Clearly, Netflix wants to go toe-to-toe with Hollywood, and
they are challenging it with their own provocative, slam-bang, $90-million,
pulp-fantasy-thriller “Bright” (*** OUT OF ****), toplining Will Smith and Joel
Edgerton as a rare pair of LAPD beat cops.
Although Smith plays a human, Edgerton is cast as an Orc! Essentially, “Suicide Squad” director David
Ayer has taken his superb police procedural “End of Watch” (2012) and retooled
it as something like director Graham Baker’s “Alien Nation” (1988) with the
fantastic beings from Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” franchise. Clocking in close two hours, “Bright” conjures
up non-stop action, nail-gnawing suspense, unbearable tension, complete with surprises
and revelations galore. Smith is as charismatic
as ever, but he isn’t mimicking his “Bad Boys” character Mike Lowery, a role
that he plans to reprise in two forthcoming sequels: “Bad Boys Forever” and
“Bad Boys 4.” As veteran patrolman Daryl
Ward, he is mired up to his neck in devastating debt, and his chief aim in life
is to survive long enough to get his pension.
Meantime, Ward finds himself in a predicament like nothing any policeman
has confronted. The world of “Bright” is
as gritty, violent, and racially charged as 21st century America, but
this imaginative epic takes place in an alternate universe where far-fetched
creatures, such as Orcs, Fairies, Elves, and others have been co-existing with
humans since the dawn of time. Were it
not for these extraordinary characters, “Bright” would amount to little more
than another foray in urban crime. Sadly,
this inventive hokum suffers from two shortcomings. First, predictable plotting undermines the
outcome because Ayer and “Victor Frankenstein” scenarist Max Landis paint
themselves into a corner. Second, the filmmakers provide only the most basic
backstory about this bizarre new world. Meantime, the original “Girl with the Dragon
Tattoo” actress Noomi Rapace keeps things exciting as a demonic elf who tries
to ice our heroes, while Edgar Ramirez is equally as tenacious as another kind
of Elf with a badge.
Patrolman Daryl Ward (Will Smith) isn’t ecstatic about having
an Orc as his partner. In the alternate
universe of “Bright,” Orcs are savage, toothsome creatures who resemble a a
synthesis of olive-skinned albinos and ghoulish vampire of the 1922 silent horror
classic “Nosferatu.” Basically, Orcs are
blue-collar, bottom-feeders who stick together inseparably and rank beneath the
most woebegone ethnic groups ravaged by poverty and racism. Nick Jakoby (Joel Edgerton of “Smokin’ Aces”)
is a typical Orc, and his fellow Orcs display nothing but contempt for
him. Since they have no use for him,
Nick has no use for them. Indeed, Nick
has always dreamed of wearing a badge.
Imagine his surprise when his dream comes true, and the LAPD hires him on
the grounds of diversity. Meantime, Daryl
is desperately trying to hold onto his job.
Unfortunately, riding with Nick is no bargain as Daryl discovers when out
of nowhere a shotgun-wielding Orc blasts him with a shotgun. Fortunately, Daryl survives, but he isn’t
happy that he must resume riding with Nick.
Ward’s irate fellow police officers heap endless criticism on him for
tolerating Nick. They argue that he should charge Nick for incompetency, so the
LAPD will fire the rookie. Daryl’s
fellow officers fear that if Nick proves himself as a valuable contribution to
the force, more Orcs will follow.
Word has spread like wildfire around Los Angeles about a virulent league
of Elves known as the Inferni. Moreover, these Elves have been toiling to
resurrect a renowned ‘Dark Lord’ warrior to subjugate mankind. Legend has it the Inferni can with a magical
wand deemed "a nuclear weapon that grants wishes." The Inferni are ranked
as ‘bright’ because they can wield this wand.
Furthermore, accounts claim there may even be some humans who can brandish
it. Meanwhile, anybody else who dares to
touch it is doomed to incinerate themselves before they can realize their
dreams. Daryl and Nick stumble onto a
wand one evening in a hood when they respond to a shooting and find themselves
in the middle of a supernatural showdown.
They help a renegade young Elf, Tikka (Lucy Fry of “Mr. Church”), who
has slain another Inferni with that deadly incandescent wand. Dumbfounded by these circumstances, Daryl
summons his watch commander, Sergeant Ching (Margaret Cho of “One Missed
Call”), and his fellow patrolmen, to make sense out of this uncanny situation. No sooner have they arrived than the police
see the wand as an answer to all their troubles. Furthermore, they conspire to kill Daryl and Nick,
so nobody will know how they acquired the wand.
Daryl turns the tables on them, then Nick and he realize they are now
being stalked by a more formidable Inferni, Leilah (Noomi Rapace), who wants
the wand and is prepared to kill anybody who gets in her way. Indeed, Leilah is ten times more powerful
than Tikka, and Leilah’s posse is pretty much indestructible, too. If Daryl and Nick don’t have their hands full
enough, they must contend with a crippled gangsta, Poison (Enrique Murciano of
“Collateral Beauty”), who needs the wand, so he can walk again. Poison rules an army of trigger-happy,
machine-gun toting thugs. Adding to the complications
is another Elf, Kandomere (Edgar Ramirez of “Point Break”), a government agent who
supervises a Federal Magic Task Force that wants the mysterious wand, too.
