The Running Man (2025) Dir: Edgar Wright

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I went back and forth on going to see this Edgar Wright written and directed action comedy, which is, of course, based on the cult Stephen King novel, but ultimately I decided; why not? It looked like a fun enough film, if not the most highly rated film of Wright's career. Regardless, the majority of people seemed to think it was, at the very least, mildly entertaining, which was good enough for me - as long as it was better than the mediocre original.

This didn't feel like an Edgar Wright film, for the most part. It had flashes of his style, but it was far more akin to the vast bulk of Hollywood productions of recent years, which I found a little disappointing. I liked how the film looked only intermittently - some of the dystopian world-building was good, but other aspects looked empty and shallow. I kept waiting for something really impressive to grab me visually, but nothing ever did, unfortunately.

The narrative was fine - it sure sus entertain me pretty much the whole way through, but it had its problems. The majority of the characters felt paper-thin, and where Wright wanted urgency he instead left his story his story feeling rushed, particularly during the 'Running Man' portion of the film. There was very little depth to it beyond the extremely on-the-nose messaging. The film was fun, sure, but it had a lot of shortcomings, and it definitely was not an Edgar Wright film.

I like Glen Powell as an actor - I think he's got a charisma to him that appeals to a lot of people, and his comedic delivery is normally on point. He was once more good value for money in this film, but there was absolutely no way I could buy his character in any of the disguises he was in, mainly because of how recognisable his facial structure is. Regardless, Powell delivered another really solid performance, which I certainly couldn't complain about.

Josh Brolin's villainous performance was great, but he featured so little that it was hard to appreciate it as much as I wanted to. As it pertained to the supporting cast, the two clear standouts to me were the ever-charismatic Colmon Domingo and the amusing Michael Cera. I would have loved to see more of both, and the writing of Cera's character was pretty odd, but the performances were highly enjoyable. The supporting performances of Lee Pace, Jayme Lawson, and Katy O'Brien were all respectable, as were those of William H. Macy and Emilia Jones.

Overall, I thought this was a relatively entertaining but hampered Stephen King adaptation, which seemed to be aimed more towards pleasing casual audiences than anybody else. I also think, having watched two versions of this story, it lends itself slightly better to being a limited series, rather than a feature film. Either way, I definitely preferred this version to the original adaptation, and I'd certainly watch it again, but not before a lot of other films I've seen this year.