Free Guy (2021)
Cinema has given a platform for filmmakers to ask some of life's biggest questions. From what is happiness to questioning one's own existence, the cinematic platform allows uniquely enhanced concepts and questions of morality to play out in a living and breathing space, creating poignant and important meditations. While one could point to classics like The Truman Show and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind as prime examples of this done to the highest level of quality, Shawn Levy's Free Guy looks to enter the genre with a new modern twist. Following an upbeat guy named Guy (Ryan Reynolds) who lives a nearly perfect life with friends and a job he loves, Guy's life is forever changed as he learns he is simply an NPC in a popular video game and has to help a woman named Millie (Jodie Comer) find a specific piece of code within the game to prove that the game's creator Antwan (Taika Waititi) stole the code from her indie game. Along the way, Guy has to question his own identity and what matters to him in the virtual world he belongs to.
Clearly drawing in soul from projects like The Truman Show and in aesthetic from projects like Ready Player One; it becomes immediately clear that Free Guy is going to be far from the next classic simply due to how bland it feels. Rather than crafting a fresh new identity for itself, the film feels as if it is simply going through the motions when it comes to story and style. Even if pieces like the visual effects are done to a quite high level, nothing being achieved feels truly surprising or new. Much of the humor for example draws seemingly directly from the dynamics within The Lego Movie and Ready Player One. Guy has almost the exact same intro that Emmet (Chris Pratt) does within The Lego Movie with his cheerful ignorance gimmick as he is thrust into action and drama being basically the same. If there was one thing going for Free Guy it was how original the film felt when it came to the usage of franchises and references which seemingly plague almost every comedy feature at this point, but even this is eventually thrown away in a scene that feels completely random and unlike the rest of the film that could easily have been added after the face to simply brag about how much Disney owns property wise. This has all been seen before which really makes it hard to fully appreciate and enjoy Free Guy without just being reminded of these other projects.
The same sentiment belongs to the thesis within the film. For a story that naturally seems to contain quite a bit of depth and moral complexity, almost none is actually explored or used in any meaningful sense. Guy's identity crisis comes and goes and instead, a side plot dealing with the conflicts of the corporate world and artistic spirit becomes the main focus of the feature. Not only is this simply not interesting but it feels like a betrayal of the point of the film on paper. The film finds nothing of value and worth that expands on projects like The Truman Show or even comes close to touching what half of that film achieves making its sheer point of existence questionable. Ultimately if the humor isn't unique, the thematic depth isn't unique & neither achieves much of worth; what does the film truly have to stand on in the means of accomplishments?
This isn't to say everything is terrible within the film. As mentioned the visual effects are solid and the performances from the likes of Ryan Reynolds, Lil Rel Howery, Taika Waititi & Joe Keery are passable as exactly what one would expect from them. There are definitely the occasional joke that carries enough solid comedic timing to get a chuckle and the film overall is far from painful in really any way. Instead, it simply achieves nothing at the same time it manages not to completely fail at anything either. If one truly wanted a simply dumb yet fun enough time at the theater and didn't want to see Jungle Cruise, the film feels passable enough.
Overall, Free Guy feels passable at best. The film neither is incredibly fun or deep with the result from the film's overly long 115-minute runtime instead simply being mediocre. There is nothing accomplished within any piece of the feature that hasn't been accomplished before making it an easy skip for both those on the fence about returning to theaters with rising COVID cases and those simply more interested in the handful of other solid features also out in theaters right now.
Clearly drawing in soul from projects like The Truman Show and in aesthetic from projects like Ready Player One; it becomes immediately clear that Free Guy is going to be far from the next classic simply due to how bland it feels. Rather than crafting a fresh new identity for itself, the film feels as if it is simply going through the motions when it comes to story and style. Even if pieces like the visual effects are done to a quite high level, nothing being achieved feels truly surprising or new. Much of the humor for example draws seemingly directly from the dynamics within The Lego Movie and Ready Player One. Guy has almost the exact same intro that Emmet (Chris Pratt) does within The Lego Movie with his cheerful ignorance gimmick as he is thrust into action and drama being basically the same. If there was one thing going for Free Guy it was how original the film felt when it came to the usage of franchises and references which seemingly plague almost every comedy feature at this point, but even this is eventually thrown away in a scene that feels completely random and unlike the rest of the film that could easily have been added after the face to simply brag about how much Disney owns property wise. This has all been seen before which really makes it hard to fully appreciate and enjoy Free Guy without just being reminded of these other projects.
The same sentiment belongs to the thesis within the film. For a story that naturally seems to contain quite a bit of depth and moral complexity, almost none is actually explored or used in any meaningful sense. Guy's identity crisis comes and goes and instead, a side plot dealing with the conflicts of the corporate world and artistic spirit becomes the main focus of the feature. Not only is this simply not interesting but it feels like a betrayal of the point of the film on paper. The film finds nothing of value and worth that expands on projects like The Truman Show or even comes close to touching what half of that film achieves making its sheer point of existence questionable. Ultimately if the humor isn't unique, the thematic depth isn't unique & neither achieves much of worth; what does the film truly have to stand on in the means of accomplishments?
This isn't to say everything is terrible within the film. As mentioned the visual effects are solid and the performances from the likes of Ryan Reynolds, Lil Rel Howery, Taika Waititi & Joe Keery are passable as exactly what one would expect from them. There are definitely the occasional joke that carries enough solid comedic timing to get a chuckle and the film overall is far from painful in really any way. Instead, it simply achieves nothing at the same time it manages not to completely fail at anything either. If one truly wanted a simply dumb yet fun enough time at the theater and didn't want to see Jungle Cruise, the film feels passable enough.
Overall, Free Guy feels passable at best. The film neither is incredibly fun or deep with the result from the film's overly long 115-minute runtime instead simply being mediocre. There is nothing accomplished within any piece of the feature that hasn't been accomplished before making it an easy skip for both those on the fence about returning to theaters with rising COVID cases and those simply more interested in the handful of other solid features also out in theaters right now.