Free Guy

I know next to nothing about video games. Which given I am a sci-fi reading, comic collecting, Marvel movie viewing geek of some standing is probably a bit weird. In fact all I know about video games I learned from books and movies which is probably a poor source.

That is just a preamble to say I have no idea whether 'Free Guy' is going to annoy the hell out of gamers with it's depiction of their community and culture. I thought it was pretty fun and avoided anything too controversial (no GamerGate connotations here) but what do I know.

It is a decent film - a kind of weird mix of 'The Truman Show', 'Ready Player One' and 'Wreck It Ralph' which throws around some tech babble about AI that is about as convincing as any other references to it in more pretentious movies (i.e. not at all.)

Ryan Reynolds does Ryan Reynolds and goes someway to redeeming his recent non-Deadpool roles (6 Underground and those Bodyguard movies in particular), Taika Waititi chews scenery non-stop as the bad guy and is clearly having a ball with it, Jodie Comer mainly plays the straight 'guy' and exposition agent but has some cool lines and action scenes and Channing Tatum gets to be pretty funny in an extended cameo.

The first half of the film is particular enjoyable and despite leaning into the (lack of) physics offered by a video game universe it still feels more realistic than the recent Fast/Furious movies - the rise of 'Blue Shirt Guy' as the hero of an amoral playground was particularly enjoyable.

Well worth a watch and I'm glad I saw it on a big screen as it is the kind of design spectacle that deserves a big canvas.