Bright is a 2017 Netflix original action crime thriller starring Will Smith as a Will Smith and Joel Edgerton as his Orc partner Nick Jakoby. The film was directed by David Ayer of Suicide Squad infamy and End of Watch, another cop movie set in LA. Bright was written by Max Landis who also wrote American Ultra, Victor Frankenstein, and the TV show Dirk Gently's. With a budget of 90(!) million dollars, the film has so far been considered a commercial and critical flop. It also recently donned the title of the worst film of 2017 pretty late in the year.
As a former police officer myself, I was curious to see how they'd handle the movie. I know several of my cop buddies loved End of Watch so I went in with high hopes. While not completely dashed, I was left with a great big.. Meh. Does it deserve worst film of 2017? Absolutely not. Does it deserve most "Eh" film of 2017? Well its definitely a contender.
THE PLOT:
Bright focuses on the strained relationship between a "racist" Will Smith character and his Orc partner in the mythical streets of LA. After finding a magic wand of unspeakable power, the two must try to keep it out of the wrong hands.
OVERALL THOUGHTS:
Like I said before, I went in with high hopes and came out kinda meh. I'm a big fan of police movies and fantasy movies so I thought the combination would be unique and interesting, and it was at points. However, I felt like Ayer failed to do anything special with this film. It was watching Will Smith play Will Smith, only this time he's a street cop in LA. Joel Edgerton is great as Nick and completely unrecognizable from the last movie I saw him in (It Comes At Night). The rest of the cast is hit or miss and generally pointless. Will Smith's wife and daughter are introduced in the beginning and not seen again until the last scene. His daughter is mentioned maybe twice by Nick during the movie, and only once by Will Smith himself. I get having these characters to give a character some backstory and something to care about, but it feels almost pointless. I don't expect them to have the daughter come along for the ride, but at least mention her. In fact, Will Smith almost dies several times. Willingly too. But he doesn't seem to care about the daughter we saw once.
Joel Edgerton as Nick easily outshines Will Smith. His character has the funniest lines, the most detailed backstory and is actually likeable. Will gets a few good laughs but most of his quips fall short, which was disappointing.
The movie has a run time of TWO HOURS and it feels like it. Despite being so long, it still felt like the last 20 minutes were rushed to finish the story arc and give us a neat little bow on top. I remember checking to see how much time I had left while watching. I let out an audible groan when I saw that I was barely halfway through, with another whole hour left.
My biggest gripe with the film has to be some shoddy CGI. There is some decent CGI in the movie, like the LA skyline that's always looming in the background. There is also some realllllly shit CGI, like the graffiti in the opening shots that is CLEARLY fake. The other creatures who are in the film are hit and miss as well. Another complaint I had is the action, mostly with the Elves who fly around on wires for most of the film. They're floaty and just not believable. Movies can make characters fly in the air believably, just look at "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".
STRAY THOUGHTS (SPOILERS):
- Why do cops hate having an Orc? He's super strong and has super smelling powers. Seriously.
- That gangster party is super early in the morning man.
- That one guy should be called Taser Face.
- Bad guys built up, killed off in less than 2 minutes.
- Was that a dragon!?
- Internal Affairs subplot pointless and dropped immediately. Lots of plots dropped actually.
- What was wrong with the audio in some scenes?
- The movie isn't afraid to cuss A LOT to feel "edgy" and "different".
- OFC he's a Bright.
- 2 bar shoot outs within 15 minutes that are almost exactly the same.
C-
A decent but unremarkable film that I probably won't watch again. Oh wait there's a sequel announced already?
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