Free Guy

RATING: B

This is one of those movies that when the marketing/trailers first dropped, it looked like a likely disaster waiting to happen--possibly amusing and with some promise, which would probably be wasted. Pixels came to mind for some, and Ready Player One detractors winced as well. Shawn Levy being the director didn't help matters, as he does not exactly have many outright successes to his name (discounting box office success). And yet, against all odds... it turned out to actually be decently good? 

Free Guy centers around an open-world video game much in the vein of Grand Theft Auto, with some Fortnite thrown in for good measure. Our main character is, quite literally, a video game character--specifically, an NPC (non-player character) with a generic name of Guy that is also played by Ryan Reynolds. The human players whose avatars show up in the game are distinguished by their sunglasses, and are literally called "sunglasses people" by the NPC's. One day, Guy acquires one of these pairs of sunglasses, and his eyes are basically opened as he sees the world around him as a human game player would. He falls in love with/comes into partnership with a player-character named Molotov Girl (Millie in the real world) as he comes to learn there is a threat to his world, as well as the truth of his existence. 

Free Guy is certainly a heavy dose of self-indulgent fun which relies on a fair amount of modern-day video game humor that some of the older viewers in the audience may not understand--particularly some of the Fortnite nods. That's really one of this movie's biggest problems--how it can rely sometimes on current-day references where it's a crapshoot as to whether they'll have aged well 5-10 years from now. 

But surprisingly, this film really does work a lot better than one might expect. There is more depth to the story than you'd expect, as the film explores at times to what extent Guy is really "alive." The characters and acting are genuinely likable and avoid more annoying tropes. Ryan Reynolds is basically playing himself again, as he has been for the last five years in basically everything he's been in--a hit-or-miss strategy, but it works well enough here. The real standout is Jodie Comer in her breakout role, as she switches seamlessly between her more dorky real-life character and the more confident action-girl avatar in the game, being quite enjoyable in both roles. Joe Keery (Steve from Stranger Things) is also a welcome presence, and Taika Waititi manages to be appropriately over-the-top in the villainous role.

And despite some of the humor relying on current understanding of hot video game fads, this movie really is quite funny; some of it is similar to the Lego Movie, particularly in the opening scenes. And there is some fun action to be sure as well; some of it does rely on fanservice/nostalgia, but it hits the mark more often than not. 

The problems with the movie do revolve partially around how the plot unfolds. Despite having unexpected depth, it is still a bit convoluted. More importantly, the ending doesn't entirely feel like it properly wraps up all of the character arcs. Considering that part of it revolves around literal code--that has become self-aware--falling in love with an avatar of a human being, it's possible they wrote themselves into a corner, but it still feels mildly unsatisfying with the oddly quick manner things are wrapped up. 

That said, Free Guy is an unexpected success overall. It may still be rather hit-or-miss at best for those who are less likely to find enjoyment in this kind of movie to begin with, but the movie takes a concept that could have easily fallen victim to painful silliness or mediocrity and actually makes it work for the most part--and remains genuinely fun as well. Free Guy might not be for everybody, but the target audience might be surprised to find a little something more than just disposable popcorn entertainment.