Review: There's more to 'Free Guy' than a Ryan Reynolds smile

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Free Guy
3 out of 5 Stars
Director: Shawn Levy
Writer: Matt Lieberman, Zak Penn
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer, Taika Waititi, Joe Keery
Genre: Comedy, Action
Rated: PG-13 for strong fantasy violence throughout, language and crude/suggestive references

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) – Synopsis: Guy, a bank teller, discovers that he is just a character in a massive video game. This leads to an existential crisis.

Review: Based on the one or two trailers that I had watched for “Free Guy,” I wasn’t extremely optimistic. I was going to need more than a befuddled Ryan Reynolds to hold my attention.

Thankfully, “Free Guy” is more than just Reynolds running around with a massive smile, a bubbly positivity and a handful of open world video game references. His journey of self-awareness is a significant aspect of the film. It's not the totality of the movie. There is also the story of Millie (Jodie Comer) and Keys (Joe Keery), a pair of game programmers who saw their promising careers fizzle out when their wealthy publisher Antonie (Taika Waititi) decided to pull the plug and stop funding their original video game.

In the aftermath Millie was determined to prove that Antonie built his massively popular game “Free City” on the code she and Keys had used on their shelved video game. Keys shrugged off his disappointment and went to work for Antonie.

Without Keys and Millie, “Free Guy” doesn’t work for me. Their inclusion allows the film to exist in both digital and physical worlds. It gives the narrative a real relationship to be grounded to. It’s still a lot of fluff and expected absurdity from Reynolds (I do worry that he has completely lost track of where he begins and variations of his Deadpool character begin).

“Free Guy” isn’t nearly as thrilling as “Ready Player One” or as much fun as the “Wreck-It Ralph” but it is enjoyable and does do a good job of capturing gaming culture while also selling the idea that the real world is ultimately preferable to a digital one.