'Free Guy' Review
PG-13: Strong fantasy violence throughout, language and crude/suggestive references
Runtime: 1 Hr and 55 Minutes
Production Companies: Berlanti Productions, 21 Laps Entertainment, Maximum Effort, Lit Entertainment Group
Distributor: 20th Century Studios
Director: Shawn Levy
Writers: Matt Lieberman, Zak Penn
Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer, Lil Rel Howery, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Joe Keery, Taika Waititi
Release Date: August 13, 2021
Theaters Only
In Free Guy, a bank teller who discovers he is a background player in an open-world video game decides to become the hero of his own story… one he rewrites himself. Now, in a world where there are no limits, he is determined to be the guy who saves his world his way before it’s too late.
Movies with storylines inspired by or centered around video game culture often fall into the cracks of mediocrity or don’t fully commit to their premise. Yes, you have the recent Jumanji reboot franchise, which takes place in a vintage video game, or Wreck-It Ralph that follows a video game character through some sort of existential crisis, but Shawn Levy’s Free Guy might be the first film to fully understand the landscape of today’s video game industry. On the surface, the story is focused on an NPC (“non-playable character” for you n00bs) named Guy who learns his world is a video game and attempts to be the main character, but there’s more to the story than that. This concept is The Truman Show meets Wreck-It Ralph or even The Lego Movie, but Free Guy succeeds on its merit as a fun and exhilarating action-comedy that is also a wonderful ode to the online multiplayer video game landscape of today.
The narrative focuses on a bank teller named Guy (Reynolds). He’s an NPC who follows the same routine every day in an open-world Saints Row-meets-Fortnite PC game titled Free City. He is sort of content with his life until he becomes completely smitten with a player named MolotovGirl/Millie (Jodie Comer), a top player of the game who happens to be on a mission of her own. Outside of the game world, Millie is a game designer who plays Free City to find evidence of the code made by her and her programming partner Keys (Joe Keery) that she assumes was stolen by Free City's director Antwan (Taika Waititi). As Guy pursues Millie’s heart, he’s inspired to break his NPC routine, learning more about his individuality and true destiny to become a hero of his game.
Within the past decade, Ryan Reynolds has simply been playing variations of himself with nearly every role, even before his Deadpool features were green-lit. He consistently portrays a cynical, crass, and short-tempered character. It’s his whole shtick. As Guy, Reynolds expresses a fresh new range. Because his character is meant to be a one-note NPC who lacks depth, Reynolds puts on a charming, optimistic attitude with little to no sense of Ryan Reynolds-isms. From his upbeat and “golly gee” line deliveries to his overall positive attitude, this is the first time in forever where Ryan Reynolds is playing a different character.
While Reynolds channels that nostalgic charm from his ‘00s rom-com days, he’s paired with Jodie Comer, a badass action star as proven by her role in Killing Eve. I watched this movie with my lesbian sister and she’d often mutter, “Ooh she’s so bad,” during the sequences of action she leads the charge in.
There’s an incredible amount of effort put into the world that Guy inhibits which factors into the entertainment value as a whole. The functionality of Free City bleeds between the realms of GTA, Fortnite, Saints Row, and Overwatch, yet it has the same effect as Tron where it stands on its own as a fun world with a set of rules that fits into the current landscape of online multiplayer gaming. Director Shawn Levy fully realizes this open world where the video game aesthetics are full of color while Free City itself breathes with vibrancy and life. Levy has a long track record of working with big-budget CGI-heavy products and knows how to deliver well-choreographed action sequences. Needless to say, all of the action sequences are fun and as well constructed as the world itself.
Apart from how well Free City’s worldbuilding is depicted, the film ultimately shines through Matt Lieberman and Zak Penn’s screenplay, which might be the first time that a piece of media accurately captures the landscape of modern video game culture. When I say this movie understands the current culture in gaming, I mean nearly every facet of the industry is present through dialogue that’s riddled with gamer terminology and subtle commentary on shady business practices at game development studios. The downright evil practices that Free City’s game director Antwan does are not so far off from the stuff you see corporate heads of real game development studios do today. It’s funny to see this movie, which was initially supposed to release prior to the launch of games like Cyberpunk 2077, poke fun at the egotistical management whose leadership results in underdeveloped and incomplete games. This is definitely the first movie where an integral plot point is delivered via Twitch stream and it feels completely authentic. Seriously, this is the first time since that South Park episode “Make Love Not Warcraft” that a piece of media nails video game culture in a loving and positive light.
The film finds a perfect balance without pandering to gamers or alienating your average moviegoer. It even makes bold choices in storytelling and structure that are as ambitious as they are effective. So many of the movie’s beats, from the romance between Guy and Millie to Guy coming to his own, and the overlying gamer aspects all feel earned. While it has weak areas that are too on-the-nose, the big twists and turns make it more thematically complex than anticipated. Everything comes from a consistent and loving place that I found to be more effective than Ready Player One. It delivers on its original concept with surprisingly strong wit, passion, and heartfelt execution… until the third act.
Free Guy tries to be one of those movies that have an anti-capitalist message with its antagonist, played by a very hammed up yet hilarious Taika Waititi as a greedy, money-hungry hot-shot whose focus is capitalizing on his game’s IP. It’s a very relevant theme that works, especially since this is an original narrative in a summer crowded with sequels and reboots. But oooooh, that goddamn MOUSE! Okay, indulge me for this movie’s history because that mouse’s meddling makes its anti-capitalist voice hella hypocritical. It’s common knowledge that Disney now completely owns Fox due to the acquisition in 2019. Free Guy was well into production around that time and while Disney was in the process of shutting many productions down, Free Guy remained as one of the last pre-merger movies that was allowed to be released under the new Disney-owned label (along with Spielberg’s upcoming West Side Story). Within the film’s climax, that corporate synergy gets loud, and woo boy, it’s stinky! I’m not going to spoil what happens but during a massive battle between Guy and Dude (an unfinished version of Guy), some Disney-owned properties are forced out and it’s so egregious. At first, I figured Fortnite being product placement central is accurate so that corporate meddling might as well be gamer authenticity, but the film literally delivers a one-two punch of Marvel and Star Wars, even down to the signature themes being played during the battle. I know some goddamn Disney executive forced that in there. This might’ve been cool about ten years ago but forcing recognizable IP into an original narrative owned by the parent company that’s whoring out that IP isn’t clever, funny, or surprising anymore. It’s even more cringe when your movie is aiming for an anti-capitalist tone because you end up looking like a hypocrite. The fact that somebody at Disney said, “OKAY MARVEL AND STAR WARS SHIT IN THIS FOX… er… I mean, 20TH STUDIOS MOVIE HAHAHAHAH,” makes it frustrating.
What’s even worse is that a majority of the score, provided by composer Christophe Beck, is literally — and I shit you not — his Paperman score recycled. It’s the same exact score from that 2012 Disney short dumped into all the sentimental and romantic moments. I was violently shaking in my seat because it was so bothersome. I loved that Paperman score because it matched the tone of the short. Better yet, it was MADE FOR THE SHORT. This movie was shelved for a year and they couldn’t bother making any new music for it?
Thankfully, this major issue doesn’t reach Space Jam: New Legacy levels of egregious because, for the most part, Free Guy is able to stand on its own as an enjoyable and joyous video game action-comedy with heart, wit, and a surprising amount of ambition. For a nearly two-hour-long film, it’s very well-paced and keeps you enthralled the entire way through. It’s a fun comedy that families would love and gamers would appreciate. Much like Hannah Montana, this is a movie that has the best of both worlds. Oh no, I made a Disney reference. DAMN YOU DISNEY!
