I came, I saw, I liked it
Yeah, I liked how the wand was pure light and was constantly dripping magic goo. That was a nice bit of design. Probably a well spent million in CG.
I watched the first 30 minutes this morning.
I know I’m probably setting myself up for disappointment later, but so far I really enjoyed it. It reminds me of End of Watch, which is my favorite buddy cop movie of all time. There’s a tension between the two cops, but there is also some camaraderie, even if it’s begrudging. So far, thumbs up!
What the movie did better was inserting fantasy races in a modern environment. Because, of course, the elven area is some rivendell with high buildings and fancy stuff. But humans have more tame houses and some dirt they have to live it. But the orcs have the worst part. In many ways, the orcs are still trival. They are playing with the wrong cards.
Worldbuilding: A-
What the movie did worse was having a good story to tell or really interesting characters to show, or some interesting conflict to run around.
Conflict: B-
Characters: B
Story: B-
Then the movie did a bit of mythos worldbuilding, and that bit they did kind of worked on some level that is secret to the eyes:
Mythbuilding: C+
Teiman, you were clearly disappointed that the movie had no deep gnome caverns, full of gold mechanics.
I hope Bright 2 have hackers, that are indeed show to be gnomes working in poorly lit caves.
In terms of viewer numbers, it seems like Bright was a big success for Netflix.
I think you guys must have watched an entirely different movie to me - I thought it was awful.
I don’t think I’m the only one seeing this disconnect though ;)
I watched another 40 minutes last night. Again, just like the first Act, I really enjoyed this act as well. The first was all beautiful setup, and this act was all tension and action. I’m really enjoying this. A big thanks to all the people upthread who convinced me to watch this despite the bad reviews.
I hope I get to watch the final 45 minutes tonight. Maybe it all goes to hell, quality-wise, in the final act, but I would say it’s still worth it.
Did Netflix go back to a 5-star system? I thought they were still using the thumbs-up or thumbs-down system they went to. This meant that I stopped paying attention to Netflix reviews.
Though I did sign on to give the Netflix original Pottersville a thumbs down. That movie took an absolutely incredible cast (Michael Shannon! Ian McShane! Christina Hendricks! Tom Lennon! Judy Greer!) and stuck them into a beige and humorless comedy. The writer and director had perhaps seen It’s A Wonderful Life, or had heard about it from friends, and thought making a lighthearted Capra-esque “exaltation of the common man learning that no man is poor who has friends or a community” would be both easy and funny. Nooope.
Anyway, on Bright, I usually don’t like cop dramas unless they are as good as The Wire or have some other fantastic twist. Cops have superpowers in Top Ten. Regular cops fight supervillains and occasionally catch glimpses of Batman in Gotham Central. A spunky bunny cop mixes with enormous predators in Zootopia. Those, I really like. And so I gave Bright a ton of slack. Its racial politics were skeevy and the movie is better if you think of the orc as the main character and Will Smith as the sidekick.
I would like to see a Brighter 2: the Brightening, especially if they can delve deeper into the worldbuilding, make the characters more interesting, and have a plot device that’s a little cooler than a Magic Macguffin.
Ha ha, you saw Pottersville. You’d never know from Pottersville, but Michael Shannon can be really funny:
-Tom
From that Decider article:
Have people forgotten Wild Wild West? Seriously, that stinks more than Van Helsing.
When did “Many twitter users” become any sort of deciding or qualitative factor? I can find many twitter users saying Mcdonalds is the best food in existence as well, or that the earth is flat - That doesn’t really say much.
Saw this last night. I felt Will Smith kind of mailed it in, but the orc and elf/good inferi picked it up. Villains had no character,but buddy cop movies usually aren’t that bad.
A bit too dark and gritty,but overall not too bad. I’d probably check out the sequel.
Oh, I agree. When news articles state some number of likes or re-twats or whatever it conveys no information to me.
I liked Wild Wild West :(
When I was 12. Granted, the only thing I remember from it is Salma Hayek’s ass.
Nazis dont like Will Smith films? Yeah “Twitter users” isn’t indicative of quality these days.
I did though. The urban fantasy setting was a good blend of many of them and it gets double thumbs up because I didn’t realise it was Netflix until i opened the app and there it was. Look forward to number two.
I mean, yeah? I’m sure there are plenty of terrible movies I liked at that age for worse reasons. Hell I thought Electra was better than Daredevil at the time, since it was all Jennifer Garner in leather.
It was still terrible, but 18 year old me didn’t mind working that movie (since I worked in a theater I saw lots of parts of the same movies)
For those who found the worldbuilding a bit lacking, this video you gives a bit of background.
Sargon?? Seriously? I really enjoyed Bright, but… SARGON?!