Free Guy is a film that I went into with pretty low expectations, if I'm honest. The trailers made it seem like the kind of low-brow, low-effort comedy that tries to milk the elusive teat of online gaming culture. Without really understanding it and throws in some pretty uninspired jokes leaving the hyperactive Ryan Reynolds to carry over the line with.
*[Source](https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/hollywood/free-guy-review-roundup-ryan-reynolds-video-game-movie-7450199/)*
But what I got, in reality, was a funny good-natured, and refreshingly inventive comedy with a likable cast and some surprisingly poignant and heartfelt moments towards the end. I mean, it's not going to be winning any Oscars, and I'd be lying if I said all of the jokes landed. But for the most part, it was a movie I was able to just sit back and enjoy, and I came out of the theater feeling like I'd been pretty well entertained for a couple of hours. That's a rarity these days!
Free Guy revolves around the online virtual world of the Free City, a GTA 5 kind of deal where players can fight each other, complete missions, and generally cause mayhem and destruction without considering the consequences. But the one thing they never bother to consider is the NPCs(Non-playable characters) who populate Free City, basically, just simple computer programs who go through the same routine every day with no awareness of their true nature.
None of them except Guy, a bank teller, whose life revolves around going to work each day and getting robbed by human players but that all begins to change when he randomly encounters millie a player from the real world. Who he instantly falls in love with and tries to talk to. It doesn't work out too well for him though, but this tiny change in his behavior starts a gradual cascade of decisions that causes him to become self-aware, break his programming and ultimately see the world around him for what it really is.
Mistaken Guy for a fellow player, Millie tells him that he needs to level up to survive in a free city. But because he's not willing to kill or harm other people, he does it instead by helping them complete missions without shedding blood and generally being a really nice guy. Something which is pretty much unknown in a world where players are encouraged to act without consequences. As a result, Guy quickly becomes a kind of internet celebrity, with people speculating about who he might really be.
On the other hand, Millie begins to suspect there's more to Guy than meets the eye, and then it might have something to do with her true mission inside Free City. She's one of a pair of software engineers who initially designed Free City to be something much more wholesome and peaceful, a world where players could watch intelligent characters slowly evolve and develop over time. Unfortunately, Antwan stole their work, a greedy businessman who used their basic code to create Free City instead.
*[Source](https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-58061823)*
Since then, she's been on a quest to expose his shady dealings to the world and comes to realize that Guy could be the proof that she needs. Millie wants to protect him, and Antwan intends to destroy him. The whole story culminates in a race against time to get to the truth before Free City is taken offline permanently.
The concept of an online virtual world has been used plenty of times in modern storytelling. The Matrix did it; Ready Player One did it; even Westworld tapped into a similar idea of NPCs gradually becoming aware of their true nature. But i think free Guy does a good job of balancing serious ideas like this against the backdrop of light-hearted humor. It never takes its ideas too seriously or strays too far into the moral dilemma of creating artificial intelligence purely for human entertainment. Clearly, there's been an attempt to appeal to younger audiences with humor. Some of the in-jokes really depend on you having a working knowledge of online gaming. But it never really becomes off-putting. Well, except when they bring in real-life youtubers and twitch streamers for cameo appearances, they fit into the movie about as naturally as movie bob and ultra marathon. I can only imagine that non-gamers must have been left scratching their heads wondering what they were looking at.
*[Source](https://www.wired.com/story/free-guy-ai-metaverse-review/)*
Guy himself is generally likable and funny enough to keep you on his side. I mean, yeah it's clearly just Ryan Reynolds playing his most famous role of all "Ryan Reynolds." How much you empathize with Guy's character depends on how much Ryan Reynolds you can tolerate personally. I thought he was able to keep it somewhat dialed back here and it helps that the movie actually gives him an understandable arc to work through. I couldn't help but enjoy it as he starts to work his way up the rankings. I genuinely felt terrible for Guy once he finally realized what he was, and I found myself cheering him on as he made his final bid for freedom.
The rest of the cast also does a solid job. Jody Comer and Joe Keery are both likable as Millie and Walter, the two programmers and former friends who reluctantly start working with each other again. Although I'm pretty sure they worked in the fake dialogue function for no other reason than to showcase Comer's ability to do pretty much any accent on earth. Seriously you'd never guess this girl was from Liverpool. Taika Waititi plays an arrogant, selfish villain as well as you'd expect.
*[Source](https://www.fxguide.com/fxfeatured/ilm-and-halon-freeing-guy/)*
The character Dude was a work of absolute genius, who pretty much stole the show for me. Dude, a half-finished program sent into the game to hunt Guy down and destroy him. He's got some of the best lines precisely because he's so dumb and incomplete. It's just a shame that he doesn't show up until the last 10 minutes, leaving him feeling like an underused resource. I really wanted more of this Dude!
What i also liked about free guy is that there's pretty much no pandering or agendas involved. The only subtext here is one of self-discovery breaking free of the constraints and expectations of society and taking the more challenging road to become your own person. But the film never prioritizes or demonizes one group or demographic over another. It's a wholesome, inspiring universal kind of message that pretty much everyone can get behind. Millie has never presently does the unrecognized brains behind her partnership with walter and she doesn't spend the movie insulting and berating every man in sight.
Guy's story and character arc are very much the core of the film and as much as he struggles and fails at first, the script never tries to undermine its own protagonist. The only part that felt slightly jarring was a weird joke about white privilege that came out of nowhere and landed about as well as a plane with no undercarriage. But aside from that, there's no undertone of lingering hatred and bitterness as you get in so many films these days. and as a result, the free guy ended up being a fun baggage free movie that does exactly what it sets out - Do Entertain People!
Well, who would have thought that such a thing was possible in the time of Covid and War!
Return from Free Guy: Ryan Reynold's Ready Player One to pitboy's Web3 Blog
