‘The Running Man’ Review: Edgar Wright Calls Out America’s Wrongs in the Latest and Largely Pointless Stephen King Adaptation [C+]
In a cinema landscape dominated by remakes and adaptations, Edgar Wright’s The Running Man brings to the table a frustratingly rare premise: the movies that should be remade are the ones with good ideas that didn’t work, rather than the ones that we already love. The problem, of course, is that a piece of IP not being beloved devalues it, seemingly limiting the commercial potential for the work. That said, it is undeniably a better way of approaching art. Creativity is more encouraged when a dismissed work is repurposed rather than when a canonized object is duplicated.
The 1987 version of The Running Man is that perfect kind of film that didn’t work, ready to be remolded. The original film was directed by Paul Michael Glazer (who also directed such classics as Kazaam and The Air Up There if you want an indication of the stamp of quality pressed upon 1987’s Running Man) and based on a novel from then-burgeoning author Richard Bachman, who was later revealed to be a pseudonym of Stephen King in order to churn out more books without publishers fearing his feverish output would water down his brand.
The 1987 film is an Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle begging to be made by a better filmmaker. Buried in an epic run of Schwarzenegger sci-fi classics like The Terminator, Predator, and Total Recall, the bones of a thoughtful film exist behind the dull, braindead exterior of the ‘87 film, but the execution simply was not there. Enter Edgar Wright, whose video game sensibility and nerd aesthetic seems great fits for the source material (Wright has made it clear this is less a remake of the original film than a more faithful adaptation of King’s novel.) The film represents a bit of a return to Wright’s roots after his 2021 horror film, Last Night in Soho, failed to capture audiences or critics. That return to the familiar largely works in Wright’s favor, as The Running Man is an undeniably entertaining Hollywood actioner and only further proves Glen Powell is a true movie star, but it lacks the Wright panache that made him one of the true auteurs of the late 2000s and early 2010s. The film digs deep into political themes (insightfully and tritely, in equal measure), perhaps at the expense of the visual genius Wright is so capable of. It is disappointing only in that the potential of an Edgar Wright Running Man movie feels so vast, even if it is a mostly effective and thoughtful blockbuster, in a vacuum.
The Running Man takes place in a near-future society where a deadly competition show called, you guessed it, “The Running Man” is the most popular show on television. When his daughter falls ill, blue-collar Ben Richards (Powell) is convinced to enter the game as a last resort. The film wastes no time establishing characters, setting, and themes, as we meet Ben and his sick daughter in a dilapidated, retrofuturistic industrial office. Ben is desperate to get his job back after being blacklisted for questioning the company’s willingness to expose workers to radiation. It is the first of many politically-charged moments that almost directly comment on contemporary times in America. There is a bit of, “Yeah, we know,” to Wright’s societal gripes in The Running Man, though. To an extent, it becomes a checklist of things People Who Love Edgar Wright Movies would be concerned about; that doesn’t mean the concerns in question aren’t absolutely horrifying, but the film doesn’t grapple with them in any sort of astute manner (the inclusion of graffiti reading “AGAB” stands out as a particular lowlight in this regard. This time, the G is for “Goons”, the henchmen sent to kill the contestants in “The Running Man”.) It is a lot of pointing and yelling without much exploration of the psychology of it all.
If there is one revelatory note with regard to The Running Man, it is just that this story has been done so many times now. Perhaps most damningly, we have gotten two movies in the same year based on works by the same author (looking at you, Richard Bachman) that both have titles about human movement. Sure, walking is lower-impact than running, but The Long Walk is just as thematically impactful as The Running Man in its exploration of extremely similar ideas. Go beyond this year, and it is impossible not to think of The Hunger Games, Robocop, Brazil, Blade Runner, and Minority Report (completely ignoring more famous literary works like 1984 and Fahrenheit 451) that tackle ideas of media manipulation in the face of fascist rule. Maybe Wright’s tactic of being hyper-modern in his depictions was an effort to differentiate his work, but it ends up feeling like somebody reading the front page of the last 30 editions of the newspaper. There is something commendable about the blunt force attack on what feels like an increasingly broken world, but there needs to be a, “So, what?” that this movie lacks.
That said, there is much fun to be had with The Running Man. Glen Powell, who is asked to play more rage than charm, is a very effective action lead and the film is entirely his. Powell is in basically every scene and he carries the weight as impressively as you would expect, given his oft-exposed physique in the film (kudos must be extended to the costume team for rigging his towel to stay up while riding that low during an action sequence.) The supporting cast features no weak links, as Colman Domingo, Michael Cera, and Josh Brolin all bring a certain gravitas to their roles as the flamboyant game show host, quirky revolutionary, and menacing mogul, respectively. Rounding out the cast in bit parts are Lee Pace and CODA star Emilia Jones in largely thankless roles, though they perform admirably. As far as blockbusters are concerned, the cast couldn’t be better.
Edgar Wright is an incredibly propulsive, kinetic filmmaker and that remains the case, to a slightly lesser degree, with The Running Man. The first hour, in particular, clicks by at a breakneck pace. It does eventually settle into a sort-of lather, rinse, repeat structure as the film moves on but the sequences work on a case-by-case basis. The film does, however, lack a signature set piece to cement itself as more than simply a good time at the movies. The action is always good but never great. Again, this would be much more palatable if it weren’t directed by one of the most visually inventive filmmakers of the last 20 years. In this case, good is often the enemy of great, as the movie yearns for a higher level of invention.
It’s a testament to Edgar Wright that The Running Man feels like a little bit of a letdown, as it never bores and has ideas on its mind, which is more than most movies can say. Maybe the era of Wright being on the cutting edge of genre filmmaking is simply over; time comes for us all, after all. Perhaps the $110 million price tag put more external pressure on him than he was accustomed to. Whatever the case may be, The Running Man is a satisfying film without a tremendous amount of stickiness. Glen Powell’s forehead vein notwithstanding, the film has little pop. It looks… fine enough. Its editing is… good for pretty much everybody else but doesn’t inspire like Wright’s best work. The character motivation is… consistent, at least? The moral of the story is this: walk, don’t run, to The Running Man.
Grade: C+
Paramount Pictures will release The Running Man only in theaters on November 14.
In addition to his work at Awards Watch, Jay has written and hosted podcasts for Film Inquiry and InSession Film. He is an auteur obsessive, regularly diving deep into the filmographies of celebrated filmmakers.
Jay is a proud member of the Atlanta Film Critics Circle and the Georgia Film Critics Association. You can follow him on Twitter @MrJayLedbetter.
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