It seems like every month there is a new original film with some serious creative power behind it featured on Netflix. Arguably the biggest movie to date on the service is David Ayer's Bright. The fantasy film starring Will Smith was seriously popular on the streaming service and has already justified a sequel. Bright was interesting in that it represented the sometimes-vast gulf between the opinions of audiences and critics, with audiences loving it and critics hating it. Well, love it or hate it, it's always fun to watch Honest Trailers pick apart a film in a humorous manner. Take a look below to see everything wrong with Bright.
Yikes, this pulls no punches from the start, but I would expect nothing less from Honest Trailers. Noting that this allegory on race relations is coming from the director of Suicide Squad, David Ayer, and the writer of Victor Frankenstein, Max Landis, is pretty funny, hinting that these creatives are ill-qualified to tackle such material. One of the best parts about this Honest Trailer is how the narrator mentions that Netflix is your first choice for TV shows and last choice for movies. This is especially amusing and relevant in light of the streaming service's recent movies like The Cloverfield Paradox and Mute that have received less-than-stellar critical reviews. Making fun of the fact that Will Smith's character in Bright is basically the same as many of his other famous roles is spot-on and ironically probably part of why audiences liked the film so much.
Those criticisms are fairly superficial, though, and once the Honest Trailer gets into the meat of the film, you get some idea why critics had such a problem with it. The trailer highlights the ham-fisted way in which Bright attempts to tackle real world social issues while also trying to tell a fantasy story, and it falls short in both regards. Personally, I didn't dislike Bright. I thought it was entertaining for what it was, but not something I would give a hearty recommendation. My main issue is actually something that this trailer hits on, and it's that the film squanders the idea of a modern fantasy world by essentially playing out a traditional cop story with fantasy trappings. The fantasy elements aren't essential to the story or the world and could easily have been replaced with real world analogs.
Even the greatest of films can be picked apart if you try hard enough, so Bright is in good company in that regard. With a sequel in the offing, perhaps Bright 2 will be able to remedy some of the issues of the first film and better realize the potential of its premise. David Ayer will return to direct and also write the film this time around, with Will Smith and Joel Edgerton also expected to return. For all of the original Netflix movies you hitting the streaming soon you should keep an eye out for, check out our guide.
