Netflix’s Bright is not to be considered a flop

Despite its harsh reception Netflix still put together a good film

Unpopular opinion: I liked the movie “Bright,” although many critics did not. I believe that many critics did not care for the movie because the racial metaphors were not perfect, and they did not care for the idea of a sci-fi movie.

Before I jump into that, one must understand the plot. The movie is set in a world where orcs, fairies, elves, and humans live together. The elves seem to represent the top 1 percent, the orcs represent working and lower-class, the humans are middle to upper class, and the fairies appear to be squirrel-like pests.
With tensions between the different races high, magic and the use of wands make matters worse. The term,

“Bright,” refers to the people that are able to carry a magic wand and utilize its magic. The problem is, not all brights are good.

A group of bright elves want to summon a dark lord, and when the police find out about this, specifically an orc officer and his human partner, who has not been on good terms since the orc failed to catch someone who had shot the human months before, mayhem ensues.

The orc and human become an unlikely duo protecting the wand and an elf who helped them acquire it from capture. They escape multiple street gangs that want the wand for their own benefit, as well as the elves that want it to continue summoning a dark lord.

It is through a series of gun battles and evading capture to turn the wand in to the feds that the orc, Nick Jakoby, and the human, Scott Ward, put aside their racial differences to fight for what is right. They become closer by the end of the movie, and although they still insult one another, the audience can tell it is a playful fight.

At the end of the movie after Jakoby is killed and resurrected, and Ward ends up in the hospital after realizing he is a bright when he prevents the evil elves from taking over. The feds gathered statements from the two and awarded each a medal. Lastly, the elf friend they had been protecting, who was thought to be dead, was revealed to still be alive.

If that summary was hard to follow, I can only imagine what the critics thought. Although I enjoyed the film, I do understand why many critics would not like it.

The movie was a bit predictable, and some of the meaning was lost in the rather outlandish metaphors. The movie attempted to but did not do a perfect job at displaying the racial metaphors.

Lastly, I do not think the movie critics truly understood the plot because the magical universe was not explained as well as it could have been. In my opinion, the audience should be able to pick up on the gist it, but I will admit it could have been done better.

Yes, the movie and the message was a bit hard to follow, but I believe that the directors put in as much information as they possibly could in the two hours they were allotted. Sometimes the movie scenes, specifically the shootouts, were a bit repetitive and lost the audience’s attention, which is the last thing a company wants to lose in a scene as climactic as a gun battle.

The movie did a good job with the resources it had at hand. I believe that movie critics have pigeon-holed Will Smith, who played Scott Ward, as a funny, sitcom-like actor, and because of that, they did not care to see him play a more serious role.

Smith did a good job playing Ward, and although it is not his usual role, he was able to capture the seriousness of the part, and he was able to work in the realizations his character experiences.
Movie critics went into this movie wanting to not like it because it was directed by David Ayer, director of

“Suicide Squad.” Many critics had already made up their minds before the movie started.

When compared to other thought-provoking films such as “Get Out,” “Bright” is not on the same level, but it is not “the worst movie of the year.” Overall, this movie, despite what critics say, deserves a second chance.

Bright is currently available to stream on Netflix. The $90 million film is one of Netflix’s biggest movies yet. It may not have been the biggest success, but it was a good first attempt.