Bright (2017)

Bright (2017) Directed by David Ayer, written by Max Landis, starring Will Smith, Joel Edgerton, Noomi Rapace, Lucy Fry

As far fantasy movies go, Bright might be among the biggest wasted opportunities I've seen in a long time. Hell, let's be honest, this whole cliched clunk of unoriginality can be safely marked as a movie with a nice concept, but with no idea how to actually pull it off.

Right. Let's tackle this mess, shall we?

Ward (Smith) is an LA cop, partnered up with the first orc cop ever to be taken in the force. Yeah, the world, not that much explained, has all the fantasy creatures, orcs, elves, dwarves and what have you living on Earth, alongside humans. That's enough setup, I guess.

So this orc cop, Jakoby (Edgerton) isn't the most popular guy, as he's seen as a diversity hire by the other cops. I doubt I need to paint a brighter pic about that extremely blunt display of racial prejudice plotline. Let's just say, that if the message about racial inequity was any blunter, the TV would jump up, grab you by the throat and punch you in the face.

What really does make the whole thing unbearable is the story that has every fucking cliche in it that you can think of. Ward is a good cop, but tired of all the shit he sees. He has a family he tries to keep on bread and butter. He also doesn't want to be partnered with the orc but has no other choice. He also ends up being one in the million chosen ones in the end. Surprise.

Jakoby, on the other hand, is your run in the mill outcast, as he's scorned by the other orcs as he's a cop. Clans before others and all that shit, but being a cop was his childhood dream and he's willing to take all shit that comes with it, be it the attitude of his own kind or the other cops. And he's a really, really nice guy.

There's a magic-related crime, where the duo picks up an elven girl Tikka (Fry), who has a magic wand. And they all are chased by the magic feds as well as corrupt cops, who want the wand as it grants whatever they want. There's also a gang of Hispanics, who want it, because why not. The evil Leilah (Rapaca) is a leader of this super-duper trained cult, aiming to resurrect the dark one.

And among all the other cliches the movie is constructed of, in the end, Jakoby even manages to win over the respect of not only the police force but other orcs as well.

Look, I know that all stories are basically cliches, as every story out there has been told a million times already. So as such, there's nothing wrong with using cliches, but the storytellers do have to know how to use those cliches in order to create something that is also fun to watch. Bright doesn't really succeed in that, as on the top of cliches, Ayer doesn't really succeed in bringing in anything good as a director to the jumbled pile of worn-out ideas.

Ayer being a weak director isn't really a big surprise though, as he somehow managed to botch up Suicide Squad as well. To the death of me, I can't fathom how someone managed to direct a boring movie out of DC villains. Considering the personalities at play there, the movie should have been a blast, but Ayer managed to turn that into a wet blanket.

In Bright, Ayer turns something that could have been a hoot, into a boring, unoriginal flick that feels like it lasts forever, despite it's less than 2 hours long. You might dig this is Bright is the first movie you've ever seen in your life or if you are a diehard fan of an RPG series Shadowrun. For me though, there's just nothing in this movie for me. It is just lazy.