Benz Eye View: Free Guy

Pros:

1.) I found the CG to be quite interesting for one reason: the film takes place in a video game, so unless there are some terrible CG that are not purposefully made (i.e., 8-bit characters in a realistic gaming world), any decent or bad CG fits well into this film. They are not groundbreaking, but the CG crew has an advantage when it comes to making them in a video game environment. Not really a big deal, but it something worth pointing out despite being a inane pro.

2.) The film establishes well on what is the real world and the video game world. As I mentioned with the CG, the video game world does not look that real yet it fits into it anyway whereas the real world is…the real world; no CG at all. Not only does the video game world (or Free City as it is called) look dissimilar to our own, but how the people live in that world is interesting. They are NPCs who act naturally to all the crime and chaos that is happening thanks to the video game players which not only makes it pretty funny, but we also get to see some Easter eggs from certain game glitches to references of other popular films and games. Think of this film as The Lego Movie but with video games, and you get the idea of what the world is like.

3.) If there is one actor that I think stands out easily, it is Taika Waititi as Antwan. While he may not be in it much and he is kind of cliché, he is so over-the-top bossy and greedy that he makes Ryan Reynolds look like his Deadpool character in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. That may not be the best way to compare Reynolds’s character, but he is similar to what Will Ferrell did as Lord Business in The Lego Movie against Chris Pratt as Emmet Brickowski; one has more charm than the other. It is also clear that Taika is having fun with his role and enjoying being a douchebag boss who probably represents greedy video game corporations like EA or Activision Blizzard. The rest of the cast did fine, but Taika Waititi is the best actor in the film.

Cons:

1.) While Ryan Reynolds as Guy had a decent character arc, I found that two of the other major characters, Millie Rusk (played by Jodie Comer) and Walter “Keys” McKeys (Joe Keery), to be more interesting. They have as much screen time as Guy, and I kind of wonder if the film is trying to balance these three characters despite the fact that Guy is supposed to be the main character. I understand that Guy’s existence and motivation is thanks to those two, but their character arcs are more interesting than Guy’s, because they conflict with the main antagonist, Antwan. Maybe they could have written Guy better, but as it stands, Millie and Keys are more investing than the main character.

2.) The first act has a rough start not because it introduces the world poorly, but it introduces it so casually that it made the world look kind of boring. There are plenty of movies that take place in a world that is like a video game (i.e., Ready Player One), and this film just made it look like nothing new is happening compared to the other movies. Also, there are some sloppy exposition and uninteresting moments. Not a great start, but it is made up with the rest of the film.

3.) The last act can be a bit ridiculous for a couple of reasons. One: it delves into some programming issues in Free City, and how they are resolved I am sure that video game programmers will tell you that is not how it works. Two: the film establishes that Free City is a popular video game, but it is kind of odd that the entire world is suddenly invested on what is happening to that game and Guy himself. Grand Theft Auto V is a popular video game, but not to the point where the entire world is that invested or interested in that game. It does not ruin the story, but it is ludicrous enough to bring some people out of the film.

Overall:

A film that was delayed thanks to a certain pandemic, Free Guy is a film that I describe (and I am sure everyone will say the same thing) as The Lego Movie but with video games. If you liked The Lego Movie and you are a fan of video games (and even if you are not a fan of either one), there is plenty to like about this film. It may be better than Ready Player One (a movie that I liked when I watched it, but I have not seen since it was released in theaters), and it may have similar elements to The Lego Movie, but this film still does its own thing with a few flaws here and there. It is a film that Ready Player One should have been, and it is certainly a film that is great to watch.

7/10

Benz Eye View’s Stardust Reviews Video

(The two paragraphs below are copied from the description and the pinned comment)

Stardust was a social app about movies and TV shows that started around July 2017 and was recently closed down on June 4, 2021. The video posted here is all the movie, TV show, and trailer reviews from my BenzEyeView2 account from 2018 to 2021. I did have another account called BenzEyeView as my main account, but I can no longer access it since I had to change my cell phone number for certain reasons and it can only be accessed on my old number, so all of those reviews from that old account are lost. While there are some reviews I think did not age well in retrospect, my voice can be slightly annoying, I keep repeating certain words and phrases, and I rather not show my face (yet), I enjoyed reviewing in Stardust, and I thank them for letting me be part of the app despite ending abruptly and recently. May the people behind Stardust as well as the members of the Stardust community move on to something better.

I have written reviews extending my thoughts on what I think of these movies and TV shows (but not trailers) under my blog in https://benzeyeview.wordpress.com/ (starting from February 2018 to May 2021; though since you are here, I welcome you to my blog) as well as other reviews pass my BenzEyeView2 account (I even review a few video games). On a side note, I prefer number scores out of 10 instead of a 5-star score, because I want to specify what I think of the movies and TV shows as possible.

Here is the timeline for the video alongside the links of my reviews in my blog:

0:00:00 – Intro

0:00:08 – The 15:17 to Paris

0:00:39 – Black Panther

0:01:05 – Detective Chinatown 2

0:01:29 – Death Wish (2018)

0:01:56 – Gringo

0:02:15 – Tomb Raider (2018)

0:02:44 – Pacific Rim: Uprising

0:03:09 – Ready Player One

0:03:36 – Isle of Dogs

0:04:05 – Rampage

0:04:27 – Chappaquiddick

0:04:54 – Avengers: Infinity War

0:05:23 – Peter Rabbit

0:05:50 – Deadpool 2

0:06:19 – Solo: A Star Wars Story

0:06:49 – Adrift

0:07:16 – Hotel Artemis

0:07:42 – Incredibles 2

0:08:11 – Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

0:08:40 – Sicario: Day of the Soldado

0:09:09 – Ant-Man and the Wasp

0:09:39 – Tag

0:10:08 – Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

0:10:37 – Skyscraper

0:11:06 – The Equalizer 2

0:11:35 – Mission: Impossible – Fallout

0:12:00 – Venom – Official Trailer 2

0:12:27 – Christopher Robin

0:12:55 – The Meg

0:13:18 – Crazy Rich Asians

0:13:47 – Mile 22

0:14:17 – Searching

0:14:46 – Peppermint

0:15:12 – The Predator

0:15:41 – Night School

0:16:06 – Venom (2018)

0:16:33 – Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer

0:17:02 – Johnny English Strikes Again

0:17:28 – The Nutcracker and the Four Realms

0:17:55 – Pokémon Detective Pikachu – Official Trailer #1

0:18:19 – Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

0:18:48 – Creed II

0:19:13 – Widows

0:19:42 – Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

0:20:11 – Aquaman

0:20:41 – Bumblebee

0:21:09 – Ralph Breaks the Internet

0:21:35 – Mary Poppins Returns

0:22:04 – The Upside

0:22:29 – Glass

0:22:56 – Mary, Marry Me

0:23:23 – The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part

0:23:49 – Aladdin (2019) Special Look

0:23:56 – Alita: Battle Angel

0:24:22 – Fighting with My Family

0:24:51 – Dark Phoenix Official Trailer

0:25:20 – How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

0:25:49 – Captain Marvel

0:26:19 – Aladdin (2019) Official Trailer

0:26:35 – The Crossing (2018)

0:27:04 – Shazam!

0:27:33 – Dumbo (2019)

0:28:03 – Unplanned

0:28:32 – Hellboy (2019)

0:29:01 – Breakthrough

0:29:30 – Avengers: Endgame

0:30:00 – Sonic the Hedgehog (2019) Official Trailer

0:30:09 – Pokémon Detective Pikachu

0:30:36 – Tolkien

0:31:05 – John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

0:31:34 – Aladdin (2019) Part 1

0:32:04 – Aladdin (2019) Part 2

0:32:33 – Godzilla: King of the Monsters

0:33:02 – Dark Phoenix

0:33:32 – Men in Black: International

0:34:01 – Toy Story 4

0:34:30 – Yesterday

0:34:59 – Spider-Man: Far From Home

0:35:29 – Shaft (2019 film)

0:35:58 – The White Storm 2 – Drug Lords

0:36:27 – The Lion King (2019)

0:36:57 – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

0:37:26 – Hobbs & Shaw

0:37:55 – Dora and the Lost City of Gold

0:38:25 – Line Walker 2: Invisible Spy

0:38:52 – Overcomer

0:39:18 – Fagara

0:39:47 – Rambo: Last Blood

0:40:12 – Joker

0:40:42 – Immortal Hero (Intro)

0:41:08 – Immortal Hero (Overview)

0:41:37 – Immortal Hero (Rating)

0:42:06 – The Current War

0:42:36 – Terminator: Dark Fate

0:43:05 – Parasite

0:43:33 – Frozen II

0:44:00 – Knives Out

0:44:29 – Jumanji: The Next Level

0:44:56 – Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker

0:45:25 – Ip Man 4: The Finale

0:45:54 – Jojo Rabbit

0:46:21 – Little Women (2019)

0:46:51 – Marriage Story

0:47:20 – 1917

0:47:49 – Ford v Ferrari

0:48:16 – Dolittle

0:48:45 – Bad Boys for Life

0:49:14 – The Gentlemen

0:49:39 – The Irishman

0:50:09 – Weathering with You

0:50:35 – Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)

0:51:05 – Sonic the Hedgehog

0:51:34 – The Invisible Man (2020)

0:52:03 – Onward

0:52:33 – Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008 TV series)

0:53:02 – Artemis Fowl

0:53:31 – Star Wars Rebels

0:54:00 – Mulan (2020)

0:54:30 – Persona 5: The Animation (English Dub)

0:54:59 – Agent Carter

0:55:28 – Tenet

0:55:58 – The New Mutants

0:56:26 – Jiang Ziya

0:56:56 – The War with Grandpa

0:57:22 – Honest Thief

0:57:52 – Lupin III: The First

0:58:21 – Wonder Woman 1984

0:58:51 – Soul

0:59:20 – Run Hide Fight

0:59:49 – Tom & Jerry (2021)

1:00:19 – WandaVision

1:00:48 – Zack Snyder’s Justice League

1:01:17 – Godzilla vs. Kong

1:01:46 – Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

1:02:16 – The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

1:02:45 – Mortal Kombat (2021)

1:03:15 – Inhumans

1:03:44 – Raya and the Last Dragon

1:04:13 – Wrath of Man

1:04:43 – Spiral: From the Book of Saw

1:05:12 – Cruella

1:05:41 – Outro

Benz Eye View: The Suicide Squad

Pros:

1.) This movie is surprisingly over-the-top violent and I love it. With all these action scenes, it tries to show off as much gore as possible while making it funny in the process. In some cases, it is almost like The Suicide Squad was trying to do their own version of Mortal Kombat (which makes sense since Warner Bros. owns both DC and Mortal Kombat properties). If you want to see some dark comedy in these gore-filled action scenes, you are going to laugh and be amazed.

2.) The main plot reminds me of many 80s and 90s action flicks, and the movie takes full advantage of it. The Suicide Squad are sent to a fictional Southern American island country controlled by dictators in order to destroy a secret project there. If there is a specific action flick that this movie reminds me of, it would The Expendables movies, specifically the first one. Though there are a couple of issues I see in the plot, I found it to be a fun experience in the end. It is not meant to be a deep story (for the most part), and it wants to take you for a ride alongside with some exploding heads.

3.) Some of the members of the Suicide Squad are more interesting than others. The ones that stood out to me are Robert DuBois a.k.a. Bloodsport (played by Idris Elba), Harley Quinn (played by Margot Robbie), Christopher Smith a.k.a. Peacemaker (played by John Cena), Nanaue a.k.a. King Shark (voiced by Sylvester Stallone), and Cleo Cazo a.k.a. Ratcatcher 2 (played by Daniela Melchior). Besides their appearances and their actors playing them, they seemed to have some potential of deep characters and backstory that can be quite interesting (one of the members, Peacemaker is going to have his own HBO Max show down the line). You get to know who some of them are, and it is enough for people to care what is going to happen to them (unlike the last Suicide Squad movie where the filmmakers did a poor job in it)…

Cons:

1.) …The issues I have with these characters is that they did not do enough characterization to help audiences care more about them (with a couple of exceptions). They only have on-the-surface issues and not much else, slightly ruining any more interests and characterizations with them. The biggest example for me is Abner Krill a.k.a. Polka-Dot Man (played by David Dastmalchian); he is the weirdest member of the Suicide Squad and I thought they would do something interesting with him, but he is barely utilized in the movie, so the best things I know about him is his weird name and he has mommy issues. Honestly, if you think of some of the members of the Suicide Squad as the characters of Guardians of the Galaxy (Bloodsport is Star-Lord, Harley Quinn is Gamora, Peacemaker is Drax, Ratcatcher 2 is Rocket, and King Shark is Groot) except not as interesting, you probably get my point.

2.) Just like he did in Guardians of the Galaxy, James Gunn manages to put in a bunch of songs throughout the entire movie. However, just like the first Suicide Squad, it really does not have much purpose other than telling what is happening in the scene. While it is entertaining to hear, one of the reasons why the songs in Guardians of the Galaxy worked well is because it is a reminder of Star-Lord’s home planet of Earth. This may not be that big of an issue for you, but I wish that these songs are more than just entertainment for the ears.

3.) The third act is probably not a strong way to end this movie. Without spoiling anything, here is what I think is wrong with the last act: the Suicide Squad’s decision to pursue what happens is not really strong if you consider that these are criminals forced to do the government’s dirty work. I can probably see why Bloodsport might do this, but not the other remaining members. The other issue is what was once a search-and-destroy mission turned into a save-the-world mission; something I was hoping this movie was not going to do since it has been done so many times and it does not fit with these characters. Lastly, how the main villain gets defeated I found absolutely ridiculous even for this movie: it is similar to Star Wars: Return of the Jedi with the Galactic Empire losing to a bunch of Ewoks. It is not a terrible last act, but I found it to be a weak and poorly-delivered one.

Overall: The first Suicide Squad had an interesting concept of prisoners forced to do the government’s work for a reduced sentence, but it had poor story, characters, and other technical problems. Now comes the next Suicide Squad movie called The Suicide Squad (it is seriously a dumb title just by adding the “the”), but directed by the Guardians of the Galaxy director, James Gunn. Unlike David Ayer, Gunn did a good job making a movie about a bunch of criminals stopping evil in its tracks (I guess his work with Marvel definitely prepared him for this). Though it has some big issues here and there, it is clearly a movie about cool action with characters that are despicable but fun. It is definitely better than the last Suicide Squad, though I would not go as far as saying it is one of the best DCEU movies. If you wanted to see the Suicide Squad represented on screen well, this is the best you got; just be glad it did not blow up in its face.

7/10