Bright Film Review

I found this reasonably stupid entertainment but then I am easily entertained. Drying paint can do it. Then I made the mistake of reading what the critics thought and I felt like I had broken one of the Ten Commandments by enjoying this. They take their knives out, polish them and stick them into this film with relish like Romans with Caesar. "The worst film" of 2017. "Incredibly derivative and practically unwatchable.". Oh, come on. Be merciful. Maybe after watching The Marvels anything would have looked good as long as the story makes sense. This one does. Sort of. Not really but close. Sure, the social message hits you over the head like Maxwell's Silver Hammer but throw that all away and this comes down to your basic buddy cop film. And once the action kicks in and never stops it is a fair amount of fun. For some reason it reminded me of the classic film, The Warriors - you know "Warriors, come out to play".

Like The Warriors it is about a small group of people stuck in an urban hellscape trying to find their way to safety. But rather than various gangs after them it is your typical assortment of elves, orcs, corrupt cops, gangs and the FBI. Yes, you read that right - Los Angeles is in an age of enlightenment in which different species that escaped Lord of The Rings all live together. No dwarves though. Or Trolls. Were they not allowed in? Demand your rights. Diversity but not harmony. They all hate one another. The film is trying to make a statement regarding the state of things in America today - a poor though annoying fairy is swatted and told Fairy lives don't matter. This part is much too clunky and obvious to stick with you. Just think of it as a buddy cop film - one a black man and the other an orc. Who dislike one another at the beginning in true buddy cop tradition. Jacoby, the orc (Joel Edgerton) has been paired with the veteran Ward (Will Smith) as an experiment in diversity. It isn't going well. Jacoby is the Jackie Robinson of police and the human cops want him dead. Like Jackson, he has to take all the brickbats thrown at him with calm. The orcs hate him too for being on the side of humans.

The film gets fun when the two of them answer a call and find a house full of murdered people and an Evil Elf stuck to a wall. Ok, let's back up a little. A group of elves led by Leilah (Noomi Rapace) believe that if they acquire these magical wands, they can bring back the Dark Lord to life and he will allow them to take over the world. Not too ambitious. She only needs one more wand and one of her fellow elves Tikka (Lucy Fry) stole it in order to stop her. Got it.

The two of them plus a captured Tikka and the wand have to fight their way out with everyone wanting the wand and willing to shoot up any place to get it. Strip bars, discos are all fair game. Lelieh with her two assistants (a blonde-haired Veronica Ngo) slice and dice their way through crowds of people. But our threesome are survivors, Why this was so hated is a mystery to me. I have seen much worse. Like every Marvel film of the past few years.