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Star Cast: Glen Powell, Josh Brolin, Michael Cera, Colman Domingo, Lee Pace, and Emilia Jones.
Director: Edgar Wright
What’s Good: There are a couple of cool action sequences in the first half, but the film forgets them very quickly, and so do our minds.
What’s Bad: The pacing is weird, the jokes don’t land as they should, and the overall messaging of the film seems too much on the nose for today’s climate.
Loo Break: Once the second half arrives, the film slows down quite a bit, and not much happens, so there is your break.
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Watch or Not?: Only if you are a big fan of Powell’s, other than that, it is best to wait for it on digital release.
Language: English (with subtitles).
Available On: Theaters
Runtime: 133 Minutes.
User Rating:
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The name Edgar Wright is accompanied by some of the best films in the 21st century, including Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead, and Baby Driver, and so, Wright’s name has a weight of expectations that the director hasn’t been able to reach with his last two projects. It feels like everyone needs to step back and do some thinking because if The Running Man is really the new standard for an Edgar Wright film, then we are really doomed.
Wright’s writing has been mostly well-received when in collaboration with Simon Pegg, during the Cornetto Trilogy, but now that he has been alone for quite a while, it is apparent that Wright needs his creative partner back, because by itself it might be too much of a task to create a film with personality, which is why Last Night in Soho, and The Running Man feel like films that could have been directed, and written by almost anyone else, except Wright.
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The Running Man is the second adaptation of the novel by Stephen King, but the first one that actually tries to be faithful to the original source material, which depicts a dystopian future where corporations and media conglomerates rule everyday life, and use the reality show “The Running Man” to keep the masses distracted, just like the Roman Empire used the Colosseum and the Gladiators for the same purpose.
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However, when adapting, some changes need to be made because what works in one medium might not work in another. In this case, the second half of the film feels quite boring, as the characters become mostly static for a while, and the action becomes way more generic. The actors try to do as much as they can, but the material is very heavy-handed with its meaning, thus creating a sense of too much preaching and slowing the pace by a lot.
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Wright still tries to inject a bit of his style into it, but most of the jokes don’t feel as clever as the ones in his other films. There is definitely not enough character development, as the story is too focused on the world-building and then on the political message that the movie tries to provide to audiences; the world-building is very cool, but we need more than that to create a good story and definitely more than that to create an entertaining film.
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Glen Powell feels like he is right on the edge of becoming the next big movie star, but his choice of projects has not been the best. The Running Man fits right into that trend, but nevertheless, Glen has a ton of charisma, and he does the best he can with the role. Powell is funny, relatable, and can carry the movie all by himself; there is no question about it.
The rest of the cast also does a good job, but for such a massive cast, filled with big names, it feels like their participation consists mostly of cameos, and as such, it is hard to attach ourselves to any characters other than Powell’s. Only Emilia Jones seems to escape from this fate, playing a very vital and important character that should have been part of the story right from the beginning.
This is the most disappointing part of the film, because while competent, it doesn’t feel like The Running Man is an Edgar Wright film; it feels generic, and in autopilot, like most action films coming from Hollywood, and in some ways, it feels just like the fake movie the crew in The Fall Guy were filming. The visual consistency is not there, and the use of green screen and sets might take you out of the film very easily.
The energy that characterizes Wright’s films is not here, and maybe this is just the result of working inside the studio system, but this is the reason why the industry is struggling right now, because most of the projects end up feeling like just anything else, without anything to make them feel apart, and sadly Wright’s work is the latest victim of this system, but either way, it is Wright’s name at the end of the film, and as such he takes the responsibility.
The Running Man feels too much by the numbers, and yet, fails to be an impressive film when it comes to being a blockbuster, stumbling in terms of pacing, writing, and overall thematic resonance, which is rare because Wright knows for sure how to make this type of film, but something stopped him from achieving his entire potential, leaving us with a disposable action flick that can feel fun at times, but not enough to justify the ticket price.
The Running Man released on 14th November, 2025.
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