Bright

A little backstory first, I saw the trailer for Bright a while back and I was intrigued by it. I can't say I was overly excited for it but it was a film I planned on watching when it came to Netflix. Directed by David Ayers, the mastermind behind the entertaining but ultimately not that great Suicide Squad, and written by Max Landis, the controversial writer who I do somewhat appreciate for thinking outside of the box but ultimately don't think he's very good among other personal thoughts on him, Bright had potential but also had the potential to be bad. So I wasn't really surprised when it received a mixed review and a lot of people considered it to be the worst film of 2017.

However, because of all those reactions, when I finally did watch Bright, I went in with the lowest of expectations and was half expecting to be tearing the movie apart in this exact review. And overall, I actually had a little bit of fun with Bright.

Bright stars Will Smith as Officer Daryl Ward. He's a police officer in the Los Angeles Police Department set in a world where the creatures and species of fairy tales like orcs, elves, fairies, etc live in modern times with humans. The ancient history is kept somewhat vague but everyone refers to it like the Lord of the Rings novels weren't fiction but instead historical fact.

There is an obviously analogous hierarchy where elves are at the top of the hierarchy and orcs are at the bottom. But the LAPD has a diversity program that hires orcs like Ward's partner Nick Jakoby (played by Joel Edgerton). Obviously people are not happy about this and it makes Ward and Jakoby pariahs among their colleagues at the department.

Eventually, Ward and Jakoby find themselves on a call and find an elven girl named Tikka (played by Lucy Fry) and find a magic wand, that is compared to a nuclear weapon of power. They find themselves in a battle against ancient forces, corrupt government officials, and federal agents in order to save the life of this girl and get the wand into the right hands.

 The first thing to talk about is the obvious, obnoxious, and really tone deaf social commentary in this film. When one of the first lines in the film is, "Fairy lives don't matter", the cringe and eye rolling will probably begin. I never want to be the one to say white guys like David Ayer and Max Landis can't make social commentary, but when its done like it is done in Bright, it just brings on all the cringe and doesn't feel authentic.

Something I did find a little bit interesting was Will Smith's character, being black, and being "racist" towards orcs. That's a big point of the movie and it does bring a lot of development between these two, however, again, it feels weird and out of place.

I'm not going to sit here and pretend like I'm the expert on how to execute social commentary, all I can say there were a lot of social commentary moments that I've seen before in multiple other movies that just felt cliche and didn't help the movie at all. It just felt weird.

The social commentary is a big part of the movie so it's kind of hard to overlook, but if you can get through the eye rolling you're probably going to do, you will see that as weird as their character's dialogue is, Edgerton and Smith really do commit to the roles they're given and give a decent performance. I did end up caring at least a little bit about Ward and Jakoby and they made a decent team.

As far as world building, Bright is a little bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, this is a really interesting and fresh world that Ayer and Landis created. It is a concept that I don't think a lot of people would think of initially but would actually be really interested to see. Especially with David Ayer's past movie End of Watch, take that and combine it with Lord of the Rings, you do get a really creative idea.

However, there are a lot of glaring inconsistencies.

The elves are at the top of the food chain and yet they call their section of town Elf Town? Joe Rogan is still a thing in this world. Will Smith directly makes an insulting comment to a bunch of orcs about the movie Shrek... is that a documentary in this world?

Even as I write those, I do realize that they might seem small details and nit picking, however, it does point towards not enough time given to this script. The reason big fantasy worlds like Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, etc, are successful is because A LOT of time was put into creating these world in a way that would make sense in the context of that world. Goblins running the banks in Harry Potter doesn't necessarily have to make a lot of sense but it painted a picture of a section of Harry Potter. Bright has its own lore that is kept vague but is also blended with reality and that doesn't blend well unless you have an explanation for it. So while I commend Landis for creating a really creative idea, I also have to criticize him for not following through and making something that makes sense and is digestible for an audience. And unfortunately Landis is probably too easy of a target because the night before Bright was released Landis put this out on Twitter...

Like... why... why would you put this out there? Maybe his script was the next Star Wars but the movie I saw was not pieced together to give me that idea. At all.

Script issues aside, the other big issue I had with the film was a critique that David Ayers is very familiar with and that is, despite the movie being called Bright, as the movie went on, it got darker and darker visually. Which I don't totally understand. Despite some short comings, I've always seen David Ayers as a very competent director. I want to see these action sequences that he's putting on screen but it's impossible if the film is so dark!

I feel as though if they just boosted the light by two notches, despite any script or eye rolling social commentary, this movie would have been at least a little bit more enjoyable towards the end.

And that's very much where I need to land at the end of this review. There are a lot of problems with Bright, it's visually dark, it's got script issues, and the social commentary is really cringe-worthy. However, there is a good movie somewhere in there. The overall plot is interesting and creative, the actors in it are committed and talented, and despite issues, I did feel like it wasn't a waste of time to check out the film.

Is it a really good movie? Absolutely not. But is it as bad as people say it is? I don't think so. It's hard for me to say it's worth your time on Netflix but again, you're paying for Netflix, why not check out what they have to offer, it won't be a complete waste of time.

Overall, not a glowing review for the film I know. I have heard there are plans to make a sequel, this time without Landis. I really have no strong feelings about this either way. While a part of me thinks that maybe with a second go around they could make it better but I also have zero faith in that happening realistically speaking. If I worked for Netflix, I would say let's focus our money somewhere else, but I'm also not gonna be super sad if there's a sequel because there is a slight chance it could be made better. Who knows?

But those are my thoughts on Bright? What did you think? What were you expectations going into this film and were they met? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. So this video might be some context that I think might have been important when watching this movie. But at the same time it feels very half baked and left me with more questions that answers at the end of the day. Enjoy!