Review of Bright (2017) by Chris O — 02 Jan 2018

Where David Ayer has gone after "End of Watch" and "Fury", I don't know.

Set in an alternate present-day where humans, orcs, elves and fairies have been coexisting since the beginning of time, this action-thriller directed by David Ayer (Suicide Squad, End of Watch, writer of Training Day) follows two cops from very different backgrounds. Ward, a human (Will Smith), and Jakoby, an orc (Joel Edgerton), embark on a routine night patrol that will alter the future of their world as they know it. Battling both their own personal differences as well as an onslaught of enemies, they must work together to protect a young female elf and a thought-to-be-forgotten relic, which in the wrong hands could destroy everything.

I had always admired David Ayer. "End of Watch" is one of my favorite films to date, and "Fury" is one of my favorite war films. Both are gritty, dirty, real, and just damn good. However, his last two flicks "Suicide Squad" and "Bright" have both been lackluster at best. Is that to say that maybe he doesn't do well with a rushed screenplay? Or is he better fit to tell darker stories. Either way, this was almost worse than "Suicide Squad", if not even less entertaining.

One of the few saving graces of this film is the idea. The idea where this alternate present exists could be a great social commentary. It obviously draws on the parallels of racism back in the 1900s between people, but translated into a more fantasized version. It's something that could be really cool, but it never became anything. This story had a lot of potential and while it had a couple of cool moments, it felt like a bag of wasted potential. I guess that's the worst thing about this film but if you want to see a great cop film that's much better than this one, just watch "End of Watch".

Even if it a movie is less than adequate, I still thought there were a couple of great moments. A film can be bad but still have great lines of dialogue. Chalking up a movie as bad as a whole does not mean it can't have better than average moments. There are a couple lines in here that were actually kind of good but for the most part, this film was cliche, bland, and generic. I mean come on, a magic wand? That's what our tangible plot device is? A magic fucking wand?

Will Smith and Joel Edgerton are fine together. I think they're both solid as individual actors but they never seem to mesh together. That could be due to the lack of content to work with, but they just didn't show up. No one in this film really showed up and it felt like no one was really passionate about this film. I'd like to do more research and figure out the thought process in making this film because I'd honestly love to hear their thoughts and why they made the decisions they did.

In the end, "Bright" might be one of Netflix's biggest flops. While many people have tuned in to watch this film, I definitely hope I see some better films after this one.