An old-fashioned but cozy action-comedy with more romance than videogame references.
Director Sean Levy has a remarkable twist: Whenever you first see his film, you might feel like you grew up on it. As if you dug out a shabby cassette or an old 6-in-1 disc on the mezzanine, and now you are nostalgic for your pleasure. What “Night at the Museum”, what “Real Steel” with Hugh Jackman are surprisingly old-fashioned for their year of release, and not technically, but in a plot-semantic sense. They have this Spielberg-Columbus atmosphere of films from the nineties, naive and warm. Levy’s last work for today is also impregnated with it – “The main character”…
Megapolis Free City is a very unusual place. Here, combat robots walk the streets and tanks drive around, jet planes fly between skyscrapers, and the population is divided into two categories: some just live and work, and the second, wearing dark glasses, do whatever they want. They can beat them up, they can shoot them, they can blow them up – and they will get nothing for it. However, their victims are resurrected the next day, so there is little trouble. And in general, this is the way it is.
So a guy named Guy is happy with everything. Every day he wakes up to the same pop song, takes the same coffee in a cafe and works until the evening in the same bank, which is steadily robbed. But the guy’s routine is not burdensome, unlike the oppressive loneliness. Everything changes when he meets her – a belligerent beauty in dark glasses. One short meeting makes the Guy look at life differently, want more and ultimately turn two worlds at once – the game world and the external one.
As already mentioned, despite the chosen theme and the abundance of relevant references, “The protagonist” is felt by the film almost from the early 2000s. Partly because Ryan Reynolds looks like “Party King” came out a maximum of five years ago, and partly because of the creators’ passion for references. So what Ready Player One was a patchwork quilt of references and borrowings, even harder to catch on cheating than Sean Levy’s tape. They merge into a single picture and “The Last Movie Hero”by the way, by the same screenwriter Zach Penn, and “Pleasantville”, and “Thirteenth floor”, and “World of the Wild West”… But quite openly, the authors cite the masterpiece The Truman Show – from it, the “protagonist” drags entire scenes, so much so that it is unclear where homage ends and plagiarism begins.
“Phantom Patrol” proved that not every movie Reynolds can save with his charm, but “The main character” the actor pulled out without difficulty
However, this whole kaleidoscope of familiar images does not cause rejection. On the contrary, recognition can give a feeling of comfort, because you get exactly what you expect from the film. In this case, it is a light comedy action movie with game references and an obligatory romantic line. In each of these categories, Sean Levy’s painting is at least competent.
Perhaps the longest and most painful of all, “The protagonist” is accelerated like a comedy. He clearly bears the stamp of a film that adult guys from the film industry created for thirteen-year-old boys and those whom they bring to the cinema. That is why the jokes are for the most part verified, harmless and cause at best a slight smile – and then through the efforts of Ryan Reynolds. But closer to the finale, the humor becomes a little more toothy, which is especially noticeable in contrast, and a few successful gags set off the passing material.
With the action, everything is plus or minus exactly, and it is remarkable, first of all, in terms of the concept. In the end, the action takes place within the game, where completely different laws of physics and common sense operate. Of course, you won’t see the final battle from the same “First Player” here, but the “Main Hero” can offer a couple of spectacular hacks.
But with the game representation, everything is again ambiguous. The same Free City, inside which the Guy lives, seems to be written off from GTA Online, but at the same time packed with completely absurd mechanics. Characters occasionally throw words like “NPC”, “skin” and “hub”, but in terms of authenticity, “The main character” has gone a little further than the third “Spy Children”… However, when you see the player in the background trying unsuccessfully to jump onto some box that is too high, your heart becomes warmer. There are enough such familiar trifles to close our eyes to some absurdities.
Taiki Waititi’s greedy corporate boss is unlike any real CEO in the gaming industry. But it’s for the best – Waititi is the most charismatic of them all.
Although, in fact, your impression of the “protagonist” does not depend on how much you understand video games, but on how you perceive the rom-coms of the 90s. After all, it is from their squeeze that the glue that connects all parts of the film together consists. Basically, this is just a story about a guy who at first sight fell in love with a beauty and decided on a feat for her sake. All existential questions, all the jokes about big business, of which there are also plenty here, are mixed in unequal proportions with a morally outdated melodrama. Ancient clichés about happiness, which has always been so close, and the power of a declaration of love are presented here in their original form. But if you are not allergic to Hollywood myths and molasses, this, again, can cheer you up.
This is the whole “protagonist”. If desired, the picture of Sean Levy can be smashed to smithereens for manipulativeness, stereotyped, secondary, insincerity. But I absolutely do not want to. I don’t want to seriously criticize films from my childhood, no matter how mediocre they really are. The “protagonist” sends the viewer into a world where everything is simple and familiar, and many will certainly be grateful for this journey.
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