Main cast: Ryan Reynolds (Guy), Jodie Comer (Millie Rusk), Joe Keery (Walter McKeys), Lil Rel Howery (Buddy), Utkarsh Ambudkar (Mouser), and Taika Waititi (Antwan Hovachelik)
Director: Shawn Levy

Now, to get the most out of Free Guy, one must understand that in a video game, there are two types of characters populating the game. One type, the player character, which should be self-explanatory. The other type is the non-player character, or NPC for short, which is basically part of the game, encoded to be either interactive in nature (for example, an NPC may play a role in a player’s mission or quest) or just background scenery. At any rate, every action of the NPCs is coded in, and never should one deviate from its pre-programmed behavior.

Well, the NPC rule may not hold for Guy. He’s an NPC that works in a bank, along with his friend Buddy. and they and the rest of the NPCs have no reason to believe that the world they are living in isn’t real. Actually, they are NPCs in an open-world MMORPG called Free City, a game where players can log in to do whatever they want, like robbing the bank that Guy happens to work in. Guy unknowingly deviates from his pre-programmed behavior when he takes notice of a woman singing his favorite song, and when a bank robbery takes place and he takes a pair of shades from the bank robber (actually a player) and discovers that he is in what seems like a game, he runs after that woman.

She is Millie, a programmer seeking proof that the head developer of Free City stole her source code to build this game. Mistaking Guy for another player, she tries to get him to help her break into the Stash, a heavy guarded Fort Knox type that holds her code. Next thing you know, Guy is outperforming other players, and this makes him the star of the streams of this game and garner a new fandom rooting for the “blue shirt guy”. Wait until they learn that he is just some coding gone awry…

Now, this movie doesn’t portray the gaming scene that accurately, the most obvious example being that a game developer will immediately wipe out a game from their servers to make way for the sequel. No, that is a dumb thing to do, because there will always be people wanting to play an older incarnation of the game, sometimes a significant number of people especially when the sequel fails to catch on (Warcraft 2 and Lineage II, anyone?). Still, I suppose this movie needs to take some creative liberties for a “race against time” thing that requires Guy and Millie to locate the evidence in time before Free City is wiped out completely to make way for Free City 2.

Also, Free City seems like a lame game to me, as it looks like, if I wanted to rob a bank, the security won’t put up a fight at all. What, is this a PG-13 version of Animal Crossing? Why are people streaming this game, and why is it being watched by so many people? Oh right, Pokimane is streaming it for thirsty kids with credit cards, that sort of explains the popularity of the streams of the game, I guess.

Anyway, as a portrayal, parody, satire, or whatever of an open world game, this one doesn’t make much sense from the apparent low player count in game as opposed to its supposed popularity, all the way to how apparently people can get into fights in this game without other players joining in to muck up the situation. What, you expect me to believe that folks like Asmongold won’t jump into this game trying to meet the Blue Shirt Guy, and that his fans won’t also crash the game to do the same or troll the guy? Hence, I have to tune out that nitpicking gaming person in my head (what, I do play games, you know) and just go with the flow here.

So, how does Free Guy fare as a movie that pretends to know much about multiplayer online games? Well, simply put, it’s a Ryan Reynolds movie. He looks noticeably older in this movie, but he still acts like… well, like he does in every role he is in. That’s a given, as I’m sure Mr Reynolds isn’t going to rock the boat so long as the gigs keep coming and the checks clear. Just like Guy, the story of the movie is in the generic side too, the usual everyman turns unexpected hero journey complete with the usual feisty, kickass female character by his side. Nothing here holds much surprise or originality—it’s pretty clear this one is banking on the scenery and the comedy to take it to the finish line.

The good thing is that the movie is certainly pretty to look at, and there are some scenes that make me laugh. The action scenes are pretty entertaining too. However, nothing here is particularly memorable. This is one of those movies that are perfectly fine to watch in order to pass some time, but it’s also one that I will have a hard time recalling some time down the road.

It’s a good thing then, that I waited for this one to hit the streaming service instead of risking the coof to catch it on the big screen! There are movies that may be worth dying for, but not this one, not even close.