Bright (2017)

Funded and produced by Netflix, Bright sees director David Ayer reuniting with Will Smith for the first time since 2016's almost unwatchable Suicide Squad. Bright's premise certainly promises more than what we got from Suicide Squad, set in an alternate Los Angeles where Elves, Orcs and Humans live alongside each other (along with various other fantasy creatures). Will Smith is a human cop, and partners the department's first ever Orc police officer, a hilarious Joel Edgerton, unrecognisable underneath the prosthetics. The first half of the film promises much, there's plenty of discrimination and cultural appropriation that feels especially prescient in today's society, and Bright uses its first hour or so setting up what promises to be an interesting second half. It's a shame therefore, that the second half runs out of ideas so swiftly, resorting to shoot out after shoot out, and choosing to solve the problems of the plot by satisfying the average idiot who just wants to watch people hitting each other in increasingly hard to care about fight sequences. It's especially disappointing after the film sets up such an interesting world and rules, and then follows them thoroughly for an hour or so before giving up. What is interesting is that there appears to be a sequel in the works, and one wonders which direction that will go. 5.5/10