The concept behind David Ayers’ Bright is wonderfully intriguing. The idea of evolving a high fantasy environment full of magic and mythical creatures to the modern age is rife with opportunities to me. Not only would it be fun seeing Elves and Fairies and Orcs interacting with modern technology in a recognizable setting, but it could be wildly inventive and provide a commentary on current civilization. This isn’t however, what Bright actually does.
Taking place in the world I just described, LAPD officer Daryl Ward (Will Smith) is paired with the very first Orc police officer Nick Jakoby (Joel Edgerton). Of course there’s prejudice on Ward’s part. But when they discover the aftermath of an illegal magic wand while out on patrol, they’re roped into a power struggle for the wand between factions who believe it’ll bring back the Dark Lord who enslaved the world thousands of years ago.
The story seems very interesting, but the movie’s biggest problem is that it’s not interesting. While the concept is new, nothing else about the story is. Ward and Jakoby have a very standard buddy cop relationship, disliking and distrusting each other initially, only to warm over time. Of course the race relations allegory is the most obvious one to make, and though it’s pertinent, it’s not very compelling. The Orcs are clearly meant to represent minorities, seen often as the subjects of police brutality, and engaged in a very familiar form of L.A. gang culture. They appear dressed in very urban street clothes, carrying themselves with imposing hardened attitudes. But this specificity has an adverse effect in that it’s trying to provide commentary while resorting to some harmful stereotypes. The commentary remains unclear too, in that aside from Jakoby, there are no significant or sympathetic Orc characters. We’re told but never actually shown them rising above prejudiced behaviours. The racist human attitudes are on display and it discusses how they’ve mistreated this species, but doesn’t allow the Orcs a lot of dimension in all this.
And it really doesn’t fit with the traditional fantasy plot, which is very poor; with the typical mcguffin, the threat of a nameless Dark Lord returning, and the convenient lack of rules for magic that have been recycled in the genre constantly since Lord of the Rings. The only difference here is it’s happening in modern Los Angeles and with guns rather than swords. Additionally, Brights are this movies’ term for magic users but they hardly warrant the films’ title. There’s some minor lore, but it doesn’t give the world any more substance than any average fantasy story, and in fact, just creates a few needless expositions. There are a couple plot developments that are meant to be twists, and while they aren’t necessarily predictable, they’re disappointingly banal all the same. Through all this, the writing can be pretty bad, with plenty of forced dialogue and downright silly lines.
Will Smith reunites with Ayer here, and while not necessarily bad, he’s not invested in the part much at all. In fact he was a lot more entertaining in their previous collaboration, Suicide Squad. Part of this stems from how unlikeable a character he is from the start, and Smith isn’t particularly adept at playing this kind of role. Joel Edgerton however, is good as Jakoby, especially any time he has to be subtly complacent in the face of ostracising. He works well with his heavy though admittedly pretty good make-up, and the character is given a decent personality and motivation. Noomi Rapace’s talent is wasted here as a villain with no real purpose and superfluous cruelty. Lucy Fry is okay as the mysterious Tikka, currently possessing the wand, while Edgar Ramirez is dull as an Elvish authority. And Margaret Cho, Ike Barinholtz, and Matt Gerald play awful cops, who thankfully aren’t in the movie much.
The action scenes in this movie are graphic and gritty, but also uninspired. No set-piece or fight sequence stands out at all. There are a couple of cheap tricks too, mostly using slow-mo that are really awful. Such as in one scene where bullets are flying through their windshield, and the camera pans around the car in slow-motion following these badly rendered CG projectiles.
Cop movies are David Ayer’s comfort zone, having made his name with films like Street Kings and End of Watch. So it’s understandable why he was attracted to Max Landis’ unique albeit weak script. But the film doesn’t work on a cop movie level, or an action movie level, or as a fantasy story, or a social commentary, precisely because in all of those regards, it’s not doing anything new. Merely putting these things clumsily together is not enough of the risk needed for Bright to live up to its potential.
Comments
Post a Comment