Shawn Levy’s “Free Guy” is a reference-laden premise of an action-comedy film. Lead character Guy, played by Ryan Reynolds, lives in a world resembling a mix of “Ready Player One,” “The LEGO Movie” and “Tron” with a dash of “They Live” and “Wreck-It Ralph.”
Guy meets a girl, guy falls for the girl, guy discovers that his reality is a falsehood and then meets his version of God, though this entity is far from benevolent. Fortunately for the movie-going public, there is some actual substance amid all of the sizzle of this film.
Reynolds’ Guy works at the bank of a video game world, call Free City, that seems like “GTA Online” but with the manic player base of “Fort Nite.” Free City is saturated with “heroes” who cause catastrophic property damage on a daily basis.
Despite all of the chaos, Guy takes it all in stride, living out a daily routine of living through a bank robbery and being taken, hostage. Guy’s a simple guy and the only thing he needs to get through the day is to spend some time eating ice cream with the bank’s security guard, named Buddy.
Everything changes for Guy after he meets Millie, a talented player and programmer who is exploring Free City for evidence that her own coding has been co-opted by Antwan, Free City’s lead developer played by Taika Waititi.
Donning the same set of sunglasses as so many of the heroes of his game world, Guy is awakened to all of the possibilities available to him and sets out to gain enough quantifiable experience to be of assistance to Millie.
What starts out as a quest to follow his heart, quickly turns into an examination of existence and how “not normal” Guy’s situation really is.
While “Space Jam: A New Legacy” is a cartoon film that works on game logic, Free Guy uses cartoon logic with a video game presentation.
You get plenty of funny bits, including several notable lines from Reynolds’ Guy. Indeed, Guy comes across as a more sincere and less psychotic version of Deadpool, another role iconic to Reynolds.
Guy’s quest to “level up” in his city is limited by his understanding of life. He does everything that a normal, upstanding citizen would do like savings cats stuck in trees and stopping criminals without violence. Live-streamers, including cameos by Ninja and Jacksepticeye, catch wind of his actions and are amazed that anyone would play this “asshole simulator” like a normal person.
Taika Waititi’s Antwan is probably the only other notable role in the film, resembling a stereotype of every Silicon Valley game executive clad in a ridiculous denim leather duster.
Antwan is an over-the-top villain who is only concerned with monetizing his games as much as possible. This is more a caricature than a character.
The film’s first half is a solid film with enough subtle references and jokes to keep audiences invested. The second half, notably the final act, is when a whole mess of current game industry topics like performative online personas, collective action and online toxicity, culminating in a deus ex machina from a well-known intellectual property.
Free Guy is a raucous comedy that starts with a “Fortnite”-style airdrop while presenting the fantasy of a post-scarcity utopia.
This is a gaming comedy that is more concerned with interactions within a game and the connections made through those interactions over the highlighting of any specific IP or franchise. It may not be the best video game we have ever seen but it certainly contains more depth than some.
Free Guy releases in theaters on August 13
