Free Guy

I am definitely not a Ryan Reynolds fan, but I did go to see this movie in theatres twice. In my defence, it was worth it, not because the movie was so great but I just had so many Scene points that I could use at cinemas. So I actually saw it without spending money both times, except the popcorn. But just because I have some scene points to spend doesn't mean I will go see random movies (or random movies twice). So what is it about this movie that made me do this? Not Ryan Reynolds. 

The movie is about a video game. Okay, this is still not the reason because I am not a video game player at all. Last thing I played was GTA:Vice City and perhaps you can guess how much time ago that was. However, I still have some history with video games and so I was able to pick up some hints and appreciate the depictions in the movie although some stuff were attributing to newer video games. 

One can also see this movie as an uprising of an ordinary bank worker but let's just not do that---that sounds really boring. 

In our world, video games are all about us: the players. In this movie, it is about the background characters in the video game. The background characters are just written codes and they don't have free will, which makes the name of the movie Free Guy ironic enough. Now I don't want to give any spoilers because I would recommend that you watch it. So as a person who has seen the movie (twice), I will lay out some reasons why you might like this movie. 

If you are a video game player, you might like this movie (and appreciate it more than I did. Of course, it is also possible that the more you know about video games, the more you will be critical of the movie and hence, the less you will appreciate the movie, who knows?). In the trailer, there is a person entering Free City with a parachute. I have never played any pubg but I do know that your character enters the game from the sky just like in this movie. So, nice tribute there. My favourite was the good-looking women in the game who accompany the players. In GTA Vice City, there would be a girl waiting for you in the car when you finish a mission. It does look very stupid from a real-life point of view when a person gets in the car after burning some buildings and the only thing the girl in the car says is "you are so handsome" as if it was the girl's only purpose in life (and they didn't even know each other before). 

If you are into AI (artificial intelligence) stuff, you might like this movie (even more than I did, because I am not into AI stuff really). We think of the background characters of a video game, or the NPCs (non-player characters), as just some code. Well, an AI is just a code in the beginning, too. I have never thought of ethics of AI, I am sure it is being studied by some people (I hope) so I am not yet sensitive enough to think of an AI as a life form. I don't think I would feel bad if I "killed" my Siri. But when I look back at the times I used to play GTA, I do feel a little bit bad for the people whom I stole the cars.

If you like Ryan Reynolds, you will like the movie and even more than I did (because I have no feelings for Ryan Reynolds, as mentioned above). Although, I must admit that he does choose nice movies to take part in, so it is still a good idea to follow his movies. Also, Joe Keery (he was in Stranger Things) is in this movie, so if you'd like to see him, this is your chance. 

Taika Waititi. He is Korg from Thor: Ragnarok. Actually, my favourite line from that movie is from Korg, "Hey, man. We're about to jump on that ginormous spaceship, you wanna come?". I liked his performance as Korg and his performance in this movie is also pretty good. Yes, Taika Waititi gets his own paragraph out of nowhere. It looks like he is a rising star out of nowhere, too. I had thought he was only a director who agreed to do Korg's voice while directing Ragnarok, apparently this wasn't the case. He even was in the new Suicide Squad movie (which I will write a review about later). So, nowadays, Taika Waititi pops up in almost every movie I watch---I don't know how I feel about this. 

What I think of Free Guy: Little details are well-thought and implemented in the movie. I like that they didn't forget to include glitches in the game because if you know video games, there is always this one NPC who does a pointless thing in the background, like banging to a wall repeatedly, for example. The story is already good but the movie excels in the last part. This is where you get some easter eggs. Of course, jokes and bonuses like these are expected in a Ryan Reynolds movie---yes, he is one of the producers actually. Going back to the reason why I went to see the movie twice: it is about something in the last part of the movie. There is also a cameo in it. Overall, the movie is pretty funny, too. Lastly, the artificial intelligence ends up being really intelligent, and with emotional intelligence too, which I found quite interesting.

Closing remark: the main character, Guy, has a line where he goes "don't have a good day, have a great day!". Okay, this is such a lame thing to say which is probably the point because it's an NPC. However, now it's stuck in my head like a horrible song I can't stop singing. Now I find myself saying "don't have a good x, have a great x" where x is a variable. I am worried this might be a permanent damage to my nerves, but oh well. 

I give the movie 8.5/10. If I were a gamer, I'd probably give 10/10.