Bright Is A Clever Concept That Never Reaches Its True Potential

The 2017 set of winter films has arrived with many of them looking very promising to audiences. With the 2017 award season of films being released along with the winter batch of films, one of the stranger and more unique releases is Netflix's Bright starring Will Smith and Exodus: Gods And Kings Joel Edgerton, written and directed by Suicide Squad writer David Ayer. Whereas all the other winter film's got limited to wide releases in theaters, Bright became a motion picture event on Netflix, that drew blockbuster ratings due to the star power of the film's lead, fulfilling the popular online sites hope of making a trilogy out of Brights intriguing concept. Despite being one of the most watched Netflix programs ever, the film was savagely torn apart by critics for its unusual blending of gritty cop drama mixed with a fantasy storyline, that mirrors Lord Of The Rings. Despite the critics denouncing it, the film was warmly embraced by audiences, who have given the film high praise along with blockbuster viewership. Having seen the film out of curiosity due to Will Smith reverting to do a Netflix film instead of a wide theatrical release as well as being intrigued by the polar opposite opinions of both audiences and critics, one can say that Bright is neither a terrible film nor is as good as it could've been with such an intriguing and clever concept.

      Bright feels like a combination of three films all rolled into one. The first being an old 1980's Science Fiction classic titled Alien Nation starring James Cann. The story plays out in a similar story structure fashion to Bright with a human cop being paired up with an alien one to work a case together after the aliens were integrated into regular society. Like how Bright shows the discrimination and prejudice towards Orcs, Alien Nation deals with a cops own prejudice towards his partner whose of another species, but later comes around to respect him. The film embodies the concept of Alien Nation while borrowing the Orc subplot from Lord Of The Rings as well as the gritty realism of the story from Training Day. Directed by David Ayer who helmed Suicide Squad, End Of Watch, and wrote the script for Training Day, Bright is set in a gritty world where fantasy creatures are integrated side by side with humans in society. The story follows the Alien Nation concept with a human cop being forced to work with an Orc to find a weapon everyone is prepared to kill for. Like Training Day, Brights story is edgy and takes the main characters on a journey, that changes both people's perceptions of the world their surrounded by as well as themselves. The story for Bright has the potential to be a fantastic Sci-Fi fantasy film, the problem is it isn't sure what exactly it wants to be as the gritty cop drama feel doesn't exactly blend well with the whole fantasy aspect of the story involving the Orc and the magic wand.

        As far as acting performances go, Will Smith and Joel Edgerton deliver strong performances giving each other chemistry, while making the audience become engaged in their experience together, showing the awkwardness the two had when first pairing up to them becoming stronger partners as the story goes on. The film's make up effects with Edgerton's character is quite impressive as well as being another of the film's main highlights. Made with a lower budget compared to the stream of big-budget studio film's, Bright takes what's an incredibly interesting concept, and brings it to life even if the end result feels rather uneven. The film is definitely not for everyone despite the film trying to have fantasy, hard-hitting cop drama, and social commentary all rolled into one. Instead of the film feeling beautifully meshed together, the end result is messy as the movie comes off as being rather confused in terms of what it really wants to be. The film essentially takes a generic buddy cop movie premise, that has been done before with film's such as 48 Hours, Lethal Weapon, Rush Hour, and Shanghai Noon, putting its own unique spin on the classic formula while bringing in the Training Day feel to it, that became popular with cop dramas afterwards. The film nails the buddy cop formula down to a T with Will Smith clearly disapproving of his partner by telling him that he doesn't want to work with him, but has no choice because it's the Captain's orders then becomes caring for his partner later on in the story. The fantastical Lord Of The Rings quest meshed into the story makes the gritty feel of the story come across as awkward when the fantasy elements of the story come into play with Smith's character, and Edgerton's fight the main villains to protect a magical wand from falling into the wrong hands. Where Smith and Edgerton carry the film, Edgerton's performance is more impressive as his character is covered in make-up, and forced to work twice as harder to sell his character to the audience as well as the plot.

        As a Netflix original movie, Bright is ok and even comes off as being reasonably entertaining and fun to watch mostly thanks to its intriguing concept, that could've been done so much better as well as the strong performances from the film's main leads. When it comes to being a gritty and powerful cop drama, Bright doesn't hit home like Alien Nation does with its theme of prejudice with the society's treatment of Orcs, not being as engaging as film's like Training Day and End of Watch. As a science fiction fantasy, Bright can be fun to watch despite the audience wishing that the film stayed focused on that aspect of the story rather than trying to have it all. Despite Brights faults in the end, the film deserves commending for trying something new with an already established buddy cop theme with an intriguing twist added to it, however one cannot watch the film and not feel that for a story and concept that carries with it so much potential, the movie itself could've been much better if the writing and directing was stronger. David Ayer can be a strong writer and director when he was to be but lately has been rather inconsistent. One of the more unusual releases of 2017, but one that's worth watching and being judged by those who are Sci-Fi and fans of the buddy cop genre.

                                                                                             Final Verdict: STREAM IT