The UnPopular Opinion: Bright

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

THE UNPOPULAR OPINION is an ongoing column featuring different takes on films that either the writer HATED, but that the majority of film fans LOVED, or that the writer LOVED, but that most others LOATHED. We're hoping this column will promote constructive and geek fueled discussion. Enjoy!

****SOME SPOILERS ENSUE****

There are some universal truths in this world: water is wet, fire is hot, and movie fans like to shit on Max Landis. Do some searching online and you will inevitably find people talking about how much of a hack Landis is since he has not had a film nearly as successful as his breakthrough hit, CHRONICLE. Fans gave the same shit to Josh Trank when THE FANTASTIC FOUR was released, but the vitriol against Landis is far more intense. Couple that with accusations of sexually inappropriate behavior and we have the likelihood that everything the writer works on will be shat upon. A prime example is the film BRIGHT which took Landis' script and turned it into the biggest budget Netflix film (at the time) with big names involved including director David Ayer and star Will Smith. The resulting critical drubbing of the movie would lead you to think it was atrocious when it is in fact one of the most unique movies of the last twenty years.

BRIGHT plays with conventional genre tropes like the buddy cop formula and smashes it up with the high fantasy genre, a format that has not been widely successful outside of the LORD OF THE RINGS franchise. It also follows the format of the 1988 cult classic ALIEN NATION but going one step further. It is hard enough to develop an entirely original universe and one that requires such suspension of disbelief but Landis and Ayer make it work. It also helps that the film premiered outside of the conventional channels of a theatrical release window and used the innovative Netflix platform to deliver a movie that does not play by the same rules as a typical studio blockbuster. It is because of that release model that BRIGHT deserves a different critical approach.

With all of the back and forth happening in the wake of Alfonso Cuaron's ROMA winning at the Academy Awards, films released on Netflix and other streaming services are rapidly gaining exposure that changes how the standard box office works in Hollywood. For years, direct to video became a dirty phrase assigned to crappy movies that could never earn a buck on the big screen. Now, films like BRIGHT, whose budget and marquee talent would have lit up multiplexes any other era, are premiering on the small screen. The ambition of BRIGHT alone deserves recognition but also the fact that it is such a wholly unique experience that any subscriber can enjoy from their living room sofa. Does that mean BRIGHT is an unheralded masterpiece of filmmaking that should have wowed every critic? Not by a long shot, but it is far from the failure many reviews would lead you to believe.

David Ayer's film leans heavily on the previous films he directed, especially STREET KINGS and END OF WATCH, and the special effects work he experienced with DC's SUICIDE SQUAD. Led by Will Smith playing his stock and trade type of role, BRIGHT really shines when it focuses on the fantastical side of the story, especially Joel Edgerton's stunningly nuanced performance as Nick Jakoby. In many ways, BRIGHT is the edgy, adult version of Disney's ZOOTOPIA and I mean that with the utmost respect. BRIGHT, like ZOOTOPIA and ALIEN NATION, has a not so thinly veiled commentary on class, racism, and social equality which is delivered in a manner that should promote conversation amongst viewers. BRIGHT is rarely, if ever, subtle but that doesn't detract from a valid message about tolerance told through the guise of monsters and magic.

What screenwriter Max Landis has always done well is take the familiar elements of classic and established films and inject them into a new story. BRIGHT is far from original but it is very unique. There is nothing here that we have not seen before in one film or another, but the combination of genres keeps this film from ever being boring. There have been countless movies that have tried to mine David Ayer's visual style of the years as well as films that have tried to turn fantasy tales into gritty epics (see THE LAST WITCH HUNTER, I FRANKENSTEIN). BRIGHT manages to never sink to that level of cheese and instead grounds this insanely over the top world into a level of reality. Sure, it saps some of the fun and light-hearted elements that could have been mined for laughs, but nothing about BRIGHT is intended to be, well, bright.

The benefit of being released on Netflix is that David Ayer did not need to pare down or hone BRIGHT the way studios may alter a traditional theatrical release. That is also the film's curse. Clocking in close to two hours, there could have been some tightening up of the material to try and eliminate some of the criticisms lobbied against it. BRIGHT is certainly not a failure but it does have some material that could have been better executed. I loved Noomi Rapace and Edgar Ramirez as elves unlike we have ever seen in Middle Earth while Lucy Fry portrays Tikka as a literal manic pixie dream girl. The pulsing score by David Sardy and the edgy cinematography of Roman Vasyanov save BRIGHT from ever looking less than big budget, but it is the combination of Landis' geek knowledge and Ayer's street cred that elevate BRIGHT to a higher level.

BRIGHT is exactly the type of movie that fans would have clamored to see on the big screen in the 1990s and contemporary audiences had the chance to see it premiere on their flat screen at home. Think about that for a second. The mere idea that a film of this scope and execution was available on mobile devices the day it premiered sets it apart from the traditional critical take. While I am not saying that critics were wrong in their take on the material, I am saying that platform goes a long to to giving a project like BRIGHT a bit more leeway as compared to a standard studio released blockbuster. BRIGHT has issues and does get mired in some narrative and pacing issues, but overall this is a film that is far more fun and enjoyable than half of the movies released in theaters in 2017. That alone makes it a success.