 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: Bright • Year: 2017 • Country: USA • Director: David Ayer • Main cast: Will Smith, Joel Edgerton, Noomi Rapace • Runtime: 117 minutes • Production company: Clubhouse Pictures, Overbrook Entertainment, Netflix • TRAILER
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Let’s talk about filmmaker David Ayer. He started his career as a writer, producer and director in the early 2000’s with a good bunch of films filled with A-class Hollywood stars that, let’s be honest, they weren’t so bad. His debut film Harsh Times (2005) starred Christian Bale, Freddy Rodríguez and Eva Longoria, and one could already see that this filmmaker had a good eye for action and a sensitivity to social stories. With Street Kings (2008), End of Watch (2012) and Sabotage (2014), David Ayer proved that he could be a very competent storyteller of plots filled with crime, action, betrayals and racial conflicts, and altogether dealing with stars such as Keanu Reeves, Jake Gyllenhaal or Arnold Schwarzenegger. And then with the biggest critic and commercial success came with the war epic Fury (2014), starring Brad Pitt and Shia LaBeouf, and we all thought he was going to become one of those filmmakers whose movies would be long expected since their announcement. But then Suicide Squad (2016) happened. An awful film with an extreme potential to destroy anyone’s career. The kind of movie that made me say to myself “okay, I don’t want to see anything else from this director”.
David Ayer’s latest work to date is Bright (2017), a movie that has made history in the popular Video on Demand platform Netflix. Mainly for two reasons: because it’s the only movie with a sequel produced by Netflix to date (a sequel that was greenlit even before the original film premiered), and because with a budget of $90 million it has been the most expensive production of the streaming platform since its foundation. That called my attention enough and I decided to give another chance to a David Ayer film, doing my best to forget how painful was to stand the 2 hours of torture that Suicide Squad (2016) was.
Being absolutely honest, Bright (2017) is not a bad movie. But it’s neither a good one. Written by the always interesting Max Landis, the son of classic filmmaker John Landis an author of the screenplays for interesting titles like American Ultra (2015) and Chronicle (2012), Bright (2017) swims between the waters of a fantasy film mixed up with the classic action cop buddy movies Lethal Weapon (1987) style. Also, because of the subject, the racial hate factor and the design of the creatures, it can’t help to be reminded of Alien Nation (1988), which clearly is one of the film’s referents.
The movie is set in a world where fantasy creatures live side by side with humans. A human cop is forced to work with an Orc to find a weapon, a magic wand, everyone is prepared to kill for. The Elves also take place in the story, as some sort of magical police force between good and evil, while some wicked creatures called Inferni want to resurrect the Dark Lord, an evil entity that was defeated 2,000 years earlier. All these, in the environment of cops flick, with car chases, explosions, gun fights and the traditional dose comedy added by the disparate duo formed by the starring cops, the human played by Will Smith and the Orc incarnated by Joel Edgerton. Oh, and the always effective Noomi Rapace is the evil Inferni sorceress. We better don’t forget that, because already is a good reason to give a try to this film.
To sum up, Bright (2017) is a mere entertainment product. It’s easy to watch and brings some fun moments. The action sequences are well filmed, but the characters and situation are a little ridiculous and hollow. The story is pretty silly so don’t expect something to transcend to film immortality like Willow (1988) or Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings saga. Still, I think any Netflix user should give it a chance in a situation of boredom.
RATE: 5,5/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5519340
