Free Guy

This review may contain spoilers!

 

 Free Guy follows Guy, a background character in a video game world who slowly discovers his life is a lie and his world on the cusp of deletion. Going into this film I really expected quite a generic action-comedy, but there is so much here for a wide audience. In terms of setting you have this really thrilling virtual world, which is very colourful and brimming with chaotic characters and events. The film is grounded in this otherworldly setting that is made to feel very ordinary through the lens of Guy; it makes this wild place easy for an audience to connect with while remaining a celebration of modern pop culture. The story itself sees Guy, an ordinary background NPC (non-playable character) break from his programmed routine when he meets Millie and begins to fall in love. Millie is a player from the real world who is fighting for justice, and eventually the rights of the artificially intelligent programs in the game. Watching Guy and Millie interact is really fun and actually quite sweet, the pair have amazing chemistry and quite a charming romantic story. Overall the film is about love, friendship and life; Guy inevitably embodies the positive elements of all these things as he fights to keep his world intact. Free Guy is a brilliant story that navigates the complexity of a video game world setting well while ironically portraying a very human story about love and friendship. More than this, Free Guy is hilarious and uses its unique concept to tell some quite fresh comedic material. The cinematography really drives home the sheer scale of this feature, there is a massive emphasis on capturing the stunning action and visual effects, The special effects are a consistent feat to behold; in a world with constant explosions, sci-fi vehicles and video game weaponry it is impressive to see such detailed end products. The score for the film drives home the epic heroes journey, but I found myself quite impressed with the soundtracks use of comedic elements and character/relationship themes.

 

Jodie Comer, who played Millie, is a wonderful leading performer with a nice duality in her character; Comer plays a determined woman with an intense desire for justice but it also has some really heartwarming scenes shared with Reynolds and Keery. Channing Tatum and Matty Cardarople, who played Avatar and Gamer respectively, this pair together make for one of the funniest cameos in the film; watching someone as action hero-like as Tatum dish out the dialogue of a toxic online gamer makes for one of the funniest scenes. Utkarsh Ambudkar, who played Mouser, is a very wild personality with a big ego and a definite sense of administrative power; I enjoyed how Ambudkar portrayed someone who felt very powerful at the start of the film but who frayed from that as the feature moved along. Joe Keery, who played Keys, is a really charismatic role who steadily becomes a reluctant heroic ally throughout the feature; I greatly enjoyed Keery's quieter approach to romance and the chemistry between himself and Comer. Lil Rel Howery, who played Buddy, is such an immediate source of joy and optimism throughout the film; a lot of this movie centres on how strongly the chemistry is between Howery and Reynolds for their onscreen friendship.

However, the best performance came from Ryan Reynolds, who played Guy. I think this film would've struggled to find a better performer for its protagonist. Reynolds leans into the sweet if not naive nature of Guy when first we meet him, expressing him as entirely oblivious to the nature of his video game world. Yet the wonder and immediate head over heels infatuation he develops for Comer's Millie is quite charming and leads to a fun sequence of personal growth. I like the nice contrast Reynolds brings of a character who becomes more capable in terms of their fighting/action prowess while retaining this relatively innocent and moral outlook on life. As the film goes on the character of Guy is forced to come to grips with the nature of his reality which is a very confronting scene to watch and, in my opinion, one of the best. Yet from this point Reynolds strips away some of Guy's inherent goofiness and begins to step up as a bold leader for his video game character community. Guy is such a great role and I don't think it's much of a stretch to say that this is probably Reynolds' best role since Deadpool.

Where I think a lot of media that portrays video games or the video game/streaming world struggles is accurately depicting this environment versus interweaving a strong narrative throughout. This film is probably one of the best to have achieved this feat yet but it does sacrifice plausibility here and there for the sake of the plot. It's a very calculated risk that inevitably works for the film but it does mar a few scenes. I also felt the film really needed to do a lot more work making clear links between the Guy/Millie romance and the Keys/Millie romance that the film builds towards. This would have only heightened the impact of that final scene.

Taika Waititi, who played Antoine, is a serious miscast as the major antagonist for the film; Waititi's loose comedic approach really doesn't gel well with arrogant Silicon Valley type he is playing.

Free Guy is a pure expression of love and friendship rolled into the package of a brilliant action-comedy blockbuster, making it one of the feel good events of the year. I would give Free Guy an 8.5/10.