Bright
Firstly let me just state that Will Smith is one of my favourite actors. He has a talent that is rarely surpassed, which is he makes poor films average and good films great. By that I mean he has rescued a very average film with a very average script like Hancock, where he played a drunk superhero. He has also made a good film world class and he did that in the epic movie Independence Day where him and Jeff Goldblum battled aliens and saved the world. Now as we all know, the sequel to Independence Day doesn't feature Will Smith, hence half of the awesome duo is gone. This leaves a very average film.
Will Smith also starred in the excellent film focus and the good Suicide Squad. I've followed him for a lot longer than that though. You may have seen the excellent American comedy t.v series The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air. Now that was where Will became famous and, even then it was clear he had an exceptional gift for acting.
This leads me onto Wills latest movie, Bright. A film that didn't go to the cinemas, but instead went straight to Netflix. As you may know, Netflix has a lot of excellent quality t.v series such as The Crown and Stranger Things but, on the rare occasion it's tried to make a movie it hasn't really succeeded. With Bright they probably thought they had the winning combination. They hired David Ayer as director, who directed the epic End of Watch and also Fury which starred Brad Pitt. Both of those were quality films. On top of this they hired Will Smith as well to play the leading role.
Sounds great doesn't it? Unfortunately it isn't. Why? I hear you ask. The problem is this: With a lot of Netflix original tv programming the cast is full of well known A List actors, not just one for the main character. Stranger Things, House of Cards (although the lead actor there isn't anymore!) And many more. Great lead actors but also well known others as well. HBO have done it with Westworld. Full of top end actors.
The first problem with Bright is that it looks and feels like they have spent all of the budget hiring Will Smith and ended up having to get virtual unknowns (with all due respect to them) for the rest. This means you end up with a very disjointed movie with one actor at the top end making the others look far worse than they actually are. In fact all the acting is good but with Will there who is such a top level actor it takes away from the acting skills of the rest of the cast.
If they had hired say 3 or 4 well knowns as in Independence Day for example, that would have mitigated that affect. On top of that the storyline is very very odd. The movie is set in modern day Los Angeles yet it features Orcs And elves as well as humans! Now, if this had been say Star Trek which is clearly fantasy that would have been fine as it's clearly not real but this is set in our time. That to me is very odd and hard to get my head around. I get that it's supposed to be some sort of alternate reality but it just is very very odd. Amazon did a tv series like that called The Man In The High Castle, imagining how the world would be if Hitler won the second world war. That I also found too far fetched.
However, the make up on the Orcs and elves is amazing it looks so realistic, the action scenes are class with the shooting and violence etc and of course it stars Will Smith. As I said at the start of this post he can make a poor movie average and he's done it again. What a talent. Without him this would have been a 2 star movie at best but because of his talent combined with the action scenes and added to the fact I do like fantasy films, even though I find the plot incredibly odd it does push the movie into the 3 star category. Will, you are a talent you really are. If you have Netflix watch it as you are paying for it anyway but I can see why it came out on Netflix and not the cinema as only die hard Will Smith fans like myself would pay to see this at the cinema. If you have Netflix already give it a look, if you don't you aren't missing out on too much don't worry. Happy New Year: A very average 3 stars awarded.
* This review is all my own work, please don't reproduce without my permission thank you.
Will Smith also starred in the excellent film focus and the good Suicide Squad. I've followed him for a lot longer than that though. You may have seen the excellent American comedy t.v series The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air. Now that was where Will became famous and, even then it was clear he had an exceptional gift for acting.
This leads me onto Wills latest movie, Bright. A film that didn't go to the cinemas, but instead went straight to Netflix. As you may know, Netflix has a lot of excellent quality t.v series such as The Crown and Stranger Things but, on the rare occasion it's tried to make a movie it hasn't really succeeded. With Bright they probably thought they had the winning combination. They hired David Ayer as director, who directed the epic End of Watch and also Fury which starred Brad Pitt. Both of those were quality films. On top of this they hired Will Smith as well to play the leading role.
Sounds great doesn't it? Unfortunately it isn't. Why? I hear you ask. The problem is this: With a lot of Netflix original tv programming the cast is full of well known A List actors, not just one for the main character. Stranger Things, House of Cards (although the lead actor there isn't anymore!) And many more. Great lead actors but also well known others as well. HBO have done it with Westworld. Full of top end actors.
The first problem with Bright is that it looks and feels like they have spent all of the budget hiring Will Smith and ended up having to get virtual unknowns (with all due respect to them) for the rest. This means you end up with a very disjointed movie with one actor at the top end making the others look far worse than they actually are. In fact all the acting is good but with Will there who is such a top level actor it takes away from the acting skills of the rest of the cast.
If they had hired say 3 or 4 well knowns as in Independence Day for example, that would have mitigated that affect. On top of that the storyline is very very odd. The movie is set in modern day Los Angeles yet it features Orcs And elves as well as humans! Now, if this had been say Star Trek which is clearly fantasy that would have been fine as it's clearly not real but this is set in our time. That to me is very odd and hard to get my head around. I get that it's supposed to be some sort of alternate reality but it just is very very odd. Amazon did a tv series like that called The Man In The High Castle, imagining how the world would be if Hitler won the second world war. That I also found too far fetched.
However, the make up on the Orcs and elves is amazing it looks so realistic, the action scenes are class with the shooting and violence etc and of course it stars Will Smith. As I said at the start of this post he can make a poor movie average and he's done it again. What a talent. Without him this would have been a 2 star movie at best but because of his talent combined with the action scenes and added to the fact I do like fantasy films, even though I find the plot incredibly odd it does push the movie into the 3 star category. Will, you are a talent you really are. If you have Netflix watch it as you are paying for it anyway but I can see why it came out on Netflix and not the cinema as only die hard Will Smith fans like myself would pay to see this at the cinema. If you have Netflix already give it a look, if you don't you aren't missing out on too much don't worry. Happy New Year: A very average 3 stars awarded.
* This review is all my own work, please don't reproduce without my permission thank you.
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