The Running Man (2025) - Review
Although I've wanted to watch more movies recently, I haven't been able to really keep up with that. The last time I actually watched a movie was at the very end of August, and I simply just haven't felt that motivated to do so again, until now.
After I got back into watching more movies at the start of this year, one director immediately jumped into my mind as my favourite, and that is Edgar Wright. His movies — especially Scott Pilgrim and The Cornetto Trilogy — have such an amazing style to them, with kinetic editing, constant foreshadowing, and amazing timing in editing and acting alike.
So when I learned that he was working on an adaptation of Stephen King's The Running Man, I was estatic. Although I haven't fully read any of King's books (though I really want to) I do know quite a bit about them, and I love a lot of their movie adaptations.
I've always loved their style of suspense, as well as King's balance of horror with occasional positive emotions to make both feel more punchy. James A. Janisse of Dead Meat described it as "melancholic optimism" in the case of the Doctor Sleep film.
Anyways, as for The Running Man movie itself, I just watched it today in a cinema and I am a massive fan! This may sound unsurprising, but I've actually seen that this movie has received relatively bad reception compared to Wright's other works. By that I mean it's averaged around a 6.5 almost everywhere I look, which certainly isn't bad by most means, but it's quite low compared to his other films.
I completely understand where this criticism comes from, and I find it completely valid. The main one I've heard is that this doesn't feel much like an Edgar Wright film, and I don't exactly disagree, but I also understand why it wouldn't really work in this type of movie, which is much more suspenseful and action-oriented than most of Edgar's other works that have a larger general focus on comedy.
Additionally, and this is something I haven't actually seen anyone bring up (though to be fair I don't look at many reviews before or after watching a film), the ending of the film is definitely weaker than the book's in my opinion. I don't want to spoil either of them for anyone unaware, but I can say that this movie ended on a more definite lighter note, which I definitely understand as that's what happens to most movies (albeit not all of them, King would know).
Although I definitely prefer the original ending, I don't find the new ending bad, and even then it's probably what I personally feel the most negatively about in the whole movie, which is a testament to how good it is in my opinion.
All of this criticism is completely valid and has been on my mind, but on the other hand, if this were a movie from any other director based on the work of any other author, it'd be absolutely fantastic, and I prefer to judge it that way!
Despite definitely not being as Edgar Wright-y as his other works, this movie still has those occasional moments where his style shines through. From the occasional synchronizing to the music, to all the match cuts, to tonnes of foreshadowing that I sometimes managed to catch before the actual pay-off!
I managed to catch a lot of Stephen King references as well, I particularly remember the mention of Derry, Maine, and seeing a business named Bachman, after the pseudonym which he originally published the novel in. Also, of course, the 100 New Dollar bills having Arnold Schwarzenegger's face — the star of the very different 1987 adaptation — was my absolute favourite*.
The actual story was all-around great. Things were adapted wonderfully, and the things that were new fit extremely well with the rest, especially in the new medium! Although some things perhaps could've been more subtle, I honestly don't always mind having a bit of up-front-ness in things like this.
Also kudos to the pacing of the film specifically! It would be very easy for this type of film to just be non-stop action, but there is enough downtime after every major action scene that there's definitely enough time to rest up and be impacted when the next action scene comes, even up to the very end.
In general, I'm very happy I had a good movie-watching experience once again! Aside from the knowledge of the source material and a video by Edgar Wright that briefly touches on it, I didn't really have any idea of what to expect from this movie, and I really enjoyed watching it completely fresh.
By the way, that video is great, absolutely recommend for anyone who's curious about specific behind the scenes stuff in his films.
And that's it for my review!
This is something kinda new, as now that I have this blog it feels like the perfect place to be able to write more lengthy reviews like this. Hopefully I get to watch more movies soon, as I really enjoy watching them and definitely enjoy writing about them here as well!
I've technically done this before, as I did a very small review of 10 Things I Hate About You which I watched on my way to London, but that was super small and more of an addendum to something else.
Watching things like this again reminds me of why I enjoy these mediums so much, and I can safely say that I enjoyed myself every second of it! I absolutely recommend watching this film, even if you aren't as much of an Edgar Wright nerd as me… or as into Stephen King as me… or as a much of a fan of dystopian fiction as me (I mean, have you seen how much I love Half-Life 2? Maybe I have a little bit of bias of that somewhere…)
* Probably tied for my absolute favourite gag in the movie was that they actually kept that name. Y'know, that one.
