Shining “Bright”

Orcs and Elves and Fairies, Oh My!

Veteran LAPD officer Daryl Ward (Will Smith) is forced to partner up with the first Orc officer in the country, Nick Jakoby (the completely unrecognizable Joel Edgerton), and ends up taking on a Dark Elf and some bad cops in Netflix’s most expensive original film to date, Bright.

I first heard about this film on Netflix earlier this year.  The streaming service heavily promoted the film and successfully grabbed my attention.  Despite having a seemingly absurd premise, I impatiently waited for the December 22 release date to arrive and watched the film that evening.  Something about the promos really grabbed my attention.  Part of me wanted to see just how bad this film could be, but another part of me said that director David Ayer (Suicide Squad, Training Day) might possibly be able to make a decent movie out of this Max Landis (Victor Frankenstein, Chronicle) story.

I  held off on writing this review because I also saw Star Wars:  The Last Jedi during the same time period and felt that that film was a bit more important to blog about first.  This decision allowed me to think about Bright a bit longer and it made me grow to appreciate the film even more.

Minor spoilers ahead, but nothing too surprising.

The story seems a bit silly on the surface.  It’s essentially a buddy cop movie about the grizzled veteran (Smith) attempting to survive the day with his new rookie officer (Edgerton)…..who happens to be an Orc…..and Elves and Fairies also exist in this present world.  All of the other cops on the force want Jakoby eliminated from his position, and when Jakoby and Ward stumble upon a magic wand and an Elf (Lucy Fry) capable of wielding it, other cops see it as a way to permanently remove Jakoby by killing him and taking the wand for themselves.

Things get even crazier when a local human gang also finds out that Jakoby and Ward have the wand and they give chase.  Top that off with the fact that the owner of the wand, the sinister Dark Elf called Leilah (Noomi Rapace), is after them as well, and you’ve got all of the ingredients for a chase film sprinkled with humor that only the combination of David Ayer, Max Landis, and Will Smith can deliver.

Despite having a solid amount of humor throughout, this story is pretty dramatic.  There are undertones of racism (from the cops, Orcs, Elves, and humans) and an Uncle Tom factor (the other Orcs hate Jakoby for trying “to be human”) in the film, but these elements simply play out in the background, being injected at moments in the film and then being pushed back while the main plot plays out.  Landis could have written a grand social commentary about race relations, but decided to stick with a buddy cop film and it works very well.  I’ve read a few reviews where people claimed that Landis squandered a perfect opportunity to address race relations with this film, but I believe that his intention was never meant to address that specific element, only to use it as a catalyst for the main plot.

The Elves in the film are seen as an elite race, being wealthier, more intelligent, and considered more attractive than the humans and Orcs.  Fairies are relegated to being a subspecies that are pests and nothing more.  This hierarchy plays into the film’s tale, as one of the protagonists, an Elf named Kandomere (Edgar Ramirez), comes across as a bad guy at first, but is really only interested in upholding the law.  In fact, I’d say that Razmirez gives one of the best performances in the film.

The rest of the cast does an excellent job.  Smith and Edgerton have excellent chemistry on the screen, and Edgerton does a particularly good job behind a ton of makeup.  Lucy Fry spends a lot of the film rattling off Elvish until she finally trusts Ward and Jakoby.  It’s at this point where we see that there’s more to her than meets the eye.  Noomi Rapace eats up every scene that she’s in, commanding the viewer’s attention as she kicks, punches, threatens, and murders her way through Los Angeles.  Her two primary followers (Veronica Ngo and Alex Meraz) provide plenty of action as well.  Margaret Cho and Ike Barinholtz are excellent as bad cops out to get Jakoby by any means necessary.  Happy Anderson channels a young John Goodman as Montehugh, Kandomere’s partner.

The film has excellent practical effects and an excellent soundtrack.  It makes perfect sense that Cannibal Corpse would be a band that Orcs would listen to, so it comes as no surprise that their track Hammer Smashed Face is considered “one of the greatest love songs ever written” by Jakoby.  It’s these types of light moments and nods that hold the film up between the heavier moments.

It doesn’t surprise me that the professional reviewers shot this film down.  I’m pretty sure that their DNA is encoded with an anti-fun gene that forces them to hate any film that doesn’t have some great message attached to it……or they are a bunch of snobs.

There are better fantasy films out there, but for a fun weekend flick that’s actually pretty cool, give Bright a chance to shine.  Ignore the critics, pop some popcorn, and enjoy this movie.

Thanks for reading my post.  Let me know what you think about Bright in the comments section.  I’ll be posting again real soon!