Today, I thought I'd do a double-feature: two small reviews. Often I'll watch a movie without reporting in, but I wanted to say a few things about these movies.
#1) Free Guy
Yeah, Ryan Reynolds is funny. I suppose he's more known for his Rated-R roles, but this movie, Free Guy, looked irresistible. A video game character who comes to learn he's part of a game? I mean -- sign me up!
As Guy (Ryan Reynolds) learns how to navigate the world around him, the real world starts to notice. They call him Blue Shirt Man, and they think he's a real person messing around inside of the game. And there are a lot of funny moments, and plenty of references to pop culture.
The movie caught my attention the whole time with plenty of action and fun video-game-like special effects. Though, as you may guess, it has one of those plots where if you think too hard, you'll realize it's all silly and doesn't really work out at all. If you're able to turn that off like I did, then you'll do fine.
One thing to note ... even though I caught this on Disney+, it does have quite a noticeable amount of PG-13 cussing going on. Younger kids may not enjoy it. Ryan Reynolds even gets his own F-bomb -- a funny moment -- a perfect Ryan Reynolds moment, but way out of place in this movie.
Because, you see -- Blue Shirt Man doesn't cuss -- or at least that isn't the type of person he's portrayed as. He's innocent. Sure -- some may argue that as he learns to live more, and is more apt to cuss, but then he goes right back to being innocent. The maintained innocence is a fundamental part of the humor that makes it all work. And his cussing -- well -- it detracts from that innocence, doesn't flow nice, and weakens the effect. But hey -- Ryan is gonna be Ryan.
Go catch it.
#2) The Eternals
Knowing that this movie, The Eternals, had mixed reviews, I was prepared for a huge disappointment. But then I ended up enjoying it. Perhaps it's because it's the one movie in the Marvel MCU that feels the most like a Zack Snyder movie, and I'm one of the few who likes Zack Snyder movies. Throughout the whole movie, I was reminded of Watchmen. (Which -- yeah -- that movie wasn't true to all of its source and many hate it, too.)
The Eternals are some kind of superior race created for the purpose of defeating Deviants -- some kind of overpowered evil creatures. They've lived on Earth for thousands of years and they must remain until they are told they can leave.
And yes -- there are a lot of aspects that don't work. For much of the first hour, I was confused. Who's that? Wait -- when did that happen? Where are they, again? What year is it? Yeah -- they kept switching from present to flashbacks -- all over the place.
Also, why is it these Eternals look like caricatures of different Earth ethnicities that had not yet existed when created? (Perhaps different races were made in their image?) But then again -- they made it all work, making for interesting characters.
And yes -- this movie suffers from the MCU overload factor. That's where one can wonder, "Why weren't you in all the other movies?" and "Where are all the other superheroes in this movie?" Of course, each of these standalone movies has at least one scene where these questions are explained -- and usually in a sucky way. In this case the excuse is: "Not our job. We just do Deviants."
I didn't start enjoying the movie until about halfway through when it felt like the plot was finally starting to gel -- and I could go back in my memory to piece together the earlier scenes I had seen. I came to see why the writers decided to tell the story in such a choppy manner -- but nevertheless, I think it could have been edited more efficiently, and some slow parts could have been removed.
It's also clear that this movie ties into the big picture that's coming next in future movies -- all kinds of craziness. We even get to learn a tiny bit more about Thanos, and how there are threats bigger than him. It even ties in with some unexplained scenes in the last Spider-man movie. It was also thought-provoking and helped make the movie worth watching -- or at least it did for me.
If you have enough energy to stay awake during the first hour or so, give it a try. You might just like it. Rotten tomatoes does give it a 47% critic / 78% audience rating. So -- go in with low expectations, and you might be fine. Especially if you already have Disney+.
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