Review of Bright (2017) by Tal G — 08 Apr 2018

Really unique and interesting premise that's ultimately extremely underdeveloped.

They could've struck gold here. The story feels like it was handed to us in a rough draft phase. It's extremely basic, everybody besides the two main characters are paper thin caricatures with barely 1.5 personality traits or barely any aspects that would make them into interesting and compelling characters. The villain is just bad because...? The two federal agents are just brooding around... The elf girl is just a loony girl on the run. I just didn't care about the world. The major plot beats were also rather underwhelming, and towards the end the momentum was lost completely. Felt hastily, awkwardly wrapped up.

The world building was slightly better than the characterization stuff, but it still felt very rudimentary. We had one brief scene showing us elf life. It felt like the story for some reason locked us out of the more potentially interesting places in the Bright world.

The acting was well done out of the two mains. I enjoyed that aspect. It was what I'd expect out of a buddy cop movie.

Another bright point in this movie was the makeup and the production. They managed to do some pretty creative stuff with the way the orcs looked, even the elves. The culture they managed to illustrate was also very interesting and creative.

All the rest was unnoticeable.

Since the sequel is already set to happen, here's to hoping they improve for the next one. You can only go up from here. Get your shit together.