The first reviews for Netflix's big budget action-fantasy flick
Bright have arrived, and it's not looking good for the streaming giant's first attempt at a blockbuster movie. Reviews for the Netflix original, which debuts on the streaming service Friday, are overwhelming negative, with some outlets calling it the worst movie of 2017.
Directed by David Ayer (
Suicide Squad) and written by Max Landis (
Chronicle),
Bright follows the duo of Human LAPD officer Daryl Ward and Orc Deputy Nick Jakboy as they embark on a routine patrol night that will ultimately alter the future as their world knows it. In a world filled with orcs, fairies, and other fantasy creatures, the duo must put aside their personal differences and work together to protect a powerful ancient relic from falling into the wrong hands.
This sort of reaction certainly probably isn't sitting well with Netflix, who is hoping to upend the movie business as it did with television. The company has
already ordered a sequel to the film, with Will Smith already signed on, but this is definitely not a good start. Regardless, Netflix is already committed to blockbuster productions, and will spend as much as $8 billion on programming next year. In 2018, the streaming service is looking to release more than 80 original films. Hopefully
Bright isn't an indication of how that will fare.
Assuming you're already a Netflix subscriber, you'll be able to judge for yourself when
Bright debuts on Friday, December 22. For now, though, you can see what critics have to say about the movie below.
To view the list of reviews in its entirety, simply click on the VIEW LIST (ONE PAGE) button below!
In the end, it’s probably a blessing for Bright that it ended up on Netflix, where it can sit in a queue for as long as the audience wants. It’s the opposite of must-see. It’s a collection of admittedly impressive action sequences (like, $90 million impressive) trying to be so much more. Barring a certain Centaur Cop spin-off, Bright mostly deserves to be dimmed. [Original Score: C]
SOURCE:
Collider
The real problem with “Bright” — or the realest of its problems, anyway — is that the movie’s damage could linger for long after the lights come up (or after you’ve clicked away from it in favor of re-watching the new season of “The Crown”). Potentially a dark harbinger of things to come, “Bright” isn’t only the worst film of 2017, it could be responsible for many of the worst films of 2018 and beyond. If this gambit pays off — if Netflix fortifies their assault on the theatrical experience by internally developing blockbuster-sized movies that are even semi-consciously optimized for disinterested audiences — then it’s hard to imagine how dark the future of feature-length filmmaking might be. Here’s one indication: Shortly before the embargo on “Bright” reviews was lifted, Netflix announced that a sequel to “Bright” is already in the works. [Original Score: F]
SOURCE:
IndieWire
“Bright” is ugly to watch — dingy, poorly staged, taking place mostly at night and in torrential rain for no seeming reason than to cover up how badly its action is shot and edited. Every moment is either too long or not long enough, and even basic spatial and logistical geography makes no sense. The characters fight “Warriors”-style across the city, somehow getting in and out of one locked room, packed club or secret alcove after another without energy or suspense.
SOURCE:
TheWrap
As genre hybrids go, you might be able to imagine films less promising than director David Ayer and screenwriter Max Landis' Bright — a Holocaust rom-com, perhaps, or a musical about zombies? In pairing the gritty, Los Angeles cop flick Ayer often makes with the fantasy world of orcs and elves, though, Bright is sufficiently weird-sounding that it all but begs viewers to come in armed with tomatoes and rotten eggs.
SOURCE: The Hollywood Reporter
“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.
SOURCE:
Variety
Bright is a Christmas gift to the major studios, with their attempt to mimic would-be Hollywood biggie failing as badly despite (or perhaps because) of relative creative freedom. It makes the prototypical Hollywood genre film look that much better, and it again shows that Netflix is (thus far) at its best when it’s giving us what Hollywood won’t (First They Killed My Father, Mudbound, Okja) as opposed to trying to mimic a would-be tentpole (Death Note, Bright, War Machine). Bright is such a would-be mockbuster that it almost acts as an act of subversive sabotage for the major theater chains. Better luck next time. [Original Score: 2/10]
SOURCE: Forbes
Bright is a high-concept feature, and writer Max Landis (American Ultra, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency) injects some timely, potentially resonant themes into his script. Early on, the movie attempts to address racism and the social caste system, with elves taking on the roles of the elite, and the orcs filling in for the racially profiled minorities and the lower classes. There’s an inherent tension between humans and orcs due to a long-ago war, and the two rarely mix and mingle. Someone like Jakoby, however, is stuck in the middle. Edgerton plays him like the happiest, most naive police officer in the history of film, and while he’s estranged from other orcs, he also can’t fit in with the rest of the cops who resent his presence in the LAPD as part of a diversity program. None of this is particularly subtle, but the basic dynamics echo our world cleanly enough to offer up some real ground to explore. And then the movie abandons its attempts at allegory altogether.
SOURCE: The Verge
Bright could have been something truly special if it had slowed down the pace of its narrative to allow for a fuller exploration of its engaging world. Will Smith and Joel Edgerton are a compelling duo I’d love to see again in a sequel, or even a new series produced by Netflix, so hopefully, this isn’t the last we’ll see of the world of Bright. [Original Score: 7/10]
SOURCE: IGN Films