Edgar Wright returns to our screens with a re-adaptation that seemed poised to bring us back to the thoughtful action thrillers of yesteryear, but ultimately ends up as a somewhat entertaining disappointment.

Based on Stephen King’s 1982 book horrifyingly set in the dystopian future of 2025, the film centres on Ben Richards (Glen Powell), an ordinary man out of a job and with no means of making money having been blacklisted for union activism, living in the slums of the city and in desperate need of money to pay for his two-year-old daughter’s medicine. With no other choice, he turns to applying the Network to become a contestant on one of their many sick, exploitative shows in the hopes of winning prize money. Despite his intentions (and promise to his wife) to only appear on less dangerous shows, he is chosen for The Running Man, a deadly competition show where contestants must survive the next 30 days whilst being hunted down by professional assassins and surveilled and ratted out by the viewing public deceived into thinking he is a criminal who deserves this. Richards’ defiant stance and survival methods soon make him a phenomenon and his refusal to compromise on his principles become a greater threat to the entire system.

The film’s premise is alarmingly relevant to today and King’s prescience is remarkable; his vision of 2025, whilst not completely accurate, isn’t far off. There are so many layers in this premise that are exciting to dig into, from the normalised exploitation of vulnerable people on reality TV to deepfakes and the fracturing of trust they bring to the surveillance culture we live in in the age of smartphones. Unfortunately, the film fails to delve into these subjects beyond the surface level of their existence and there is a real lost potential for commentary, making the film feel like a waste of its source material. The film as a whole feels surface level and general, as though story beats and characters were merely sketched out in the pre-production phase and went through no further development. It doesn’t feel as dark of gritty as it should to get King’s points across.

From the start, the film feels wooden; its set up feels purely expositional with our lead and those around him presented as cartoonish caricatures; less characters than expositional devices, we then have to root for them for the next two hours with little given to invest us in them as people. This foundation isn’t strong enough to give depth to the rest of the film. The relationship between Richards and his wife just isn’t there (their conversations are almost exclusively exposition) and it is all just too on-the-nose; Richards is introduced to us as ‘angry man’ (we are literally told multiple times how angry he is) and nothing more. These problems aren’t exclusive to the film’s opening act; cardboard dialogue and ham-fisted explanations appear throughout, all betraying a lack of depth and consideration. The third act feels especially messy. Powell’s performance keeps you interested but he isn’t given much of a character to go off. Richards’ everyman relatability also appears shaky at points as he falls into ‘lead action hero man’ territory at times which feels a little at odds with the message of the piece and his abilities aren’t really explained.

Despite its lack of depth, the film still provides some great entertainment with exciting action set pieces and funny moments. There are fun blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Easter eggs referencing the 80s adaptation and King himself. Particular moments sing with the Edgar Wright energy and comedy that is his trademark but it is really missing on the whole, leaving the film feeling a little bland or generic (very studio picture); it is the least distinguishable Wright film. There are laughs but some of these feel a bit out of place within the film’s tone.

The result is clumsy and messy with a constant, nagging feeling that something is missing. It still works as a somewhat throwaway piece of fun popcorn entertainment, it is just a real shame it isn’t anything more.