Bright (2017)
A story with selectively good writing.
I remember hearing about Bright when it first came out a couple of years ago, but I never got around to watching it. So, the other day, when a friend and I were looking for a movie to watch, we figured we’d check it out. That’s the beauty of Netflix — if a movie is crap, you can just stop it and try something else with a click of a button.
At first, I was engrossed by the world-building. I appreciated this fantasy that they were able to create where people and magical creatures co-existed. The opening credits revealed so much about this world and they were able to use this time so strategically — I was pumped from the first few moments and hoped they wouldn’t screw it up.
The dialogue was, at times, fast-paced and witty. Mutual animosity between the two main characters is something that I always enjoy. It’s a fun exercise to put two very different characters who don’t like each other very much into a dangerous situation and see what happens and that’s exactly what Bright did.
But my biggest problem with the whole movie was the pacing. It felt as though they focused on all the wrong things and forgot the important things. It also seemed like they were working themselves up for a sequel, something that hasn’t yet materialized and likely won’t because of the film’s poor reception.
Movies tend to follow the same formula. Our brains are wired for story and, over the course of years and years of consuming media, we have been conditioned to ingest stories that follow the same general plot lines. So, within the first third of the movie, when there was a long monologue from one of the characters, I knew exactly where this film was going.
Instead of keeping their eyes on the prize (the climax and resolution of the film), they got caught up in minor plot points and a very elaborate chase. So, when the resolution finally happened, it felt rushed. To me, it felt like they wrote themselves into a corner. They had set up so many things to resolve and only left a few minutes in which to do so, which made the ending felt too easy, putting a damper on the whole film.
Bright had so much potential to be great, but ended up falling flat for me. I wish they had been able to do a little more refining to make it truly impactful and paced the story a little more smoothly so that viewers could better consume it.
This film reminds me that no matter how novel the concept is, there’s just no substitute for good writing.
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