Bright review – Will Smith's sci-fi is a true original … for better or worse

A world where orcs and elves live alongside humans is rich in potential and full of resonance, but some fine-tuning is required in this inventive fantasy It’s not often you see a movie with a truly original premise, or even a truly original combination of other movie premises, so Bright’s high concept certainly grabs the attention: fantasy creatures, such as orcs and elves, living alongside humans in modern-day Los Angeles. The elevator pitch would be something like “Middle Earth meets District 9 meets End of Watch”. And if that sounds like an impossible genre clash to reconcile, Netflix’s frenetic sci-fi-buddy-cop-fantasy-comedy-thriller deserves credit for ramming its way through, regardless.The ethnic boundaries of this alternative metropolis are quickly sketched out. Orcs are the underclass – deprived and discriminated against (a reference to “Orc lives matter” drives the point home). Elves are the elite, though we only visit their glitzy, exclusive neighbourhood briefly. Humans are somewhere in the middle, doing the ordinary jobs and directing their prejudices at the other species rather than each other (the cast is commendably multiracial). Quite where the centaur traffic cops fit in is never explained, but it’s a nice detail. Continue reading…
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