The worst parts of Free Guy are essentially the worst parts of Space Jam: A New Legacy, except now it's a different megacorporation sucking itself off and complimenting its own IPs. But at least Space Jam had enough good sense not to throw in obnoxiously popular YouTube gamers and Twitch streamers to provide playthrough-style commentary on the climax; to tell us how COOL the stuff we're watching is.

The concept of Free Guy is an interesting one, revolving around an open-world video game NPC, named Guy (Ryan Reynolds), achieving sentience and breaking free from his routine to explore what the legendary "players" are up to. The player characters all sport sunglasses; when Guy procures his own pair, he begins to see (and soon interact with) a level of his reality he never knew existed - health packs, mission prompts, power-ups, the stats of other players, the whole shebang. These are some genuinely amusing sequences, punctuated by baffled reactions from young gamers.

The truth is, this idea would be perfectly fine for a short film or a Corridor Digital video (it wouldn't surprise me if there already is one). But because movies need to be bigger and longer than ever before (for some reason), it's not enough that an NPC simply breaks its programming and wreaks some hilarious havoc, gaining the attention of gamers across the globe - and also Alex Trebek.

Instead, we also need a half-serious subplot about two young programmers (Jodie Comer; Joe Keery) whose sophisticated A. I. code was acquired by a major game company - helmed by an esurient Taika Waititi - and wasted on a GTA Online-type multiplayer game. The very idea of Disney satirizing corporate greed is more hilarious than any stupid reference throughout the entire picture.

I also wish that the film had gone all the way with its video game aesthetics; either in terms of the graphics in the in-universe game world, or the way such a space might look if modern-day Internet-dwellers truly get to decide. I don't know much about these things but I'm imagining big-titted Among Us avatars, Wojak comics converted to hideous 3D, or if you wanna go old-school on us, purposely poor graphics à la Xavier: Renegade Angel. It's one of those "out there" movies that, all things considered, still look perfectly safe in terms of directing, visual effects, and actor attractiveness.

Although the movie isn't quite so reference-dependant as Ready Player One or the aforementioned Space Jam film, Disney blows its load near the end of the show, throwing in Star Wars and Avengers imagery that reportedly made at least one audience clap and cheer with glee. They also play "Wrecking Ball" when there's a wrecking ball, but I don't know if anyone clapped to that. I'm guessing yes.

Look, I know we're all very excited to finally be able to see movies in a theater again. I know that we often want more of what we love, even to the point where merely "recognizing stuff" equates to quality entertainment in some people's brains. I understand comfort food, comfort zones, escapism, complacency, and all that good sh-t. It just amuses me - in a dystopian sort of way - that we effectively clap like seals the moment we're being reminded, by a company that controls several avenues through which we get our entertainment, of the fact that the company indeed owns those things. There's nothing astonishing about seeing lightsabers, Avengers characters, or Chris Evans in a film owned by Fox, and therefore Disney.

I hate myself for what I'm about to say, but I'm actually kind of starting to miss the days of Meet the Spartans and Disaster Movie, where the incessant references, while monumentally unfunny, at least created the sense that the writers were on pretty thin ice, legally - even with Fair Use in place - and a risk was being taken. Today, we're only being reminded of the growing power of media corporations, all to thunderous applause and Soyjak faces.