With a setup reminiscent of “The LEGO Movie,” “Free Guy” introduces us to Guy (Ryan Reynolds), an NPC (Non-Player Character) in the wildly successful open-world video game “Free City.” He dresses the same way every day, orders the same coffee, and works at the same bank, which is robbed multiple times a day by actual players in this “Grand Theft Auto”-style game. He is unconcerned. Everything is going swimmingly for Guy and his best pal Buddy (Lil Rel Howery) until the cheerful fella spots a real player going by the handle Molotov Girl (Comer) and breaks his pattern, following the enthralling woman down the street.

As he becomes more interested in Molotov Girl and where she might be going, he obtains a pair of sunglasses that reveal what the actual players see in this world, such as missions, medikits, hubs, and other things that will be familiar to modern gamers, even if some of the technology here is already outdated. (Note: Incorporating actual gamers and streamers like Ninja, Pokimane, and DanTDM was a brilliant move that will have kids who know those personalities jumping out of their seats.

Back in the real world, we learn that Molotov Girl is a programmer named Millie who used to collaborate with another tech genius named Keys (Joe Keery) on the creation of a truly ambitious virtual game, one that would replicate the real world rather than simply giving gamers violent missions to complete. She’s in “Free City,” looking for proof that the game’s egocentric publisher Antwan (Taika Waititi) stole her code and deformed it into this bland experience, when Guy proves to be the ideal inside man. The Trinity to his Neo, the two form an alliance to basically tear “Free City” apart from the inside, beginning with Guy’s refusal to rise through violence to higher ranks. Guy selects only the positive missions in the game, becoming an internet sensation as the world tries to figure out who this mysterious gamer is, not realizing that he is actually the most remarkable breakthrough in artificial intelligence in history. As Millie and Keys discover what has been created here, they strive to protect true progress from rash capitalism.

Director Shawn Levy does an admirable job of keeping “Free Guy” clicking and humming through several entertaining scenes in the first half, including a great montage of Guy’s “good” missions and a funny sequence in which Keys and his programming partner Mouser (Utkarsh Ambudkar) go after Guy, but he really loses the pace around the hour mark, circling back to a lot of the same plot points and themes. Rather than forging its own identity, the film struggles to shake the clear influence of previous projects such as “The Matrix,” “Ready Player One,” and even “The Truman Show,” while also dropping in actual gaming and pop culture references with increasing frequency. The film’s best moments embrace the concept’s potential, while its worst appear to be imitations of better project