Netflix’s 1st original big-budget blockbuster film, Bright, was released last week and it was absolutely trashed by critics.
Not since “The Last Jedi” has a movie drastically split audiences and critics. The supernatural cop drama, starring Will Smith and Joel Edgerton and directed by David Ayer, has been hailed as “the worst film of 2017.
Daryl Ward (Smith), a human cop, and Nick Jakoby (Edgerton), an orc cop, team up in a modern-day Los Angeles that’s home to fairies, elves and orcs. Ayer does well creating a bizarre world that we’ve never seen before yet it’s inspirations (“Lord of the Rings”, “Bad Boys” and two previous films by Ayer, “Suicide Squad” and “End of Watch”) all echo nicely as you watch.
Edgerton in “Bright” is totally unrecognizable apart from his voice, he’s lovable, complicated and memorable a first for movie orcs. Smith is basically playing an extension off of his “Bad Boys” character, throwing F bombs around like its 2nd nature. He has a lot of other colorful dialogue something we’ve come to expect from him.
When “Bright’s” big bad, the dark elf Leilah (Noomi Rapace), finally shows up, she slices throats and gazes open-mouthed at the humans who die. Not sure if it was done on purpose but she looks like Ivanka Trump. She is a force of evil that will do anything to bring back the Dark Lord, with whom she is in love.
This movie has a lot going on but one of the main issues is we are once again dealing with racial inequality and at the forefront are orc’s who seem to be on the very low end of the spectrum here. The other plot point deals with a macguffin in this case a very rare magical wand, which just so happens to belong to Leilah who wants to use it to free her beloved. Later on the “feds” arrive on the scene. But in the world of “Bright,” the feds are actually officially called the Magic Task Force which sounds like something off “Harry Potter”. Nearly everyone in this movie wants the macguffin/wand but only a “Bright” can hold the wand.
The film resonated well enough with the audience to merit a sequel
RATING
NETFLIX rating TVMA/IMDB Parents Guide has it down for pervasive language, graphic violence, sexuality/nudity and drug use.
This is a very hard R movie definitely recommend watching it through VIDANGEL
REVIEW
I give it a B+
