Having the right cast and premise can do a lot for a movie, other times, it sets up false hope. After hearing about Free Guy, I had to check it out, and oh boy, this looks like a trainwreck. If you are a gamer, then you must know those people who try to act like they know games but don’t. Well, this is that in a movie.
The story sets up with Guy (Ryan Reynolds), a bank teller, and NPC in a virtual world. Well, he gets fed up with all of that constant murder and chaos, so he stands up for his city. He eventually finds out that it is all a video game, and he must save it from being destroyed. It sounds interesting then I saw the trailer and cringed at what I saw.
Starting off epically to set up a potentially heroic man, yet it is just Guy, a friendly bank teller who goes about his day. This is one of the only reasonably funny moments.
Guy goes about his day getting ready and walks to work. He strolls past explosions, flame thrower wielding psychopaths, and a Wilhelm scream, which made me physically shake my head. All I can think of is how fun this could be if it did not look so stupid later on.
A bank robbery ensues, and everyone casually gets down on the ground like it is a routine thing that happens. Now Reynolds is asking what if there is more to life than what they currently experience. A montage of him getting punched, witnessing people in silly costumes committing murder, and getting hit by multiple cars and rag dolling all over the place. The basic life of a GTA NPC.
Once he stands up, he manages to kill someone while obtaining the criminal’s glasses. When he puts them on, he realizes his world is not what he thought. This is actually solid world-building and development based on these few seconds. Each passing moment makes me more disappointed at how this will probably not be remotely decent.
As he sees the city around him through the glasses, all I can think about is how terrible the CGI is right here. A nice color scheme, but it looks wrong. Some of the UI is meant to be that way, which is fine, but other things take me out of this world, like the giant turret that shot at a passing jet.
He eventually Molotov Girl (Jodie Comer), who explains to him everything. We see Guy process this, and it all feels like people who never played a video game in their life. Some personality is missing that makes it seem genuine and not a cash grab to get all those kids who play the Fortnite.
Once she mentions bad guys introduces Antoine (Taika Waititi), who looks like the only fun character in this movie. Sorry, Ryan Reynolds.
Now kicks in action with Molotov Girl and Guy. It actually looks good besides more bad CGI. Seriously, that shot of a helicopter is insulting to my eyes. Then, of course, we get plenty of poor jokes that are aimed at that preteen to teen audience who will laugh at words like “virginity.”
What could possibly make this okay is if it is rated R. A parody on GTA and other games would suffice if there are enough blood and gore. Give me Deadpool levels of violence, and don’t be overly predictable, then maybe this will turn out to be decent. As it is unrated, we will wait and see how that will change my views in the slightest.
Free Guy comes out on July 3, 2020.
You can watch the trailer below and then let me know what you think:
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Image via 20th Century Fox
Tristan Zelden 