00:00I'm assuming this doesn't end well.
00:02Following last year's critically-panned Suicide Squad, earlier
00:05reviews suggest director David Ayer's next movie, Netflix's original Bright, may be another misstep.
00:10Though some critics have praised the $90 million film for having an original premise.
00:15A fantasy crime film follows Will Smith's police officer and his orc partner, portrayed by Joel Edgerton,
00:19as they fetch a...
00:20to send off enemies in the streets of a mystical world where humans exist alongside elves, fairies and other
00:25mythical creatures.
00:26The Hollywood Reporter's own John DeFore calls the genre hybrid,
00:29"...plenty embarrassing...
00:30with a little payoff for Netflix."
00:32He writes,
00:33Stars Will Smith and Joel Edgerton play it mostly straight here, doing their part to sell the dopey premise,
00:38but the screenplay offers viewers little reward for our own suspension of disbelief.
00:42The supernatural...
00:43The supernatural elements are so poorly explained and implemented that they make us wish we were watching
00:47some generic reaction.
00:48a reality-based policier instead.
00:50I can't fuck up my pension.
00:51Jordan Hoffman of Vanity Fair also...
00:53expressed his disappointment in the film, writing that there is a whiff of an interesting idea in there.
00:58but that it's overshadowed by tedious scenes lacking clear direction, endless generic...
01:03of allegedly witty banter.
01:04I didn't ask for it.
01:06...in his review, and goes on to describe...
01:08the film is so profoundly awful that Republicans will probably try to pass it into law over Christmas.
01:13break.
01:14I think we spend our time just trying to survive this shit.
01:18Fortune's Scott Mendelsohn takes particular issue with the film's screenplay, which he says feels like an
01:23undefined...
01:23developed first draft.
01:24Smith and Edgerton's performances are bright spots in the movie, according to...
01:28Mendelsohn, particularly Edgerton's.
01:30Emily Yoshida of Vulture offers more of a mixed opinion...
01:33noting that Bright has some legitimately fun touches.
01:36Overall, however, she concludes that the film's...
01:38allegory for race relations, discrimination against fairies in a fantasy realm, is pretty subtle.
01:43Yashida writes,
01:44I'm not entirely sure what real counterpoint orcs and elves could contribute to the
01:48extremely real history of racially charged police violence in Los Angeles, besides the fact that it's
01:53kind of cool in a three bonketsian way.
01:55The Guardian's Steve Rose was the most positive of the bunch.
01:58suggesting that the movie deserves credit for its take on a mashup of genres and commends the film's truly
02:03original premise.
02:04The plot's grand ambitions are a need of fine-tuning, notes Rose, but overall...
02:08its flaws, Bright is still a headlong leap into a bracingly different new world.
02:12Cinema could do with it.
02:13What do you make of the critics' reviews of Bright? Do they deter you from wanting to see the film?
02:18Or are you planning to make up your own mind? Let us know in the comments.
02:21For The Hollywood Reporter News...
02:23I'm Lyndsey Rodrigues.
02:28Take care.
02:29Bye.
Comments