Free Guy review: Ryan Reynolds’ video game movie avoids Fortnite syndrome

Free boy, from director Shawn Levy (Real Steel), works with references. Starring Ryan Reynolds as an NPC in an open world video game, the action comedy is a pastiche of Ready Player One, Tron, Y The Lego Movie. It is Break up ralph meet john carpenter They live. It’s a Truman show-Guy’s love story meets Girl, Guy falls in love with Girl, Guy discovers that reality is a lie and God is a troll. However, despite the implicit disparity of these aforementioned parts, the film sticks together more often than it doesn’t. It’s a competently entertaining comedy about video games (and many other things) that, unlike so many blockbusters of the moment, doesn’t collapse under the weight of pop culture references and forgets to make real jokes.

Reynolds plays a guy so generic he’s actually named Guy. He is a personable bank teller who, unbeknownst to him and those around him, is a non-player character within a brutal and massive open world online game. GTA Online with the mania of Fortnite. The game, Free city, is packed with sunglasses “heroes” who wreak havoc and demolish the city on a regular basis. Guy is unfazed by this, perfectly content to experience the same bank robbery identical to that of a pedestrian hostage ad infinitum, as long as he can occasionally enjoy a gum ice cream with his fellow security guard, who is actually named Buddy. (Lil Rel Howery). .

That changes when Guy crosses paths with Millie (Jodie Comer), a highly skilled gamer and programmer who travels the world of Free city as proof that a revolutionary game she co-developed was surreptitiously repurposed by the game’s main developer, Antwan (played to perfection smarmy by Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi). Donning his own set of sunglasses, which reveal a wide range of possibilities within the game, Guy breaks out of his loop as he tries to level up enough to help Millie on her quest. He begins that search as a way to win her affection, but little by little he realizes all the implications behind his strange existence.

Where Space Jam: a new legacy It is a film that is based on the logic of video games, Free boy is a video game movie that is based on the logic of Looney Toons. There are some genuinely laugh-worthy physical comedy snippets strewn all over the place. Free boyas well as some memorable and offbeat jokes, courtesy of Reynold’s performance. Guy is portrayed as a character built in the mold of Reynolds’ most iconic role to date, Deadpool, albeit with less tongue-in-cheek anarchism and more affection.

After meeting Millie and agreeing to help her find proof of Antwan’s deception, Guy sets out to gain experience in Free City in the only way he knows how: simply by being a decent person: foiling crimes, saving cats from trees, completing search missions. and soon. Live streamers take note of his progress, expressing bewilderment at the idea that anyone, much less this mysterious “boy in the blue shirt,” could play Free city without killing and bagging tea to everyone in sight. These scenes feature cameos from real-life streamers like Jacksepticeye, Ninja, and Pokimane, in a series of appearances that will work well for younger audiences, but dating instantly. Free boy like a movie of a very particular moment.

Taika Waititi’s performance as Antwan stands out as one of the funniest and most memorable performances ever. Free boyapart from Reynolds. Waititi, a cartoon of a West Coast gaming executive dressed in a hideous cowboy leather overall that makes him look like a fourth-level Batman villain, Waititi wanders the screen with outlandish jerk charm as he talks about the importance of the IPs, the aftermath and profit percentages above all else. It’s hard to take him seriously in a given scene, which is probably the point, and while he and Guy never interact directly, the two characters create an interesting contrast of men in and around video game culture.

The first half of Free boy it’s solid, with several great jokes and subtle background nods to popular game franchises like Halo or Megaman, It won’t necessarily stand out, except for the most eagle-eyed viewers. But in the second half of the movie, and especially in its final act, Free boy begins to dabble in a whole mess of ideas, including but not limited to online performative people, collective action as a catalyst for systemic change, gun violence in America, a reprimand for toxic online behavior, and sadly, a fully IP-driven deus ex machina resolution with highly recognizable license.

In the end, Levy can’t help but enjoy the IP capabilities of his premise. Guy’s confrontation with Dude, a ‘stolen facsimile of himself created by Antwan to sell pre-orders of Free City 2, comes with six Consecutive video game references within a minute, including a split-second cameo of everyone’s favorite Avenger. Sure, it’s fun in the moment, but it’s nonetheless one where it feels like Free boy he just gives up on his own story, momentarily falling into the same brand obsession that the movie otherwise debunks through its depiction of Antwan.

Free boy is a strange and frenzied comedy, which opens with a Fortnite airdrop, and upholds the Platonic ideal of video game life as a post-scarcity utopian simulation in the style of Will Wright. Simcity, but populated by dinosaurs and centaurs. It is a video game comedy, not about a particular video game, but about the meaning behind the game’s interactions and the personal and social connections that people form through them. It is also a story about a man who happily stumbles into an existential crisis to regain agency over his own life and inspire others to do the same. Calling it the best video game movie to date seems hyperbole, but it certainly has more heart and humor than its contemporaries.

Free Guy opens in theaters on August 13.