Review of Bright (2017) by Jaime L — 23 Dec 2017

A film that has Will Smith in it is going to have a boost given the charisma the man has and it shows true in Bright. He makes me care just that much more about the story around him which I have to say needs that boost. He is partnered up with Joel Edgerton the first Orc police officer of the LAPD. Edgerton faces the discrimination that all orcs in this film face in what is part of many hamfisted attempts of social commentary in the real world. Subtle the film is not. The relationship of Smith and Edgerton is rocky to say the least and I am reminded of the film Alien Nation from the 80s after mulling over Bright. James Caan and his alien partner in that film is rather similar after all.

My main issue with Bright though is the absurd premise. Not the fact that there are orcs and elves in the film but the fact that they exist and yet the film says that the world is pretty much the same as it is in reality. As if all these different races could exist for thousands of years and have a large battle against a "dark lord" that is talked about around the time of the Roman Empire yet history remains the same. I just couldn't forget that as I was watching this and so I could never get fully invested in the story, the problem was too much of a distraction. Plus there were a couple of subplots that just dead ended with no resolution to which I find to be just bad writing.

The action scenes were well done though, the budget was obviously high enough for realism in that regard. When the shootouts were happening I was able to temporarily forget by issues with Bright though as soon as the guns fell silent that was no longer the case.

I have to wonder if sequels are planned, given how things seem to be unresolved I would hope so. Otherwise Bright would have been better off as a limited series at least to flesh out the world more and not leave it to sweeping generalizations and loose ends.