Free Guy - Movie Review

Video game movies have a pretty bad history. They're often poorly made and sometimes barely connect with their original source material. Directors like Uwe Boll (House of the Dead, Bloodraine, Alone in the Dark, and Postal to name a few) and Paul W.S. Anderson (all the Resident Evil movies) have milked video game movies in the most horrible ways and as a result they are often looked down upon by gamers and film enthusiasts. In the second half of last decade though things have begun to change for video game movies. While we had stinkers like the Assassin's Creed movie and any of those Resident Evil movies, we've also had pretty good ones like Detective Pikachu and Sonic the Hedgehog (after the redesign was done). It's been way better for video game TV series with Castlevania and The Witcher receiving great acclaim for their outstanding productions. This week's movie is an original "video game movie" brought to you by the voice of Pikachu: Free Guy!

Free Guy is about a man named Guy (Ryan Reynolds) who is actually an NPC (non-playable character) in a universally acclaimed game called Free City. One day he meets a female player called Millie (Jodie Comer) while enjoying his usual cup of coffee with two sugars. Seeing this girl though causes him to fall in love with her and start doing things differently from the normal NPC. Eventually this leads him to start leveling up by being the good guy and beating up trouble-making players for money, guns, and other accessories. Millie though is on a mission to find proof that the creator of Free City, Antwan (Taika Watiti), stole code from a game project she and her friend, Walter (Joe Keery), made on their own. Soon both Millie and Guy have to work together to save Free City, collect proof of the theft, and possibly solve some romantic issues.

I think we can all safely say that Ryan Reynolds is now a household name. He was already doing movies for years before he put on the red and black spandex suit that is Deadpool, but that character and film has made him kind of a legend now. So when I saw the first trailer back in mid 2019 I was instantly sold on the concept. It looked like Ryan Reynolds was going to be in Grand Theft Auto the movie, which sounds like the perfect combination for dumb fun! But the movie got delayed from July 3rd, 2020 to December 11th, 2020. Then it got delayed to May 21st, 2021. THEN it got delayed to August 13th, 2021 and thankfully that was the final time it got delayed. I was so angry in how many times it got delayed, but now it's over!

What I got out of Free Guy though wasn't exactly what I was expecting. This film was more well written than I was expecting and the use of video game logic, topics, and references were much better done. In fact this might be the best film out right now that uses the concept of a video game. What I mean by that isn't the best use of a s single video game franchise or IP, but the best use of video games as a whole. As somebody who went to college to study video games and animation there were a lot of moments I wasn't expect, but was very pleased to see. The movie showed how difficult it was to produce, balance, and keep a game running. There were also a lot of video game terms that, with the writing of the film, even non-0gamers could get. My parents also went to watch the film though and they aren't as knowledgeable on games, so a lot went over their heads.

There is also of course a lot of video game references. We got Grand Theft Auto (of course), Portal, Halo, Far Cry, Megaman, and Fortnite to name a few. There were also cameos from a few famous video game streamers like Ninja, Jacksepticeye, and Pokimane. I knew those were going to be in the movie, but they weren't just five second appearances and then they're gone, they popped up multiple times in the movie and provided great commentary, which surprised me in a pleasant way. These gaming references were not just lazy write-ins, instead they were implemented pretty dang well while still keeping the story focused on the original title. To put it simply, it felt like the people behind this movie actually play and understand video games instead of just reading up the articles on Wikipedia. Just the setting of Free City, a normal city where you also see people driving around in tanks, doing weird dances out in public, shooting guns and flamethrowers into the air, and wearing the most ludicrous of clothing shows this.

A problem I do have with the movie however is that it wasn't as funny as I was expecting it to be. A majority of the jokes in the trailers, ones that made me roar with laughter, were either removed completely or turned into throw-away lines. For instance there's a great joke about a Guy picking up a health pack and remarking on if that's how recreation drugs felt like. That's frickin' hilarious, but we don't get it, which severely disappointed me. There's also another a "lifetime supply of virginity" that was also really hilarious in the trailers, but it was just a throw away line in the film. Beyond these trailer jokes there also felt like there were a few moments missing that could have been funnier than what I got.

Saying this though there were still moments that made me howl with laughter. There is one about a cappuccino that I couldn't stop laughing at. Basically Guy decides he wants to have one instead of a normal coffee and all the NPCs in the cafe look at him like he's a lunatic. There's even a cop that shows off their gun and says, "Do you want to get shot?" That's not even the best part of that moment, it goes on in the best way! There are also great moments involving NPCs repeating dialogue and actions they're programmed to do over and over again. As said though this film could have been funnier. There was a "Wilhelm Scream" in the trailer, but none in the movie (as far as I know). Every action movie needs that scream or else it feels incomplete.

Let's get to Ryan Reynolds now because I'm sure everyone wants to know if he's just playing himself in this film. Yes, yes he is. So that means he will entertain you no matter what. He's very lovable, innocent, and fun with his character, while adding the right amount of charisma to it. I mean his main line in the film is, "Don't have a good day. Have a great day," which normally is just the dumbest of dialogue, but with works well with Ryan's performance and the tone of the movie. I also got to give props to Jodie Comer and Joe Keery for their great performances in the film. I didn't think I would be caring for the actual human characters in the film, but those two did great with their roles. They got great chemistry with one another and there was a pretty good job balancing the interactions between Millie and Guy with Millie and Walter.

A character I really liked in the film, though I feel some others might not, was the big boss, Antwan. Taika Watiti is a very fun actor and very skilled director and seeing him in the trailers instantly sold me on him being the bad guy. You see if there's one thing we gamers hate, it's game company CEOs. They are often greedy, unreasonable, unwilling to listen to their employee's problems, and will do anything to vacuum every last dollar out of your wallets or bank accounts. They have no moral dilemmas in offering slot machines and loot boxes, which many consider both to be a form of gambling, to eight year olds, often resulting in the kids and possibly their parents having drained funds because of how little children's brains are adapted to this type of excitement. Taika Watiti's performance is exactly what many of us gamer see a game company CEO to be: Corrupt as hell and willing to push their employees to inexcusable levels of overwork to get their products selling. More than that though he's just a really fun guy and Watiti clearly is languishing in how cartoonishly evil his character can get.

The writing of Free Guy is interesting because, as I said, they utilize their video game references and the concept very well. The film has moments that are smarter than what most of us were expecting. A good example of this is why Guy suddenly wants to disobey their programing and get with this girl/ female avatar. I thought it would be just a simple glitch that makes no sense, but gives an excuse for Guy to chase after her. They do an interesting thing with it though. The film also mixes the real world with the digital world better than I was expect. Also we don't have any "women in distress" situations for our main heroine, which I feel another director would not have minded adding in.

On the other hand, there writing of the film is also a bit predictable. Not just because the trailers showed a little too much of the story (though that marketing was Ryan Reynolds quality), but also because the writing just felt a bit too similar to stories we've had before. The fact that the main guy meets a girl and starts going to great lengths to get to know about her and possibly have a relationship with her is a trope that we've seen for ages. There's also a bit of poor pacing at a few points in the film and tiny bit too much focus on the real world with Millie and Walter, which I'm sure most people would turn down in favor of Ryan Reynolds shooting guns and beating up baddies in a video game. I don't know if people are going to mind this too much with how crazy of a concept this film is, but it's still something I could definitely notice and so have to bring up.

The film also breaks a few of its rules sometimes. When I walked into the movie I was expecting, as stated before, the writing to not be too serious, that it was going to be silly and just plain fun. But with the smarter writing now some of the rules the movie sets up become more important. For instance there's a moment (as seen in the trailer) where Guy somehow manages to kiss Millie's avatar and a joke is made about Guy "finding the button to do that." But then later on (also shown in the trailer) she manages to kiss Guy herself and that breaks the rules. These rule violations are small, but they do effect the quality of the story. But maybe only for those that don't want to turn their brains off.

Free Guy was a surprising film. I wasn't expecting much, just some dumb fun. Instead I got something smarter than I was expecting with more heart to it. Not a perfect film, but a really fun film! In fact I call it the best cinematic equivalent of a video game so far! Next week I'm definitely going out to watch this again because I would like to see if I've missing anything during my first viewing. Maybe my initial rating will go up after a second viewing. Now if only Hollywood could put this much effort and heart into every other video game movie. I swear to god if they fuck up the Borderlands movie...

Tentative Score: 7.5/10

A little spoiler right here, but there's an Avengers cameo in this film. When I saw the actor on the screen, I was like, "OH MY GOD!!!" and I pointed right at the screen.