Bright (Netflix Originals) - review

In my first big change for review writing for 2018, it is time to recognise streaming services original content as part of the film release calendar and review them accordingly.
After all last year brought the likes of the excellent Gerald's Game, Cannes Film Festival competitor Okja and Amazon Studios Oscar-winning Manchester By The Sea.
Following on from the Oscar-nominated Mudbound, December brought Netflix's most expensive original production Bright, at a cool $90 million. Although this has now been surpassed by Scorsese's The Irishman at a budget of $100 million.
It wouldn't have been a Netflix original release with a little bit of controversy and Bright dutifully supplied it. Many critics called it one of the worst films of 2017 and Netflix fired back claiming it was their most popular original release with 11 million views in its first three days.
While its true that 11 million views on Netflix, which is a paid subscription, is not equal to 11 million people paying $15 to watch a film in a cinema during its opening weekend, it was certainly enough for Netflix to greenlight a sequel. Clearly they are banking on a large percentage of those views being people who enjoyed it and not just clicking on it to see if it was as bad as the reviews made out.
This reviewer was certainly in the latter category to begin with but it is not anywhere near as bad as 2017 films such as Transformers: The Last Knight and The Snowman.
Just like Ayer's Suicide Squad, this is a case of poor execution and wasted potential. For there is something at the heart of Bright that could have made for a great limited series with a new spin on the procedural detective/mismatched buddy cop drama.
Instead the result is an End of Watch retread with two police partners forced to work through their own issues with each other whilst trying to stop the end of the world... Oh, that's right, Bright is set in a world where Humans, Orcs and Elves live side by side.
Imagine if Lord Of The Rings had ended with Sauron being destroyed and all the different armies called an uneasy truce until the modern day.
The film begins with very little in the way of world building, instead focusing on Will Smith's police officer returning to duty after being shot while on duty with the very first Orc police officer Nick Jacoby (played with humour and pathos by Joel Edgerton). The rest of the department want Jacoby gone because he doesn't fit in, and before you say it, yes it does feel very similar to the plot of Zootropolis at this point.
There are bigoted fellow cops and underhanded schemes to frame the Orc but before you can say Internal Affairs, the two partners are called to a disturbance where they discover the one ring that will rule them all... wait, no, they find a magic wand which is wanted by every single criminal in the city and it turns into a fight to survive the night.
From here it is a very generic, straight up action film that lacks the wit and charm needed to sell the more ridiculous aspects of the story. For example, at no point does Will Smith witness something crazy and shout "Awwww hell no!". Missed opportunities!
There remains untapped potential that could turn the sequel into something special but Bright is sadly a dim and dull affair with the risk that as it is on Netflix, audiences may not get to the end of their watch.

2 stars

The Rover - review

David Michod's follow up to the excellent Animal Kingdom is set in the barren, dusty and dangerous Australian outback, ten years after "The Collapse".

It is not specified what the collapse was and what caused it but I would hazard a guess that it timed up with the moment The Inbetweeners set foot on Australian soil.

The Rover has a plot as simple as Robert Pattinson's character.

A group of hoodlums steal loner Guy Pearce's car and he does everything he can to get it back, including capturing R-Patz's character Rey who is brother to one of them and forces him to take them to their hideout.

Substituting car chases and action scenes for long, drawn out scenes of sparse dialogue, empty landscapes and moments of brutal violence, The Rover plays out like an art house Mad Max.

Pearce is excellent as the mysterious loner who slowly reveals his past but keeps us guessing to the Macguffin of why he needs his car back so badly.

Pattinson really does impress with another role following the likes of Cosmopolis that will put the death nail in the coffin of Twilight fans seeking out his post-franchise choices. If I was not aware of him as an actor, I genuinely would have believed him to be an actor on the spectrum or mentally disadvantaged.

The film, like the characters, slowly move towards a bloody showdown that is bound to split opinions.

Will I rewatch Michod's Rover? No never, no more.

3 stars

Warrior - review

From the trailers and tv spots, it would be easy to assume that Warrior is just another typical sports movie that adheres to every cliche that you find in every instalment of the Rocky or Karate Kid series.
And for 120 minutes you could argue that it does. But by the time we get to the final of the tournament, we are so emotionally invested in the family dynamic and what it means to both men to win that Warrior delivers a knockout emotional sucker punch that may leave grown men weeping in the aisles (myself included).
Warrior centres around the increasingly popular world of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) and a tournament to determine the best in the world called Sparta (I can't help but feel they missed a trick by not having Gerard Butler involved to welcome people to the fights).
Where this film differentiated itself from the pack is that instead of following one combatant on the road to glory, we are following two... and they're brothers!
Much like The Fighter earlier this year, Warrior uses the sports genre as the backdrop for a story of a family that is torn apart and this tournament just might be the thing to bring them together.
Tommy (Tom Hardy) is a former marine, built like a brick shithouse and complete raging bull with a punch that could knock out an elephant. Brendan (Joel Edgarton) is a former UFC fighter turned family man and teacher. They haven't seen each other in years and both are estranged from their former alcoholic and domestically violent father (Nick Nolte on terrific form), but this tournament sets them on a path to face each other and their issues.
It is not spoiling anything, it's even in the trailer, that the two brothers will meet in the final of the tournament, but it is a testament to the filmmakers that they still manage to bring a level of tension and excitement to the individual fights despite the sense of inevitability, thanks to an authentic, frenetic energy to the camerawork.
Faultless performances from both leads mean that our loyalties are split come the time the bell rings for the final and the outcome of the fight is impossible to call.
To paraphrase the tagline of another epic matchup film, "Whoever wins, we lose... our dignity in the screen. I'm sorry, give me a minute, I have something in my eye".

5 stars