Review: Ryan Reynolds' FREE GUY Is a Surprisingly Awesome Video Game Movie!
For the past year and a half I’ve been watching trailers for Ryan Reynolds upcoming film Free Guy, and in that time, with all of the trailers that have been released, I was worried that I had already seen all of the best parts of the film and that when I went and saw the movie there would be no surprises left to enjoy. Well, luckily that wasn’t the case!
I recently had the opportunity to see the film, and I’ve gotta say, I was actually surprised by how great the movie was! Free Guy was an awesome flick! Not only was it filled with visually cool action sequences, but it also ended up delivering a freakin’ great story! This is easily the best video game-inspired movie I’ve seen since Ready Player One. Not only that, it’s one of the best video game-inspired movies that have been made!
Director Shawn Levy and actor Ryan Reynolds actually delivered a wonderfully entertaining film that included solid story arcs for a full cast of characters that you actually end up caring about as you watch the movie. Look, the movie isn’t going to win any prestigious awards, but audiences are going to enjoy the heck out of it! It’s an absolute blast and it’s just another film that I’ve seen in theaters that makes me so happy that movie theaters are back in action!
The story follows a bank teller named Guy who discovers he is actually a background NPC in an open-world video game, and when he sees the girl of his dreams, he decides to break his routine and become the hero of his own story. There’s much more to the story than that, though, as things are happening in the real world that threaten his existence, and he has to step up and be the guy who saves his world.
I won’t reveal any other details as there is so much more to this film that isn’t in the trailers. I loved the direction that the story goes and the great little plot points that help give the story of the film some depth. There’s a lot about the movie that I just wasn’t expecting, and I appreciated that.
The movie also stars Jodie Comer, Joe Keery, Lil Rel Howery, Utkarsh Ambudkar, and Taika Waititi. All of the actors were pretty great, and as expected, Reynolds just delivers a hilarious yet honest and heartfelt performance as guy. This is just another role that Reynolds was perfect for. Jodie Comer and Joe Keery were also great! While I do love Waititi in the films he makes, I thought his portrayal as the film’s villain was a little bit too over-the-top. He was a silly villainous character, and it was like he was trying too hard to be funny. It would have been more interesting if he actually made it seem like his character was more of a real person. You can keep that crazy humor and still do that. Reynolds was able to find that balance with his character Guy, but Waititi went full-on villainous jokester.
I wasn’t really expecting that much for Free Guy, but it ended up being an incredibly entertaining film. It’s definitely worth checking out!