Review of 'Bright'

bright.jpeg In an alternative, gritty, reality fantasy creatures such as fairies (pests), elves (the elite) and orcs (slow and very rough) live side by side with humans. Human “Daryl Ward” (Will Smith) is a Los Angeles cop who has been teamed up with “Nick Jackoby” (Joel Edgerton) the first orc in the police force. There is bad blood between them as in the past while they were on duty Ward was critically injured while Jackoby was buying a burrito with Jackoby failing to apprehend the perpetrator. This event coupled with the fact that Jakoby has a low standing amongst other orcs who continually give him a hard time and Ward wanting to retire in a few years with as little fuss as possible the situation between the two is very tense. When they stumble across the mysterious “Tikka” (Lucy Fry) and a magical wand they are forced to flee for their lives when the police force, gangs…and everyone else…come after them for the wand. The wand belongs to “Leilah” (Noomi Rapace), an elvish “Bright” (user of magic) is a member of the Inferni clan who desperately wants it back in order to return the (rather sinister sounding) “Dark Lord” to the world. Cue lots of bloodshed, swearing and, of course, outrageous action.

Quite a well done visualisation of what a world would look like with various fantastic creatures living amongst us. We are introduced to this world over the opening credits with shots of graffiti decorating walls mentioning these creatures and the prejudices that exist between themselves and, of course, humans. This is not a warm-fuzzy place of pretty fairies and elves, these are creatures that behave much like humans with swearing and violence galore, for example, fairies are pests that are simply to be killed. The dynamics of the situation seem to have been very well thought out by the film-makers and really makes the entire premise much more believable. Of course, this character study is very quickly overshadowed by massive gun battles with blood and bodies splattered everywhere as the two fugitives fight for their lives. The interesting political situation makes the action scenes that much more interesting as the various species exhibit their own unique personalities.

It is never entirely clear where the story is going so it certainly keeps the film entertaining throughout. Most of the time the question is whether there is anyone in the city that is not out to kill them which does, I admit, get a bit frustrating at time (surely not EVERYONE wants them dead, seriously?). This is certainly another film with a lot of running and shooting involved…

The strength of the acting here really helps the audience buy into what is happening with strong performances by both Smith and Edgerton. Their dynamic as police partners is a bit unheard of in cinema with them having very much a love/hate relationship with one another, Jackoby being the naive yet well-meaning cop coupled with the hard-hitting yet deep-down honest Ward. The question is always whether they will find it in themselves to work together and survive their impossible situation.

A great entertaining action flick with not just a bit of swearing and gratuitous violence. I can see this may very become a cult favourite. It would be interesting to see if they follow this rather interesting film up with others…

Rating: “Nearly perfect, but not quite”

Review Date: 2018-07-28


Directed by: David Ayer

Studio: Clubhouse Pictures (II)

Year: 2017

Length: 117 minutes

Genre: Science Fiction

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5519340/


Other reviewed films by David Ayer: