Free Guy and Ready Player One were both inspired by gaming and pop culture, but which video game film reigns supreme?
The breaking of the so-called «video game movie curse» has finally taken place over the last decade of adaptations and original properties centered around digital worlds. One of the most recent, Free Guy, which is now streaming stateside, has drawn comparisons with 2018’s Ready Player One due to similar themes exploring the relationship between video games in the real world. These comparisons consistently arrive at the final question of who did it better, and here, it will be determined which movie is better overall.
While Free Guy gives many amazing popular culture references, they are mostly contained to the last 10 minutes of the movie. They are further constrained to properties either owned by the Walt Disney Company or what could easily be licensed by the production crew. In Ready Player One, however, pop culture isn’t just present — it’s deeply integrated into the plot. Rather than a somewhat generic integration of pop culture elements, Ready Player One leans deep into all aspects of nerd culture, with director and movie references, as well as characters actually playing games-within-games.
Between the two, Free Guy edges out a superior story. Ryan Reynolds’ Guy’s journey to consciousness is perfectly integrated with the narrative of the other leads, and the story leaves no loose ends. The story deals with many deep philosophical ideas, whereas Ready Player One mostly uses a series of MacGuffins to ascertain an all-powerful MacGuffin. These stories service similar endings, but Free Guy’s lower stakes and ultimate victory feel more satisfying than those of Ready Player One in the end.
In both Free Guy and Ready Player One, the villains are a mustache away from twirling it, and one could easily see them tying a character to a set of train tracks. They are evil and happy about it, and both of them boast confident and competent lackeys. i-R0k is particularly memorable, serving as the comedic relief to Sorrento. This is to say nothing of Free Guy’s Antwan, whose jabbering about IP and profits are intentionally absurd. Though Antwan is a better villain by himself, Ready Player One’s villain is simply too bad for this not to result in a tie.
Ready Player One is a brilliant showcase of all that modern CGI can create courtesy of the king himself, Steven Spielberg. From the subtle polygons on the skins of the in-game characters to the rip-roaring fight among the Iron Giant, Gundam and Mechagodzilla at the end, the special effects in Ready Player One are nearabouts unparalleled. In Free Guy, though the special effects are top-of-the-line, they are sparse relative to Ready Player One. They also stand out rather noticeably when present, meaning that Ready Player One wins both for sheer volume and successful integration.
Ready Player One has a strong message, but it is relatively commonplace. Ultimately, life is what you make of it and trust your friends. Free Guy’s message of love conquers all is central, but the number of other questions that it poses lend the message a greater presence, and these make Free Guy’s message of love more of a question of individuality and creation. This complexity helps Free Guy edge out this message of love over that of Ready Player One.
Speaking of the message of love, one wouldn’t be complete without a love interest. At its heart, Free Guy is about a pair of people who fall in love in a strange situation, and Ryan Reynolds’ history in rom-coms shines through. He has incredible chemistry with his costars, from his great friendship with Lil Rel Howery’s Buddy to his romance with Jodie Comer’s Millie. In terms of the story, too, love is integral to the plot of Free Guy. In Ready Player One, the love subplot is both underacted and underdeveloped, leading to a dearth of simplicity that simply feels tacked on.
Both stories focus on different ends of the game. Free Guy marvelously demonstrates the video game development cycle. Teams are constantly working on different aspects of the game. Profit and IP talk is incessant. Portability and customer satisfaction are buzzwords. What’s more, Free Guy successfully recreates a game that looks like it could exist in today’s world, though with a much more advanced AI. It even solidifies this with cameos from contemporary streamers.
Ready Player One, on the other hand, shows a game that has the entire world economy based upon its in-game currency. This also shows a game’s user end to a greater extent, with only a few references to profits or development. It’s a brilliant way to ensure that the user end of the game – the «fun part» – is at the forefront of this rip-roaring adventure. Ultimately, the movies focus on completely different games from completely different perspectives, and thus, can only be contrasted as to say that they both are brilliant in their own right.
Though both movies are brilliant and accomplish what they set out to do, Free Guy’s ability to handle the love story in a hilarious yet sincere manner helps it edge out a win. Video game movies are a rare breed, and good ones are even rarer. In the battle between these two great movies, Ready Player One’s stellar special effects simply don’t stand up to Free Guy’s inspiring story.
Benjamin Bishop is a freelance writer for CBR and a linguist. He worked in literary criticism and focuses on the intersections of linguistics and popular culture. He strongly identifies with Pokémon, the Muppets, and any book he manages to get his hands on.
