As with most video game movies out there, I made sure to lower my expectations before stepping into the theatre for Free Guy. I am typically a critical movie goer, but for a fun movie like this, I was looking for a lighthearted, feel-good experience built into a believable plot. To my delight, I left pleasantly surprised and with my expectations exceeded – the trailer did not do the movie enough justice.
Before you read on, I think I should let you know how I felt about some video game movies over the past few years: I loved Ready Player One, Wreck-it Ralph and Detective Pikachu, and thought the Tomb Raider and Assassin’s Creed movies to be passable. Free Guy is a solid combination of all three movies I liked. It had the accurate video game references of Ready Player One, the delightful animations of Wreck-it Ralph, and the Ryan Reynolds humour of Detective Pikachu.
In Free Guy, Ryan Reynolds plays non-playable character Guy in a Grand Theft Auto like video game called Free City. He lives a normal and repetitive life, carrying out the identical chain of actions he’s programmed to do every day, until one day when he meets and falls in love with player character Molotov Girl (Jodie Comer), triggering him to break out of his cycle and become sentient. His actions cause a ripple of events in the game world of Free City, which eventually gets the owner of the game and primary antagonist Antwan (played by the hilarious Taika Waititi), to be involved.
The movie is split into two arcs, Guy’s transition from a background character into a main character in the game, and the real life arc where Millie, the real person behind the Molotov Girl alter ego, is only playing the Free City game to find evidence in the data files that proves that it illegally used code that she and her previous partner Keys (Joe Keery) had written.
The plot then develops in a very surprising and unique manner, sprinkled full of very accurate commentary on the state of the modern video games industry, realistic gamer lingo and situations (two characters argue for almost a minute on what skin was superior and another scene features two foul mouthed ten year old girls piloting their bike gangster avatar) and a believable and tasteful romantic subplot that most gamers can relate to.
As expected, the combination of Ryan Reynolds and Taika Waititi made for a very Thor Ragnorok type chaotic energy, which very visibly affects most of the cast. Humour and punchlines landed (mostly, the first two jokes were pretty horrible and worried me for a moment), the plot was well paced and the Disney-grade special effects delivered realistic and adrenaline pumping action sequences that had me clapping my hands to.
If I were to criticise on one thing, I would say that non-gamers may not fully appreciate the film. Throughout the movie, I found myself wagging my index finger countless times going “on point Reynolds, on point”, because the show was so well tailored for gamers, and I am a huge one (I basically work in gaming). But it is because of that that I fear that much of the references and lingo (e.g. Jokes about using illegal skins in-game, companies going back on promises for pre-orders etc) may fall short and lose their impact for normie audiences.
So TLDR, if you were a gamer, I would recommend this movie 100% – it’s the best homage we have gotten on big screens in awhile. And even if you aren’t, the movie explains things pretty well and still provides plenty of moments to enjoy. Free Guy is a solid feel good movie that promises a fun time.
P.s. All the cameos were excellent surprises. I cheered audibly when the big ones appeared.
