My thoughts on Bright:

[quote][color=gray][i]I seem to be the minority on this one, but I suppose that’s bound to happen. There’s no accounting for taste, after all.

By all appearances, Bright seems like an awkward and strange film for Netflix to put a lot of faith behind. With all of the star power provided and the film being self-aware enough to know exactly what type of movie it is, Bright seems redeemable in a sort of pulp entertainment sort of fashion and for me, that is exactly what I get out of it.

Landis’ script is well-devised, albeit clichéd with stereotypical analogues as he plunges his audience straight-first into a setting with as minimal exposition as possible and as such the audience isn’t led to understand how the world came to be. This is a device that works well enough in fiction, though it does make us ask questions that we may never get tangible answers to. We see that the world of Bright is fantastical and whimsical, albeit as gray-toned as our own, where atypical high fantasy races live amongst humans as if they’ve evolved alongside them. It’s not a bad approach and for the more esoteric of us it feels like a film that is set in the early Shadowrun universe, or Rifts, or even a modern composition of Dungeons & Dragons.

Interesting setting aside, I must concede that most of the characters come off as almost skeletal outside of the exception of Will Smith’s character, Daryl Ward, but that is because we’ve seen the character played out before. Ward ends up being a familiar amalgamation of Denzel Washington’s character from Training Day and Will Smith’s character from Men in Black. We don’t really peel back the depth of our two protagonists outside of slight glimpses and it really works against connecting with these characters. Even in an action-fantasy film with comedic overtones, we, the audience, should be able to immerse and connect beyond blazing special effects and choreographed gunplay. This is one of two areas where Bright fails as a film for me.

For some, those clichés and skeletal characterizations will be the nail in the coffin. For others, it can be overlooked to enjoy where the film takes the narrative and how the actors in the film do their best to make it serviceable. Though, for those not really interested in the dungeonpunk concepts of fantastical hierarchies and the dangers of magical McGuffins, it’s probably best to be avoided.

As for me? I’m obviously more in the former category. I find Bright as delightfully cliché and fun to the point I enjoyed throughout my initial viewing. It’s probably not the film I wish it was, but for what I got it is a fun ride.[/i][/color][/quote]