'Bright': A Review

A Netflix continues its meteoric rise, they expand their range of TV shows and movies in an effort to put their own permanent stamp on the entertainment world. Enter: Bright. This is Netflix's first big-budget movie coming in at costing the company $90 million to make. It was a big gamble for the company, and if the critics are to be believed, then the gamble has failed to pay off. But you know what? 11 million viewers in its first three days tells a very different story of a movie that, despite being panned by the "professional" critics, is still able to draw in a huge viewership. In fact, the story is also very different when you consider the professional critics rating vs the ratings from the fans. Review aggregate, Rotten Tomatoes has Bright sat at 29 percent approval from professional reviewers, while it's sat at 80 percent approval from regular fans. I have to say, I'm very much with the fans on this one.

Written by Max Landis and directed by David Ayer, Bright is a world set in an alternate present day in which humans uneasily co-exist with Orcs, Centaurs, and Elves. Magic is real and very much a danger in this world. LAPD Officer Darryl Ward, played by Will Smith, is forced to team up with rookie Officer Nick Jakoby, an Orc, played by Joel Edgerton. Ward and Jakoby already have a history prior to the movie in which Jakoby allegedly let escape an Orc criminal that shot, and nearly killed, Ward. So coupled with the pushback from his fellow Officers, Ward is none too keen on his partnership with the Orc. On a routine call out to a disturbance at what turns out to be a safehouse for the Shield of Light, they discover a number of corpses killed in what is obviously a Magical fashion. The still-living torso of an Elf female is embedded into the wall. The two Officers apprehend the lone-survivor of the attack, another Elf female named Tikka, who is in possession of a Magic Wand, a device it is said can be used to bring back the Dark Lord himself.

I won't give anymore away, because it's honestly one that you need to watch and experience for yourself to truly grasp just what you're seeing here. For starters, to build up such a world in a single movie is going to be tough as hell, but they didn't spend too much time on exposition as you would probably expect. Sure, there's a fair bit of it, but no more than your average movie, and that's both a blessing and a curse. For a film like this to work, you need solid foundations upon which to sell the world to the viewers. Otherwise, you're heading into this with a tough sell from the starting block.

I won't give anymore away, because it's honestly one that you need to watch and experience for yourself to truly grasp just what you're seeing here. For starters, to build up such a world in a single movie is going to be tough as Hell, but they didn't spend too much time on exposition as you would probably expect. Sure, there's a fair bit of it, but no more than your average movie, and that's both a blessing and a curse. For a film like this to work, you need solid foundations upon which to sell the world to the viewers. People who know their fantasy are probably going to get certain aspects of this film from the offset, but others may struggle to understand what even an Orc is, let alone why Orcs are, technically, an allegory for the way Black people are treated in American society.

While this is largely a buddy action cop movie set in a fantasy world, this also attempts to offer a critique on race in America by simply swapping out African Americans for Orcs, the idea being that racism in America in this movie no longer exists because people direct their hatred toward Orcs. Chance The Rapper tweeted out his displeasure of this depiction labelling the attempt as "shallow" and I'm inclined to agree. Sure, racism is still a very important issue, and will likely remain a significant issue until the human race dies out, but to attempt to deal with it in this movie seemed tacked on to appear more intelligent than it either was, or needed to be.

Will Smith isn't necessarily known for routinely starring in good movies, but there's one thing he is good at, and that's selling camaraderie. His chemistry with Jeff Goldblum in Independence Day is the main reason that ranks as my favourite movie ever, but in Bright, his reluctant partnership, which grows into friendship, with Jakoby is a great development of his character and is really only something I think Will Smith can pull off convincingly on a routine basis. The action of the movie, when it gets going, is top notch, and while a bit CGI heavy at times, there are still some excellent moments that come close to being jaw dropping.

The critics are right. The movie does have its issues and is by no means perfect, but it lays a good groundwork for a movie series, and with the sequel already green-lit, I'm hopeful that this is the start of a successful franchise for Netflix that can eventually win over even the most hardened critics.

Score 6/10

- Steve