Last Friday, Netflix released Bright, its first big blockbuster, directed by David Ayer and worn by Will Smith and Joel Edgerton. Bright is a way for Netflix to prove its ability to produce big-budget movies, blockbusters for theaters. Yet Bright was totally brought down on both sides of the Atlantic. If the film is certainly not a masterpiece, it is not the purge announced either. Focus!
A classic blockbuster that seduces in its construction
David Ayer has already distinguished himself with End of Watch and Fury, but since the affront Suicide Squad, the filmmaker is frankly not adored by all. He returns under the svibe of Netflix with an interesting idea: a metaphor for segregation through the prism of the fantastic. Like District 9 and its apartheid, Bright uses monsters to demonstrate ethnic violence and racial prejudice. Orcs are minorities, they are the dominated and rejected species, elves dominate the world, and humans still suffer just as much. In a violent Los Angeles, David Ayer mixes genres and signs a hybrid work somewhere between a buddy movie, a grimy thriller à la Training Day, and a comedy fantasy film like Men in Black or R.I.P.D..
The construction of the film is very entertaining. David Ayer places Will Smith and Joel Edgerton in a generous universe, where monsters of all kinds abound. The buddy movie is quickly set up and proves effective thanks to the opposition of the two characters: a relatively brutal human and a naive orca straddling the rules. With a credits all in graphs, punctuated by a very rap instrumental, the tone is set and is seductive. Punctuated by some well-found humorous lines, Bright, thanks to some successful staging ideas, including some slow motions, bathes in a double social reading not devoid of interest and when the balance of power is put in place, the film is seductive. But this will not last…
A sloppy second part in the vein of Suicide Squad
Unfortunately, Bright will fall into the chaos of Suicide Squad. Despite endearing main characters, and a rather successful scenario, David Ayer will totally botch the second half. The fault, especially to a very weak scenario. The story is not very original and ends up quickly going around in circles. But that's not the only concern. The dialogues turn into a bunch of idiocies, the situations become totally far-fetched and the secondary characters are insignificant. We still wonder what Noomi Rapace and Edgar Ramirez are doing in this film, so uninteresting are their roles and their performances ridiculous. Their characters are walking clichés and don't add much to the story.
But the worst thing about Bright is how a rather alluring starting premise is turned into a complete failure. Bright ends up going around in circles, the redundancies are numerous and David Ayer does not find the necessary twists to revive his film. The conclusion is a compendium of failed scenes, unrealistic confrontations, and totally failed dialogues. This outcome is reminiscent of the failure of Suicide Squad which suffered significantly from the same defects.
Bright is not the purge announced. Admittedly, David Ayer's film will remain anecdotal, accuses the blow of a simplistic scenario, sometimes gruelling dialogues, and a redundant and asphyxiating second part. However, some elements work: the buddy movie, Will Smith true to himself, some pleasant staging effects, an effective situation and an eye-catching soundtrack.
