Free Guy: Movie Review

I'd be hard-pressed to name a movie starring Ryan Reynolds as a comical action here that I don't look forward to watching. So, when they teased a movie where this hilarious Canadian heart-throb plays as a self-aware NPC in a GTA-like video game, I was LITERALLY jumping in anticipation. Unfortunately, that first trailer dropped near the end of 2019, right before the pandemic crisis took over. I ended up having to wait 22 months to watch Free Guy, and I can say that the movie did not disappoint.

*GAMER LINGO BASICS*
Video games where players can explore a large map as they wish are also known as open-world games, like the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) series. In these games, you'll encounter well-written AI characters who have preset actions, can react to the environment and have their list of dialogues as well. These characters are called NPCs, i.e., Non-Playable Characters and almost all of them don't have a name if they aren't representing a crucial character in the game's plotline. They exist even in an online multiplayer setup and are crucial parts of any mission/level/challenge premise. In games like GTA, players tend to enact the most violent actions on NPCs. Sometimes the developers will give them hilarious reactions/dialogues, which creates a deeper immersion and makes for funny moments while playing. With that out of the way, let's get back to the review.

The main character of this movie is an NPC who, as far as he knows, is called Guy and works as a bank teller. He is part of a game called Free City developed by Soonami Games. Now, banks in violent games usually exist for one purpose: to be robbed by the player. So, that's the daily routine of NPC Guy: wake up, have the same coffee, say the same lines, go to work, lay down when the bank is getting robbed, and repeat the next day. Meanwhile, the "real" players are causing all sorts of mayhem in the virtual city with mechs and procuring rocket launches out of thin air. You can tell who the users are because they wear special sunglasses that activate the HUD to interact with the video game environment. NPCs inherently avoid direct interactions with the sunglass people.

Guy's "life" takes an unscripted turn when he walks past a female player model who catches his eye. He can't explain it but he's immediately infatuated with her and wants to know her. But she's a player who's busy on a game mission with no clue that an NPC has developed "feelings" outside of its code. Frustrated by his mundane routine, Guy begins to question his existence and starts to become self-aware in his quest to try and talk to his "dream girl".

One day, as his bank is getting robbed, Guy decides to stand up for himself and steals the sunglasses off the player in front of him. He now knows that the sunglasses give you abilities to do superhuman stuff but still has no idea that he's inside of a video game. But with those sunglasses, he can engage with the girl he's chasing to talk to.

Guy decided to participate in the game's missions but as a good guy who saves and helps NPCs while taking down the violent players instead. The outside world also believes him to be a user who has taken on the appearance of an NPC, and begins to root for him in the game. Guy levels up his abilities in his good-guy missions which allows him to meet up with his love interest once again to join her on a special mission.

The love interest is a character called Millie, played by Jodie Comer, who goes by the username Molotovgirl. Millie is a game-dev herself who believes that Soonami Games SEO, Antwan (played by Taika Waititi), stole the code from a game they were developing and used it in Free City. She's playing to find clues to prove that and is on one of her special missions when she meets Guy. She too thinks he is a user disguised as an NPC. But her crusade takes a tangent when she realises that Guy is an NPC and her code is part of the AI that is making the characters self-aware. The plot then adds a countdown to the crisis in the form of a new game called Free City 2 which will erase all data and AI from Free City, including Guy and his NPC pals, along with Millie's proof against Antwan. Hence, the name of the movie 'Free Guy'.

Free Guy a fun, action-packed rom-com with enough video game references to please both gamers and Ryan Reynolds fans alike. It may not be the best attribute of an actor, but to see him act exactly we hope he would with his funny lines and dashing looks, Reynolds guarantees viewer satisfaction. Other main characters of the story were well cast too with Joe Keery as Keys (Millie's former game developing partner), Lil Rel Howery as Buddy (Guy's best friend), and Utkarsh Umbudkar as Mouser (Key's closest colleague at Soonami). The other actors who played the roles of fellow NPCs also had some memorable moments in the movie.

Waititi's comedic genius became known to the mainstream as the voice of Korg who debuted in Thor Ragnarok. He's brilliant as the villain in Free Guy, blending comedy with the hard-hitting reality of profits dictating entertainment consumption. Keery does a great job of being an adorable coder nerd too but it's Reynold's second character that gives us the most laughing fits in the movie: Dude. It's the large and ripped physique of Aaron W. Reed with Reynolds' face CGI-ed onto it and almost every dialogue between Dude and Guy made me nearly fall out of my chair laughing.

Video games and mainstream cinema can be a tricky combo but Free Guy makes it work really well. It was directed by Shawn Levy (who also directed Real Steel which is another of my favourite films) while the story was written by Matt Lieberman. Credits to the entire film crew of course with special applause for the stuntwork. The graphics were visually impeccable but I wish the team had given them a little more attention to detail, something Rockstar (the game studio that makes GTA games) excels at.

My only issue with Free Guy is that this movie would not work without Ryan Reynolds as the lead. He makes the movie as good as it was, covering for the inherent weaknesses of the story itself.

Taking that into account, I'd rate Free Guy at 8 out of 10 scoops of bubblegum flavoured ice cream.

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