Didn't look like it will be, and Drinker thought it was pretty good, so I have decided to sail for it. He noted that there were some woke shit in it, but not much, but there were several he did not mention.
The IRL male protag describes his earlier life as "failed dreams, desperation, and a mountain of college debt", which is declared by his non-white coworker as "horrible and boring and full of white privilege".
A female eyecandy NPC upon gaining some level of independence / sentience "wrote a memoir that's a searing indictment of gender roles, the patriarchy. It's a little preachy in parts but, over all, it's pretty good."
The main female protag: "The first time I kiss a non-toxic guy in, like, forever [...]" There is of course a lame basement-dwelling loser gamer featured, who also has a "special sock" he doesn't want his mom to touch.
When the game world is compared to the IRL one: "See a lot of gun violence in your world? - Actually, that's a big problem, Guy. It's a massive problem." --- you could give this one a pass as there definitely are problems with gun violence, but adding it up with the pacifist story this does come off as anti-gun.
There are other comments in the movie I felt were OK, since this is a GTA-style mayhem game, so it is not a surprise that people's behaviour ingame would be perceived as awful. ("Sometimes I forget not everyone you meet on here is a sociopathic man-child." or Eyecandy NPC: "- I don't have to be with any guy. - Right? Exactly. Most of them are awful. - They really are. - Terrible.")
All in all there was definitely fun to be had, with some genuinely hilarious moments, as well as some surprisingly heartfelt parts. The positive characters were all quite likeable, and the actors were well cast for them.
The movie is mostly entertaining, especially for someone into gaming, who can at least tolerate Ryan Reynolds doing what he always does.
Wasn't as good as I had hoped, and definitely not as free of wokeness.
At least the stronk wahman doing everything important and men being bumbling idiots that contribute nothing stuff wasn't present. Well, technically, it was, as a high level female player is shown to be excellent at the game, and a level 1 male NPC is shown to be a bumbling idiot in comparison, but considering the setting that makes sense. Also, after leveling up considerably, the male NPC became a badass.
If you have zero tolerance for wokeness, skip this. Otherwise, it's a decent watch for sure.
(Unrelated, but I have turned off and deleted Candyman after 15 minutes or so, that one was way too woke.)
The part that honestly bugged me the most (okay, besides the "being in massive debt" somehow being white privilege) was the beta males. Everyone was a beta except DUDE, who was incredibly stupid.
Best example, the main male character. He pines over this girl for the entire movie while she completely ignores him and only comes to him when she needs help, or to save her NPC boyfriend. Then at the end (spoilers) she blows him off when he asks her to coffee and the NPC tells her that the main character loves her. Then she rushes off to find him? Seriously?
Girls know if they like a guy as more than a friend within days, most times hours of meeting them. No, the reality is he would have continued to chase her and she would have continued to use him when it was convenient. And the whole thing was treated as "oh it was worth it, he gets the girl," so dumb.
You have a point, and it was very visible when Guy asked for permission to kiss the chick, while when the chick wanted to kiss him she just grabbed him and went for it.
But the way the story and the world was set up it didn't bother me as much as it probably bothered you. For example, Guy was essentially a virgin who have never kissed anyone before, and being an NPC he also didn't understand a lot about how human stuff works. Whereas when she kissed him she was trying to bring his memories back, and they knew that seeing her was what originally triggered him on his path.
The main male character was always shown to be an introvert coder, someone like him not being able to make a move is par for the course for someone like that. Also, the girl was always buried in the games, first the one they made, and then in Free City to find their code in it. Not paying much attention to the outside world, and the people around her felt believable, and was actually a point Guy himself made near the end. Not to mention that she came off as an introvert herself, so to me this was ultimately OK.
Also, call me a pussy, if you want, but I liked that they hooked up in the end. We need some positive shit in movies, a lot of them are depressing these days, even if unintentionally.
You actually made some really good points, makes the ending feel a little more natural.