Bright review: This Will Smith film is let down by clumsy execution

You can see what the film is trying to do here in terms of commentary on American society and its criminal justice system. But it would need a subtler director than Ayer to deliver a nuanced message. Ayer rewrote the script written by Max Landis, so we may never know who is responsible for oversimplified ideas the film spews, but I suspect it is Ayer. Racism is bad, the film screams at us. It is what’s inside us that matters. Wow, nothing like we have ever seen before.

Most of the plot of Bright is about the imminent return of somebody called the Dark Lord (Sauron?) and a group called Shield of Light that is preparing to fight against him through magical means, since bullets won’t work. There are MacGuffins in the form of magic wands that explode unless you are a ‘bright’ which basically means you can touch a wand without being blown to smithereens. Then there are renegade elves called Inferni who actually want to help resurrect the Dark Lord but we are never told why. The cop duo are assisted by a squirrelly female elf who is a renegade among the Inferni and the whole point of this seems to be that people from three different races are working together.

Will Smith’s character says in the opening sequence, “Fairy lives don’t matter today.” While the rest of the film does not have such a cringe-worthy line, there aren’t many huge step-ups either. Characters are stereotypical and thinly written, the plotting and pacing a total incoherent mess, and the action set-pieces leave a lot to be desired.

You might still enjoy Bright. Just do not expect anything profound. It has a great premise, but execution is extraordinarily clumsy. It is far from the worst film of the year as many have said, but it isn’t a magnificent, enlightened, and socially conscious piece of cinema it pretends to be either.

Bright is streaming on Netflix.