Free Guy (2021)

That Ryan Reynold's movie I've been hyped up about for a couple years now? Where he plays an NPC, in a fake but free (but falsely so - draw some parallels will you) world, where he meets a girl and falls in love and his world changes forever?

It was good. The special effects were good. The characters were good. Jodie Comer looks great - and she's apparently a master of dialects too - she used no less than sixty-four different ones in this movie!!!

Also always appreciate a Channing Tatum cameo - he does his part awesomely. The main boss and villain's a great one too. Taika Waititi. So much character. So unlike the boss I'd personally like to have.

That super buff guy btw? That's Aaron W Reed. He's been in a few movies so far. What a presence. Although I thought he was someone else.

But then somehow it just ends up feeling superficial and plastic.

It's a potential 13th Floor/The Matrix/Ready Player One/Tron existential hybrid all jumbled together, bridging worlds and bringing in a complex self-evolving AI concept into the mix no less, yet it still all falls back to the common love story, and it ends up being more about making a good game, and a lawsuit, and random streamer cameos, and simple injustices in the real world than... what it could've been.

Forbidden love. A paradigm to the complexities of life and existence and everything. Something that'd transcend the world as we know it; the elements we were expecting.

I was expecting entertainment (it's Ryan Reynolds y'all), and I did get that bit in plenty. It is entertaining. Towards the end though I was hoping for way more DEPTH. Something new.

Alas it wasn't all THAT.

Guy's and Buddy's friendship does somewhat redeem the ending though. It's wholesome. Final hug. What warmth. Maybe things won't be so bad there after all.

The real world end was alright too but... too simple.

Was all of that just for this? Was the moral of the story really that it doesn't matter if the world's real or not, as long as you care about those close to you, and truly live in the moment?

I guess if you see it that way it's not all bad after all, and maybe it does go deep after all, in a surprisingly simple and not-at-all-superficial way...

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle