“Misunderstood Orcs: The Non-Traditional
Story You Might Miss(understand) on NETFLIX”
NETFLIX:
BRIGHT
(2017, TV-MA, 117 minutes each, CLUBHOUSE PICTURES / OVERLOOK ENTERTAINMENT
/ NETFLIX)
Netflix is doing what very few studios have the balls to do. Netflix takes on projects that would be quickly
tossed into the trash because the story is not “trendy” or is questionably “relatable”
to the masses. BRIGHT is clearly one of
the riskier selections they’ve made to date, even when including top-billed
heavyweights as a justification to proceed.
I would almost say that this is a great watch. It may not seem so thanks in part to the
blowback, but it is something this superhero-sterilized Hollywood and the commercially-driven
Netflix viewership (which we will call ‘normys’) need to add to their ‘Let’s Broaden
Our Minds List’. My heart breaks as I
know they will never truly appreciate it anyways, as was proven since it was
one of their most streamed programs.
BRIGHT is about two cops, one a human who happens to be black, Will Smith, and
the other an Orc, Joel Edgerton. The location is set in a universe like ours
but there are orcs, elves, fairies, and more mixed in. A fantasy smorgasbord in modern day. They happen upon a Bright, someone who can
harness the power of a legendary wand, and must protect her from near-about everyone
in Los Angeles. This includes a deadly
Noomi Rapace, a total badass.
To BRIGHT’s credit, the central theme surrounds both racial tension and the
questionable actions of police officers we have been reading about in the news
for the past few decades… plus. If you
watched “Alien Nation”, the tone is very similar. The message is told on a species level…
rather human vs. other, than a black vs. white one. The thing I find most vital about BRIGHT is
that the core conflict reflects these ongoing issues and addresses the struggle
in a less confrontational way, something that needs to continually happen to
keep the dialogue going about some of our nation’s struggles. A message that can be easily digested by
those more skeptical or somewhat blinded by ignorance.
The foremost problem with BRIGHT is that it falls more into a niche-style
setting and ‘normys’ have a hard time getting hooked at the start. As was proven in the past, ‘normys’ cannot embrace
a story that has ‘fantastic’ elements to this degree when set in contemporary
times. It’s an unfortunate truth, movies
and TV shows are less likely to get greenlit or fail to impress the masses when
the case... LADY IN THE WATER and REIGN
OF FIRE to list a couple. You can fudge
it a little like HELL BOY and the recent THE SHAPE OF WATER being in a past era,
but there seems to be a line that gets crossed subconsciously if close to
present day. For whatever reason, aliens get a pass. Oh well.
The acting is solid, even with the magical context weaved in the telling. The avoidance of explanatory dialogue is also
a key part to the success in the storytelling, and only used when absolutely
necessary. Information dumps knock the observer
out of the setting quickly, making for a choppy and dull presentation. Director David Ayer (more of a prolific
writer - SUICIDE SQUAD, TRAINING DAY, END OF WATCH, FURY, SABOTAGE, HARSH
TIMES) does a fair job keeping a gritty sub-tone while having comedic bits to
break up the seriousness of the situation.
The failings are in the overused urban bad guys and the conclusion. We get our gangbangers and we get our turf
wars with crime families. Ah… okay. Then the finale ends on a quick, wrapped with
a bow, note. They jump the shark by
being too magical and otherworldly. There
could have been many directions that they could have taken to make the ending
more impactful. But as an avid fantasy
reader, I found it lackluster and ‘been done before’.
I kinda overstated the wrap-up as they did leave threads for another BRIGHT,
and it does seem the case. So, I wait
for the next installment to see if Ayer can raise the bar as he seems to be
tasked with the writing of the script, which he is capable of.
-- James S. Austin
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