In fact, “Bright” transposes fantasy elements commonly found in kids’ entertainment to the world of heavy-duty adult action (for instance, its Fairies are nothing like Tinkerbell, but foul-mouthed pests with razor-sharp teeth). Certain real-world racial biases still apply, and Ayer could catch some flak for presenting Latino gang members as scary pack animals, though it should be said that everybody is intimidating in this world. It’s a complicated social system to establish, and yet, “Bright” does so without relying on traditional exposition, letting interactions between characters - whether it’s orders delivered by a Korean-American commanding officer, played by Margaret Cho, or the chill that arises when Jacoby takes a detour through Elftown - reveal how this hierarchy operates. And above that hover the Elves, an elite class who hoard the wealth from a private district, where they spend their days “running the world and shopping.” Then come the humans, almost none of whom are white though they tease one another about their ethnic differences, they seem to live in a kind of post-racial, post-gender-segregated equilibrium. In an opening-credits montage that walks the tightrope between hokey and OG, “Bright” begins with shots of street-corner murals, graffiti tags and other signage that establishes the pecking order between races.Īt the bottom are the Orcs, who dress like inner-city thugs, costumed in sports jerseys and gang colors up to their Shrek-like heads, which feature unique pigmentation (each one is unique) suggestive of elaborate facial tattoos (and hours spent in the makeup chair).
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In fact, not since “District 9” has a movie taken the underlying tensions of a community (in this case, Rodney King-style police brutality and unchecked Rampart-esque in-fighting) and so creatively amplified them to suit an otherwise straightforward action plot.
Plenty of sci-fi movies aspire to the kind of franchise-ready world-building on offer in “Bright,” but precious few can pull it off. It’s a brilliant twist on an old dynamic that simultaneously supports an allegory about 21st-century discrimination so rich, you could create a college course dedicated solely to analyzing how it operates. “Bright” hinges on the relationship between two reluctantly paired police officers: battle-scarred beat cop Daryl Ward (Will Smith) and his idealistic new partner, Nick Jakoby ( Joel Edgerton), the first Orc ever allowed on the force. Set in a parallel-universe version of Los Angeles, where humans live in harmony with Orcs, Elves and Fairies - well, maybe “harmony” isn’t quite the right word more like “an uneasy balance” - this ambitious, yet astonishingly well-executed Netflix tentpole directly benefits from the way Ayer’s gritty, streetwise sensibility grounds Landis’ gift for creating an elaborate comic-book mythology. His writing is familiar in the way that Tarantino movies are familiar (cleverly remixing familiar buddy-cop tropes with its “Alien Nation” premise), and fresh in the way that Tarantino movies are fresh (inventing original set pieces and new twists on old character types), which no doubt explains why Netflix paid so much (reportedly $3.5 million) for this screenplay.
That’s not to suggest that “Bright” doesn’t stick to the script (this is a Will Smith starring vehicle after all, the most satisfying of its kind since his “Bad Boys” days), though writer Max Landis is something of a pop-culture savant, capable of synthesizing everything from pulp-fiction fantasy to Shane Black action-comedies into a kind of wild and witty blockbuster super-weapon. “ Bright” is the best Netflix original movie to date, and it absolutely deserves to be seen on the big screen, though don’t let that stop you from watching it home, as “End of Watch” director David Ayer’s welcome return to the cop-movie genre - following a disastrous wrong turn into “Suicide Squad” territory, of which we will say no more - fills an intense, grown-up movie niche that Hollywood once did so well, but has since replaced with formula-driven product.
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