Bright (film)
| Bright | |
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Film release poster
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| Directed by | David Ayer |
| Produced by |
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| Written by | Max Landis |
| Starring | |
| Music by | David Sardy |
| Cinematography | Roman Vasyanov |
| Edited by | Michael Tronick |
Production
company |
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| Distributed by | Netflix |
Release date
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Running time
| 118 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $90 million[1] |
Bright is a 2017 American urban fantasy action crime film directed and produced by David Ayer and written by Max Landis.[2][3] The film stars Will Smith as a Los Angeles Police Department police officer who teams up with an Orc rookie police officer (Joel Edgerton) in a world of both human and mythical creatures.[4] It also stars Noomi Rapace, Lucy Fry, Édgar Ramírez and Ike Barinholtz. The film was released worldwide on Netflix on December 22, 2017 and received negative reviews, with critics criticizing the writing, cinematography and heavy-handed social commentary.[5]
Contents
[hide]Plot[edit]
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In an alternate present, humans live in uneasy peace with orcs, centaurs and elves after the four races fought for thousands of years. In Los Angeles, veteran LAPD police officer Daryl Ward has been involuntarily partnered with Nick Jakoby, the city's first orc police officer. Jakoby is ostracized by humans and orcs alike for wanting to become a police officer. In addition to the pushback from other officers, Ward is personally ambivalent towards him following an incident where Ward was shot and Jakoby apparently let the assailant get away. During a trip back to the station, an arrested man tells Jakoby (in Orkish) that both officers have become involved in a prophecy and that Ward is blessed. While Jakoby is booking the prisoner, Ward is approached by Internal Affairs who say they also believe Jakoby put his ethnic loyalties before his partner. Ward, faced with significant financial burdens, is then pressured to agree to getting his partner to confess on tape so they will have a politically acceptable excuse to fire Jakoby.
It later turns out during an interrogation conducted by Kandomere, the elf working in the FBI's magic division, that the man on the street is part of a fringe militant group named Shield of Light that is preparing against the return of the Dark Lord. The group believe that all the guns in the world will ultimately be useless and it is only through the use of magic that such a victory will be won.
That night, Ward and Jakoby respond to a disturbance at what turns out to be a Shield safehouse; inside are a number of corpses clearly killed in unnatural fashion, and also the still-living torso of an elf woman embedded in a wall. They apprehend the lone survivor, a young elf named Tikka in possession of a wand. When backup arrives, they declare they are stealing the wand for themselves. Although Ward agrees under duress to murder Jakoby, when he leaves to carry it out, they decide to kill Ward anyway. Outside, Ward pulls his gun on Jakoby to force him to confess to letting the orc escape, and is surprised when Jakoby admits to letting the suspect escape but only because he mistakenly cornered the wrong person and realized the imminently arriving backup would most likely execute any orc suspect even if they weren't the shooter. Faced with the moment of truth by the arrival of their colleagues, Ward instead manages to gun all four of them down before convincing the shocked Jakoby about the truth of the matter. The incident, however, attracts the attention of a local gang, and the two officers and Tikka flee with the wand while under fire. Inferni member and owner of the wand, Leilah, then arrives at the safehouse to find the wand and the Shield-protected traitor, Tikka, both absent.
A binding spell on the wand prevents it from travelling a certain distance from its owner, forcing the trio to head back into the sprawl on foot. After the gang members flush them from their initial hiding place, they make the mistake of fleeing through the territory of the Fogteeth Orc clan, causing a violent confrontation between the gang and the clan. Abandoning their uniforms and entering a strip club isn't enough to escape pursuit, but before the gang's leader can carry out his threat to lock the doors and burn the building to the ground, the Inferni apppear and slaughter them all, giving the trio the opportunity to escape again. Going to ground in a service station, Ward contacts Sherrif's Deputy Rodriguez (Jay Hernandez), who as a friend from outside the LAPD he hopes will be unlikely to want to kill them. Rodriguez contacts Kandomere, who tells Ward that he will be safe from prosecution for killing police officers if they can keep the wand out of the wrong hands. As Rodriguez prepares to bring them in, he and the station attendant are killed by Leilah's minions, forcing the trio to flee again as the exploding station draws Kandomere closer to them.
The three again run into the Fogteeth Orc clan and are dragged before its leader Dorghu, who is both enraged at the chaos they as police officers caused in his neutral territory, and aware of the possibility they have a wand. Dorghu orders his son to kill them after failing to find the wand. However, as his son was the one Jakoby allowed to escape, their honor code won't let him do it so Dorghu regretfully kills Jakoby himself. Before he can go on to kill Ward as well, Tikka reveals herself to be a Bright by removing the wand from inside her sleeve and using it to resurrect Jakoby, which leaves Tikka incapacitated. As this is in accordance with the prophecy Jakoby had been told about earlier in the day, in awe the clan allow the trio to go free. Realising that the two officers can now be trusted, Tikka speaks to them in English for the first time, explaining about the Inferni plan to resurrect the Dark Lord and that she is a traitor to that order whom the Shield of Light had been protecting.
The only way to save Tikka's life is to place her in one of the magic pools that are found in Shield safehouses but Leilah has anticipated this. There are enough large calibre weapons lying around to defeat the ambush and kill all three Inferni; Leilah is, however, powerful enough to heal herself. She incapacitates the two officers and attempts to first seduce, then kill Tikka who it is revealed is Leilah's sister. Ward opts to sacrifice the trio to end Leilah, only to discover that he is a Bright. Tikka shouts an incantation which he repeats to cause the wand to disintegrate Leilah with Tikka disappearing as the building rapidly catches fire. Outside, the Fogteeth and the Feds arrive at the inferno to see Jakoby emerge on his own only to then plunge back inside and emerge carrying Ward: all orcs present unanimously declare him blooded for his acts of bravery.
The next day in an isolation room, Ward awakens to find Jakoby at his bedside and himself restrained as being the more dangerous of the two. When Kandomere appears, Jakoby volunteers the truth before Ward delivers a statement emphatically denying any involvement of magic activity or police corruption, seeing Kandomere wants to contain the incident. The Inferni are publicly labeled as simply an extremist group causing terror and Ward and Jakoby are honored by the city for their actions. At the ceremony, Ward smiles as he spots Tikka walking through the crowd.
Cast[edit]
- Will Smith as Daryl Ward, a human LAPD officer.
- Joel Edgerton as Nick Jakoby, the first Orc cop, who is partnered with Daryl.
- Noomi Rapace as Leilah, a dark elf seeking control of the magic wand.
- Lucy Fry as Tikka, a young elf who is in possession of the magic wand.
- Édgar Ramírez as Kandomere, a high ranking elf federal agent with the US Department of Magic's Magic Task Force.
- Ike Barinholtz as Pollard, a corrupt human cop.
- Happy Anderson as Hildebrandt Ulysses Montehugh, a human federal agent who works under Kandomere in the Magic Task Force.
- Dawn Olivieri as Sherri Ward, Daryl's human wife and Sophia’s mother.
- Matt Gerald as Hicks, a corrupt human cop.
- Margaret Cho as Sergeant Ching, a corrupt human cop.
- Brad William Henke as Dorghu, the imposing leader of the Fogteeth Orcs gang.
- Jay Hernandez as Rodriguez, a human Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputy.
- Veronica Ngo as Tien, a dark elf enforcer working for Leilah.
- Alex Meraz as Serafin, a dark elf enforcer working for Leilah.
- Joseph Piccuirro as Brown, a corrupt human cop.
- Enrique Murciano as Poison, a wheelchair bound human gangster.
- Scarlet Spencer as Sophia Ward, Daryl and Sherri’s human daughter.
- Andrea Navedo as Captain Perez, a human cop and Ward’s superior.
- Kenneth Choi as Yamahara, a human LAPD internal affairs detective.
- Bobby Naderi as Arkashian, a human LAPD internal affairs detective.
Production[edit]
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Described as "a contemporary cop thriller, but with fantastical elements", the film is directed by David Ayer and stars Will Smithand Joel Edgerton, with a script penned by Max Landis, which Ayer rewrote.[2][3] Netflix officially picked up the film for a $90 million deal with filming beginning in fall 2016, making it the most expensive Netflix film to date.[6] Noomi Rapace entered talks to join the cast in May 2016.[7] Landis stated in an interview that official production was expected to begin in September 2016, but that they'd already shot a small part in Los Angeles.[8] Ayer's frequent cinematographer, Roman Vasyanov, was confirmed to be working on the project.[9] On October 15, 2016, Lucy Fry was added to the cast.[10] On October 17, 2016, Andrea Navedowas added to the cast.[11] On October 20, 2016, actor Brad William Henke was cast in the film. [12] On November 1, 2016, Kenneth Choi and Dawn Olivieri were cast in an unknown role and the role of Smith's wife, respectively.[13] On November 9, Édgar Ramírez was confirmed to be added to the cast.[14] That same month, Alex Meraz, Matt Gerald, Ike Barinholtz, and Enrique Murciano joined the cast of the film in undisclosed roles.[15][16][17][18]
Filming[edit]
Photos from the set were first published in November 2016.[19][20] Filming was completed by February 4, 2017.[21]
Reception[edit]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 29% based on 75 reviews, with an average rating of 3.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Bright tries to blend fantasy, hard-hitting cop drama, and social commentary — and ends up falling painfully short of the mark on all three fronts."[22] On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 29 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews."[23]
Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 1.5 out of 4 stars, saying: "Bright is basically a tired buddy-cop movie dressed up in bizarre trappings […] It doesn’t take itself too seriously, but it’s not nearly as self-deprecating and funny as it needed to be."[24] Writing for Rolling Stone, David Fear gave the film 1 out of 4 stars, criticizing the script and incoherent action scenes, writing: "This combo of gritty cop procedural and fantasy is a dark, dank, dumb-as-hell mess."[25]
David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film an "F" and called it the worst film of 2017, saying: "There's boring, there's bad, and then there's Bright […] from the director of Suicide Squad and the writer of Victor Frankenstein comes a fresh slice of hell that somehow represents new lows for them both — a dull and painfully derivative ordeal that often feels like it was made just to put those earlier misfires into perspective."[26] Ayer responded enthusiastically to Ehrlich's review, claiming that he desired for the film to receive "a strong reaction either way."[27]
NPR's Chris Klimek wrote: "Critics have already lined up to pillory Bright as among the year's worst releases. Don't believe the clickbait. Lazy but not boring, this Net-flick is perfectly, stubbornly mediocre, and less a chore to sit through than either of 2017's Vin Diesel vehicles."[28]
According to Nielsen ratings, about 11 million American viewers streamed Bright within the first three days of its release, with 56% of the audience being male and 7 million being between the ages of 18–49.[29]
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