Bright is a 2017 American urban fantasy crime film directed by David Ayer and written by Max Landis. 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. It also stars Noomi Rapace, Lucy Fry, Édgar Ramírez and Ike Barinholtz.
Principal photography began in November 2016 in Los Angeles. The film was released worldwide on Netflix on December 22, 2017 and became one of the site's most streamed programs ever, although it received negative reviews from critics.
Video Bright (film)
Plot
In an alternate present, humans live in uneasy peace with orcs, elves, centaurs, dwarves and other races after they fought for thousands of years. In Los Angeles, veteran LAPD police officer Daryl Ward has been involuntarily partnered with Nick Jakoby, the nation's first orcish police officer. Jakoby is ostracized by humans for his race, and by orcs for his position. In addition to the push-back from other officers, Ward is ambivalent towards him after an incident where Ward was shot and Jakoby apparently let the orc assailant get away. During a trip back to the station, an arrested Shield of Light devotee tells Jakoby (in Orcish) that both officers are in a prophecy and that Ward is blessed. While Jakoby is booking the prisoner, Ward is approached by Internal Affairs who say they believe that Jakoby put his ethnic loyalties before his partner. Ward is pressured to try to have Jakoby confess on tape so they will have publicly acceptable grounds for a firing.
That night, Ward and Jakoby respond to a disturbance at what turns out to be a Shield of Light safehouse; inside are a number of corpses, and also the still-living torso of an elf woman embedded in a wall. They apprehend the lone unhurt survivor, a young elf named Tikka in possession of a wand. As Jakoby puts it, a wand is like "a nuclear weapon that grants wishes", and can only be commanded by a 'Bright' - a rare person. If a non-bright touches it, they will explode.
When four officers arrive as backup, they decide to stage the killing of the two officers and keep the wand for themselves. They coerce Ward into accepting to kill Jakoby, telling Ward he will be spared in return. Ward goes outside to Jakoby and holds him at gunpoint, asking him about the orc assailant. Jakoby admits to letting the suspect escape but only because he mistakenly cornered the wrong person and realized the responding officers would most likely execute any orc suspect. Ward makes a split decision to gun down all of the corrupt officers. The incident, however, attracts the attention of the local human gang, Altamira, and the two flee under fire with Tikka and the wand. Leilah, an Inferni member and owner of the wand, arrives at the safehouse minutes later, searching for the wand and Tikka.
After a pursuit, the trio flee through the territory of the Fogteeth Orc clan, causing a violent confrontation between the gang and the clan. Finally cornered in a strip club, the gang's leader, Poison, threatens to burn the building down unless the officers give up the wand. As Jakoby and Ward pull out their weapons to open fire, the Inferni appear and the ensuing fight gives the trio the opportunity to escape again. Going to ground in a service station, Ward contacts his friend, LA Sheriff's Deputy Rodriguez, who he hopes will be unlikely to want to kill them. Rodriguez contacts Kandomere, an elf working for the federal 'Magic Task Force'. Kandomere tells Ward that he will be safe from prosecution for killing police officers if they can keep the wand out of wrong hands. Before Rodriguez can bring them in, Leilah's minions attack the trio and kill him.
The three run into the Fogteeth Orc clan again and are dragged before its leader Dorghu. Enraged at the chaos they are causing in his neutral territory, Dorghu has Jakoby and Ward beaten to reveal the location of the wand. Dorghu orders his son Mikey to kill Jakoby after failing to get an answer. However, Mikey reveals that he was the orc that Jakoby allowed to escape and thus refuses to kill the orc. Dorghu sends his son away and kills Jakoby himself, who falls dead into a deep pit. As he prepares to kill Ward as well, Tikka produces the wand and uses it to resurrect Jakoby, revealing that she is Bright and leaving herself incapacitated. The cloaked clan priest pronounces this to be the will of the Prophecy, causing the clan kneel down to Jakoby and allow the trio to go free. Realizing that the two officers can now be trusted, Tikka speaks to them in English for the first time. She explains the Inferni's plan to resurrect The Dark Lord, a mythical figure who will take over the world. Once a member of that order, she had been protected by the Shield of Light and fled with the wand.
The only way to save the dying Tikka is to place her in one of the magic pools that are found in a Shield safehouse. They return to the place where they found the wand, but Leilah has anticipated this and lies in wait, hidden in the safehouse. To Ward's surprise, he is a Bright as well as the wand glows orange in his hand. He uses it to kill Leilah with an explosion that sets the building on fire. Tikka disappears in the aftermath. Ward and Jakoby flee from the building, but Ward is missing when Jakoby makes it outside. Jakoby runs back into the building to rescue Ward. After rescuing Ward, Dorghu and his gang appear, telling Jakoby from the distance that he is now blooded - only achievable by an act of great 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. Ward on the other hand 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, and Ward, Jakoby and the deceased officers are honored by the city for their actions. At the ceremony, Ward smiles as he spots Tikka moving through the crowd.
Maps Bright (film)
Cast
- Will Smith as Daryl Ward, a human LAPD officer.
- Joel Edgerton as Nick Jakoby, the nation's first Orcish police officer, who is partnered with Daryl.
- Noomi Rapace as Leilah, an Inferni elf seeking control of the magic wand.
- Lucy Fry as Tikka, a young Inferni elf who is in possession of the magic wand.
- Édgar Ramírez as Kandomere, a high ranking elvish federal agent with the US Department of Magic's Magic Task Force.
- Ike Barinholtz as Pollard, a corrupt human LAPD officer who seeks to steal the wand for himself.
- 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 LAPD officer.
- Margaret Cho as Ching, a corrupt human LAPD sergeant.
- Brad William Henke as Dorghu, the imposing leader of the Fogteeth Orcs gang.
- Jay Hernandez as Rodriguez, a human LACSD deputy.
- Veronica Ngo as Tien, an Inferni elf enforcer working for Leilah.
- Alex Meraz as Serafin, an Inferni elf enforcer working for Leilah.
- Joseph Piccuirro as Brown, a corrupt human LAPD officer.
- Enrique Murciano as Poison, the wheelchair bound leader of the human Altamira gang.
- Scarlet Spencer as Sophia Ward, Daryl and Sherri's human daughter.
- Andrea Navedo as Perez, a human LAPD captain and Ward's superior.
- Kenneth Choi as Yamahara, a human LAPD internal affairs detective.
- Bobby Naderi as Arkashian, a human LAPD internal affairs detective.
- Cle Shaheed Sloan as OG Mike, the Wards' human neighbor.
- Chris Browning as Serling, a human questioned by the US Department of Magic's Task Force.
Production
Described as "a contemporary cop thriller, but with fantastical elements", the film is directed by David Ayer and stars Will Smith and Joel Edgerton, with a script penned by Max Landis, which Ayer rewrote. 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. Noomi Rapace entered talks to join the cast in May 2016. 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. Ayer's frequent cinematographer, Roman Vasyanov, was confirmed to be working on the project. On October 15, 2016, Lucy Fry was added to the cast. On October 17, 2016, Andrea Navedo was added to the cast. On October 20, 2016, actor Brad William Henke was cast in the film. On November 1, 2016, Kenneth Choi and Dawn Olivieri were cast in an unknown role and the role of Smith's wife, respectively. On November 9, Édgar Ramírez was confirmed to be added to the cast. That same month, Alex Meraz, Matt Gerald, Ike Barinholtz, and Enrique Murciano joined the cast of the film in undisclosed roles.
Filming
Photos from the set were first published in November 2016. Filming was completed by February 4, 2017.
Reception
Critical response
Bright received criticism for its screenplay, cinematography and heavy-handed social commentary. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 27% based on 84 reviews, with an average rating of 3.9/10. 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." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 29 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".
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." 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."
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." Ayer responded enthusiastically to Ehrlich's review, claiming that he desired for the film to receive "a strong reaction either way."
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."
Audience response
Several publications noted that while critics were harsh on the film, viewers seemed to enjoy it more and gave positive reactions on social media. Netflix announced that the film had been viewed more times in its first week than any other of its releases had. 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.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack, titled Bright: The Album, was released under Atlantic Records on December 15, 2017, just a week before the official release of the film on December 22, 2017.
Charts
Sequel
In December 2017, Netflix ordered a sequel. The following month Netflix confirmed they were moving ahead with the sequel, with Smith and Edgerton reprising their roles and Ayer directing and writing the script.
See also
- Alien Nation
- Shadowrun
- Special Unit 2
References
External links
- Bright on Netflix
- Bright on IMDb
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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