I used an app on my phone to get tickets to the theater -- hey, I saved the processing fee, plus this movie was totally free through reward points. So, I thought, "You know, I've been working hard, I earned a break, this looks like one of those silly movies you just relax and laugh at all the way through."
And it was, for the most part.
But anyway, getting back to the app ... when we got to the theater, they scanned the QR code on my phone and told us which theater door to go in. So we did. But after 25 minutes of commercials (!!!!!!) the movie started ... it was NOT a light, slightly brainless comedy about video games coming to life (with some very adult innuendo delivered as totally brainless lines by Ryan Reynolds who is getting pretty good at the tactless, brainless, goofball hero role).
We saw the first ten minutes of the new Samuel Jackson movie, PROTEGE. And I'm thinking, "Okay, when do I get up and find out how we walked in the wrong door? And how much of our movie have we missed already?"
The movie glitched several times -- going totally blank and silent for a few seconds, then starting up again -- then suddenly showing the studio logo for a different studio and movie. And then FREE GUY started. So it wasn't my mistake. Whew!
Anyway ... yeah, I saw FREE GUY a couple weeks ago (this review is being written about 3 weeks before it shows up. I only post book and movie reviews on Sundays), and it was fun. It was silly. It was a little crude in places that it just didn't need to be. It was brainless, lighthearted fun ... and it made you think a few times, which was surprising. Essentially two brilliant computer programmers design this game program where the NPCs (non-player characters) learn and grow as they interact with the gamers and each other. But of course, just like in TRON however many decades ago (I think I was in college -- I'll have to go check with my dinosaur) the genius program was not just stolen, but hidden away and illegally used as the basis for a game focused on total gratuitous meaningless violence. Oh, joy...
Anyway, Guy is our NPC hero, and he's happy-go-lucky despite his violent world, but not entirely. He's looking for the girl of his dreams, and when he sees her, he starts going beyond his programming. And when he takes the sunglasses off a character/player (because the sunglass people are the ones with the power, the ones earning points and winning things and having fun), suddenly he's growing and learning and changing his world.
Until the evil game designer and the computer programmers he robbed have their destined battle, and Guy's world might be wiped right off the servers.
Look for the cameo appearances by Alex Trebek and Captain America/Chris Evans!
No comments:
Post a Comment