2019)
Director- Will Becher, Richard Phelan
After the great rescue mission in Shaun the Sheep Movie, something sinister is happening in the idyllic community of Mossingham (2015). A mysterious, fast-moving UFO enters the Earth’s atmosphere and. It crashes near the lush Mossy Bottom Farm as cheeky Shaun orders pizza for the woolly flock under the nose of the Farmer and Bitzer, the ever-vigilant sheepdog. Now, light-years away from home, Lu-La, the exceptional benign creature from the depths of the cosmos, is in terrible danger. Can Shaun and the other lambs provide a hand and safeguard their new extraterrestrial friend from the Ministry of Alien Detection and its ruthless boss, Agent Red?
4. Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams (2002)
Director- Robert Rodriguez
Carmen and Juni Cortez, two young OSS agents, are now full-fledged spies, although only as Level 2 agents. When a top-secret, super-powerful technology is stolen, the brother-sister team sets out to recover it. Their mission takes them to an unexplored island, where they must battle a competing Spy Kid team as well as a swarm of bizarre beasts. The Cortezes only discover their objective is a set-up to draw them into a trap later. And they have no idea that their parents are following them.
5. Tomorrowland (2015)
Director- Brad Bird
Casey Newton is a brilliant scientist who aspires to travel into space one day. Her father works at the NASA launch centre in Cape Canaveral, so she’s confident she’ll get her opportunity. When the facility is about to be shut down, Casey sneaks in and tries to stop them by sabotaging the equipment. She is apprehended and imprisoned; when she is released, her personal items are delivered to her, including a pin that she claims is not hers. She finds herself in a futuristic metropolis as she touches it. Casey wants to go back when the pin runs out of energy, so she searches online for someone who might know something about it.
She goes there, and when she speaks with the locals, they inquire as to who gave it to her. They don’t believe her when she says she doesn’t know and refuse to let her leave. They eventually show that they are equipped with superior weapons. All try to shoot her, but she is saved, and she learns that the attackers are robots. Athena is the name of the person who saved her. She claims that Casey must assist in the preservation of the future. She arranges for Casey to meet Frank Walker. He refuses to assist her when she sees him. When they are attacked by other robots, however, they attempt to return to the location she saw.
6. Race to Witch Mountain (2009)
Director- Andy Fickman
The teen, human-like extraterrestrial siblings, Sara and Seth, end up in the back seat of former mob getaway driver and now a Las Vegas cabbie, Jack Bruno, after crash-landing their fast spaceship on the Earth, somewhere in the hot deserts of Searchlight, Nevada. With their lives and the fate of their world in Jack’s hands, the twins go on a frantic adventure across the forest, as US Homeland Security officials and an armed-to-the-teeth alien bounty hunter pursue them. The race has begun, and the unusual team’s sole chance of completing their perilous goal lies deep within the mythical Witch Mountain.
7. Meet The Robinsons (2007)
Director- Stephen John Andeson
Lewis, an orphan, is curious about his mother’s appearance. As a result, he creates a contraption that scans your brain to reveal your memories. However, this strange kid claims to be from the future and warns him of a man wearing a bowler hat. The guy in the bowler hat messes up his innovation, and it fails. He comes to the conclusion that he is a failure and that no one wants him. But the boy who warned him about the man is here on a quest to track down the bowler-hat wearing assassin who wants to kill Lewis. He brings Lewis to the future to prove he’s from the future.
However, the time machine malfunctions, trapping him in the future until he can repair it. Meanwhile, he enjoys quality time with his family. But the bowler hat person is ready to change the course of history, and it’s up to Lewis to stop him.
In the end there is no right or wrong answer to which science fiction movie you will like best. Which ever one you choose should be viewed, enjoyed, and ready to suspend some belief.
