How Shawn Levy’s movie manages to stage video games (and it wasn’t easy)

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Cinema and video games, here is a complicated love-hate story, well documented and commented on in the documentary. The Screen War. If the video game was very inspired by the cinema, this one did not necessarily, nor often, return it with the films. Super Mario Bros., Street fighter, Doom, Assassin’s Creed, not to mention Uwe Boll, “the worst director in the world” and sworn enemy of video game adaptations. There remain some faithful adaptations (silent Hill), unofficial reappropriations (Hyper Tension 2) and better representation, coupled with recognition, with recent Ralph’s Worlds from disney and Ready Player One by Steven Spielberg.

Players on familiar ground

In theaters since Wednesday, Free Guy by Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum, Real Steel) is in the same vein, and stages a world in the world, virtual world in the real world. From the first images where a character is parachuted onto a map as in Fortnite, spectators and players are on familiar ground. Chases, bank robberies, regular explosions, collectibles and other Matrix bugs refer to many of today’s games, Grand Theft Auto on your mind.

Free City, the game in the film, is thus a shooting game in open world, of which the spectator guesses the functioning, the gameplay, but that he will never really see in action. And for good reason, and this is the good idea of ​​the film, Free Guy does not espouse the point of view of the player and his avatar as Ready Player One, but that of an NPC, a non-playable character.

The uprising of the NPCs

“That’s the premise of the film,” comments director Shawn Levy. What is the life of these characters, of these people in the background? They often serve as victims, settings, but each has an existence, a consciousness, potential. Why not put the hero of the game aside and explore the inner lives of these NPCs. Especially since they have evolved a lot in recent years, and have become, along with their artificial intelligence, an essential component of games. open world and their success. “

Guy, it is the name of the NPC interpreted by Ryan Reynolds, is thus a simple bank employee, who repeats the same few gestures and dialogues every day, in loop. “It was very interesting to create a character that was intentionally unfinished,” explains production designer Ethan Tobman. All the details of her life, her apartment, her appearance all came to a halt halfway, because it would be too long, too expensive to do it for all the NPCs in a game. Now, I think the we can, in a way, find ourselves in this feeling of being half-accomplished in our lives, as if stuck in a hamster wheel. “

A review of some video games

Free Guy is thus revealed to be, as its title suggests, a story of liberation as Hollywood is used to telling, and close to a The Truman Show Where The Great Lego Adventure. But there are still things to say about video games. If the heroes and players do not have the leading role, they are nevertheless very present and often presented as bad or pathetic. A subliminal message to pass, Mr. Levy? “There is no debate that our game, like many real games, relies on certain aspects of human nature… the more chaotic ones I would say. It’s also part of the fun, of being able to express a part of yourself, of your humanity, that you could not express in real life. And so much the better?

A love letter to the community

Yes Free Guy comments, even criticizes the video game, there is nonetheless a love letter to the gaming community, like the emotion that the film arouses between its characters, NPCs or not, and the reality of virtual relationships. “The pandemic and the lockdowns brought to the general public something that players already knew,” says Shawn Levy. Namely that games and virtual offer an exciting connection with your friends, strangers, a community. All through an avatar, another you, maybe even behaviors that you would not have in your daily life. It’s a fascinating dynamic in video game culture. On the one hand, there is artifice, but on the other, there is authenticity. These connections are real. “

“The survival of entertainment is in originality”

Shawn Levy admits to having been less subtle with the character of big bad studio boss played by Taika Waititi, also director of Thor : “I wanted to point the finger at the video game industry, and even the cinema, and this blind belief in franchises, sequels, spin-offs. You must know that Free Guy is the only original blockbuster for summer 2021. All others are based on existing intellectual property. It’s increasingly rare, and I think the survival of entertainment lies in originality. »His words take on another flavor (ironic?), When we know that Free Guy is one of the first Fox films to be released since the Disney buyout… and it shows.





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