Guy (Ryan Reynolds) is someone who loves his life. He's got his job at the bank, his best friend Buddy (Lil Rel Howery), and a home in the paradise that is Free City. But a chance encounter with the mysterious Molotov Girl (Jodie Comer) leads to a mind-bending discovery; Guy and all his friends are Non-Player Characters (NPC) in an online video game. This causes Guy to seek more from his life, to break free from the monotonous cycle that is his existence. The only problem is; his world is about to be destroyed to make way for Free City 2.
Anyone who has ever played an online game like Grand Theft Auto will be able to relate to Free Guy, and even if you haven't you should still have fun with it. Shawn Levy and his team have created this authentic video game experience. One that really captures the insanity of an online world, and the freedom it provides. It embraces that big, silly fun and throws it on to the big screen. The opening sequence features a player (and one of many amusing cameos) parachuting into the city, and getting into a car chase with a lot of cops and a helicopter gunship. Can you imagine having to deal with that kind of carnage on your morning commute? Even the violence is accurately depicted - minus some of the blood and guts, that is. In many ways Free City feels like a parody of GTA: Online. This includes the many different types of players that can be found online. Everyone from the noobs, the die hard fans, the YouTubers/streamers, griefers (it wouldn't be a video game movie without them), even those who just aren't very good at it (like me), they're all in there.
As a movie, Free Guy falls somewhere between The Matrix, Ready Player One, and South Park's Make Love, Not Warcraft. But unlike with those recreations of the video game experience, we're now able to see what these worlds are like from another point of view. This could be the first and last time you'll see a bunch of people happy to be on the wrong side of a bank robbery - several times a day. And who better to show us the life of a Non-Player Character than an overly upbeat, sugar-powered Ryan Reynolds? He and Lil Rel Howery are great together as the bank employees who spend half the day face down on the ground. Reynolds' happy-go-lucky, ultra nice guy act is perfect for the titular character who suffers an existential crisis when he discovers the truth about his world. It's fun to watch him develop and grow (or at least level up) like any new player to a game.
But this wouldn't be a video game movie without a lot of big guns, cool cars, and some massive action set-pieces. And the movie certainly delivers. Hilarious carnage ensues as Guy begins to explore - with the help of a rather fancy collection of sunglasses - drawing the attention of game admins Keys (Joe Keery) and Mouser (Utkarsh Ambudkar). The pair have this amusing buddy cop thing going on, as they give Guy a lesson in game physics. It's this journey that leads Guy to team up with Molotov Girl (or Millie as she's known in the real world) who is attempting to uncover certain secrets hidden within the game, and save Free City from its owner.
Right from the off Comer and Reynolds have great chemistry as these kind of circuit board crossed lovers. The bond between them feels very genuine, despite the obvious limitations of their relationship. However, it's Taika Waititi who steals the show as Antwan; the owner of the company that runs Free City. It's like he's going for the Donald Trump of the video game world; a giant douche with bad dress sense, who's convinced of his own superiority and thinks of nothing but money. Waititi is able to deliver the lunacy a character like this requires, without going bright orange, and he does it in such a way that actually makes it believable.
Buried within this video game within a movie is a loose commentary on the 21st Century, even if it doesn't have anything really new to say about it. But Free Guy does at least feel relevant. There is a message in there somewhere about our addiction to screens and how we should go outside every once in a while. Although it's more likely to inspire fans to head home and get online, many of whom are unlikely to adopt Guy's "good guy" approach to gaming. But just imagine what would happen in GTA: Online or World of Warcraft if the NPC's actually started an uprising! What would we do then?
A fun action/comedy, one that does a great job of recreating the gaming experience in the 21st Century. Reynolds and Comer are perfect together in the lead roles, but Waititi steals the show as the douchey, hipster villain.
8/10
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