A bank teller discovers that he’s actually an NPC inside a brutal, open world video game.
If you’re into video games, action, adventure, laugh-out-loud comedy, computer programming, and romance Free Guy is the perfect piece of fun for you. Adding Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool) to the cast makes it that much more enjoyable. If you didn’t know already this man is talented. Whether a film is good or bad, even from an objective point of view, it’s difficult not to admire his energy on screen. In a video game created world filled will all sorts of randomness lurking around every corner it’s the perfect setting to enhance his charismatic personality.
Free Guy tells the tale of a character named Guy (Ryan Reynolds). He’s an NPC (non-playable character) living in a video game created world that’s one hundred percent artificial, however, he thinks it’s real. He was programmed to just sit around in the background in service to other real life humans playing the game he resides in. However, one day something happens and turns this computer program Guy into something so much more. He is a man that shares many sentiments of an average person’s everyday life. Waking up every day doing the same thing repeatedly with no sense of excitement, glory, or satisfaction. There’re many people that can identify with this longing to escape to something different and new that may take you to the next level in life. And of course, life is about choices, and that theme is apparent throughout this entire film. Even if you are in the endless cycle of the same daily routines, will you be able to take a leap of faith to try something new if the opportunity presents itself? That’s where we find Guy in this film, and it’s so inspiring, fun, and thrilling to go on this journey of self-discovery with him throughout the film.
He’s not the only cast member present that’s admirable. Actor/director Taika Waititi as Antoine is here with a great number of shenanigans as well, and it appeared he had more fun than Ryan Reynolds himself as Guy. He’s a goofy animated Looney Tunes type of man that brags and boasts so much it’s as if his life depends on it. It was a wonderful experience to witness especially given the environment that this film is set up in.
And that environment is a dream come true, literally in a sense. Imagine having free reign to do whatever you want with the ability to conjure anything you want? That’s what Free Guy is on the big screen. Nearly every aspect of the film is relatable to some degree even if part of it is fiction, it still feels real. That’s just what makes this film so enticing. It asks the question “What If?” Then throw in a lot of CGI animation with explosions and guns blazing everywhere for action junkies and it’s hard not to be impressed.
The film is gorgeous to look at, loud, unapologetic in its message whether intentional or not, and also motivating. If the studio has any sense of intelligence and there are great financial returns, then they would be crazy to not greenlight a sequel if there’s a story to tell. Unfortunately, every character wasn’t as phenomenal as Guy, like Buddy (Lil Rel Howery), but Howery did the best he could with what he was given. Although Buddy wanting to stay in the sunken place for so long is a bit disheartening. This film has great appeal and can be revisited over a dozen times without going stale because there’s so much to unpack and easter eggs to sift through.
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