With Bright, Netflix has reached for slightly softer edges remarking their dare. Director David Ayer (Suicide Squad) steamrolls over Max Landis (Chronic) script and makes an attempt to organize it into the prospective 2 hour movie, except Bright is a very engaging story told too quickly to consider production as a final step. Yes, Landis is decking up his version of the Lord of the Rings – Bad Boys, a story no one has time to tell. Maybe when they decide to make another installment, or if this would have been released as an extended version, it will provide this story and the world surrounding it the context it so needed.
In Bright – elves, humans, faeries, orcs, and dragons all reside in the same realm as our worldly one that is filled with buildings, vehicles and so forth. Will Smith stars in the role of officer Daryl Ward who has no choice but to accept the first orc policeman in the whole of LAPD, Nick Jakoby (Joel Edgerton). Smith and Edgerton are well matched as they are facing the same task of mastering two opposing character cops who are forced to cooperate in a society that does not allow for orcs and humans to live.
Edgerton steals the show in this case, although Smith still has all the charm and bravado one can imagine. He plays the role of Jakoby wonderfully. Very out of place, this orc is in the human world and also his own world. Most of the orcs do not support this idea of him working with the police in the first place. It is as if there is urgency in Landis’ script, with race, gender, nationalism, and police violence pervading throughout the film. There are times when this message is rather too felt but in general, the employing of such present day issues in this kind of fantasy world works.
In Bright, more focus is directed towards a magical wand, something that can be compared to Sauron’s ring of power in the LOTR, that everybody is fighting and for it doing so, the magic wand has special powers. Otherwise called a wish wand by Jakoby it states “A nuclear bomb that grants wishes.” There is the Inferni – organization of rebel elves that seeks to use the wand to bring back the ancient evil The Dark Lord. Although the premise does take Jakoby and Ward on some thrilling escapades, the overarching narrative is rather disappointing, feeling incomplete and hurried.
Personal camera oriented and selective editing – Yeah sure, this has quite a few failures deriving from the poor building up of the secondary characters as well. The leader of the Sadistic Inferni, Noomi Rapace (Prometheus), is quite an imposing opponent, but lacks depth and solid background to give some potential. Her character Leilah is simply great, and Noomi is a talented actress, but all in all, her character is all about the looks. Once more, Bright was a long way from achieving its full potential. I get the feeling that Landis and Ayer wanted to put together touch 1, 2 and 3 in one movie.
Edgar Ramirez (Joy), the federal magic task-forcer Kandomere who is an elf is another underdeveloped character that I wanted to learn more about. They live in a space-age society where magic is a crime and Ramirez is the leader of a federal magic division. Any good character apart from his flamboyant clothes and nice prettified skin isn’t given to him. Zilch is given as an excuse as to why Kendomere aims to locate members of the Inferni although he does pursue such aspirations. I’m sure, it’s there but was probably just missed during the final cut.
In terms of presentation, Ayer’s decision to mute the colors and to shoot the film in many gritty locales around Los Angeles makes Bright more realistic (there is even an orc painting on the buildings). There is no limit on the fun block when it comes to fight choreography and that adds even more spice when the elves come in. So their various types of kicks and flips are pleasing to the eyes in every scene. Regarding computer graphics in Bright, most of the time, practical effects are used. But if wands are drawn out or some faery flits about, the special effects getting stepped up several notches. Netflix used their $90 million budget for the production of this film to good use.
This movie stands a chance of becoming something great later down the line if allowed time by the success of the film within Netflix. As opposed to LOTR, Landis and Ayer do not have a million novels upon which they can draw on for guidance. They are building a world out if nothing — something which to some extent could have suited a television show. A series would have provided a wider canvas onto which these characters and sub plots would have bloomed into something very useful.
There was very little time to spend on this aspect of understanding how this bizarre world works because Bright was too eager to reach the end. During the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con, Ayer mentioned that he already had a second film’s concept in mind if Blade Runner 2049 receives the green light. He wants to go further into the elf and orc worlds which is good but if that part never takes place, Bright will stay being poorly written as it is now.
Conclusion
Bright could have evolved toward something more engaging had it not allowed the story pace to explode from its low-action mode enabling its unheard of and fascinating world development. Will Smith and Joel Edgerton make a brilliant team and I hope to see them again in a sequel or in some new series produced by Netflix. This will not be the last we see of the world of Bright.
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