POPCORN REVIEWSS

Written by Matthew Robinson, the title of the film Good Luck Have Fun Dont Die is a direct satire on the salutations you may have experienced in the gaming world. Instantly, the demarcation is carved in – on how human life exists between two worlds now, the real and the virtual world. And given that the latter is virtual in nature, much of the issues with respect to pain in the physical sense, or living in a cage is reduced – instantly forming a medium of escapism. And this form of escapism here is divided into mini-chapters with respect to individual characters, thereby resembling mini episodes of the show Black Mirror.

The non-linear flashback-flashforward kind of a narrative may have been a tricky proposition on paper, but the writing allows you to thoroughly invest you in the proceedings and the characters, whose lives are satires in the era of AI. For instance, Mark (Michael Pena) and Janet (Zazie Beetz) are teachers at a school wherein children are consumed by technology. In a scene, you witness robotic replies to the questions posed by Mark wherein not a single student wishes to apply brains in the AI-era. This, even as the teachers have been going on ‘sabbatical’ – a direct metaphor of AI taking over the education system.

Likewise when you are introduced to Susan (Juno Temple), she has just lost her son during a school shootout. But oddly, the parents having suffered similar bouts of tragedy casually offer her a reference of a company that would create an AI replica of her son. Moreover in another scene, you see Susan being witness to an odd story of a couple who had lost their daughter ‘twice’ during multiple shootouts – one of them being a clone which they re-replicated to make her ‘taller’, ‘Muslim’ and a ‘racist’, making you question their scale of morality whilst also making you ponder on the ability of individuals to look for quick solutions as getting to the root cause of the issue.

In that sense, both the journeys of The Man and Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson) are personal – both having lost their loved ones to AI and the virtual world respectively. These specific set-pieces are sprinkled with dark humour in the current timeline, almost giving you a bird’s eye view of a video game wherein characters have to essentially go from Point A to Point B respectively. And in a way if I am comparing this to a video game like Mario filled with obstacles, then that is exactly the issue being addressed by the protagonist.

As per him, the virtual world headed by AI is essentially taking over the real world – with most heads being immersed in technology, almost similar to an endless bout of hypnotism that would disconnect us from the real world. Ironically, the bunch of obstacles also feel being pulled out of a video game and air-dropped in the arena – a giant man-eating cat, a bunch of masked thugs, an army of teenagers connected to their cellphones to name a few.

The film did minutely lose its steam in the final act that felt like essential leftovers from Tron: Ares (2025) featuring AI creating a hellish environment with wires, along with a boy controlling the events. The twists and turns are intact, even as the bodies keep piling up – but the zing resembling Everything Everywhere All At Once (2023) that was prevalent in the first two acts, slightly tapers out towards the end.

Nevertheless, the haunting outro offers another little layer to the proceedings – almost like a parting reminder to the havoc that AI has caused, and with its endless possibilities that it has to offer in future. It is poetic on how the only way to survive remains on detesting technology, much like Ingrid who suffers from an infection of sorts.