Bright

About

Bright is an American fantasy action film starring Will Smith and Joel Edgerton. With a $90 million budget, the film is the most expensive film Netflix has produced as of 2017. The film, directed by David Ayers (Suicide Squad) and written by Max Landis (Chronicle) was met with widespread critical condemnation, with some critics calling it the worst film of 2017. Additionally, the film was the subject of mockery online as well as debates over the film's racial subtext. Bright also served to raise awareness about Landis' sexual assault allegations.

History

On March 2nd, 2016, Deadline^[1] reported that David Ayer, who had then recently completed Suicide Squad, would be re-teaming with his Squad star Will Smith on Bright "a contemporary cop thriller, but with fantastical elements." Two week later, the film was purchased by Netflix, paying $3 million for the script by Max Landis, and giving the film a $90 million budget, the companies largest budget to date.^[2] Production on the film took place between November 2016 and February 2017.^[3]

Five months later, on July 20th, Netflix uploaded the official trailer for Bright to YouTube, ^[4] revealing some of the plot and co-star Joel Edgerton's orc makeup. The video (shown below) received more than 6.4 million views in five months.

Bright premiered at the Recency Village Theater in Los Angeles, California on December 13th, 2017. Netflix released the film on their online platform on December 22nd, 2017.

Reception

Bright received mostly negative reviews upon release. Review aggregate Metacritic^[5] rated the film a 29 out of 100 (based on 26 critics), and Rotten Tomatoes ^[6] rated the film "Rotten" with a score of 27% based on 67 reviews. In their consensus, the website published, "Bright tries to blend fantasy, hard-hitting cop drama, and social commentary -- and ends up falling painfully short of the mark on all three fronts."

On December 20th, film critic David Ehrlich tweeted,^[7] "BRIGHT, Netflix’s first mega-budget feature, is the single worst movie of 2017." The post (shown below, left) received more than 1,100 retweets and 3,400 likes in less than one week.

Ayer responded to the critic, tweeting, "This is going on my fridge. Highest compliment is a strong reaction either way. This is a f*cking epic review. It’s a big fun movie. You can sure string words together Mr. Erlich. I’d love to read any script you’ve written." His tweet (shown below, center) received more than 460 retweets and 2,700 likes in less than one week. Ehrlich responded (shown below, right, "you’re a good man, mr. Ayer. i'll be waiting with fresh eyes for whatever comes next."

Allegations of Sexual Assault

On December 23rd, the Daily Beast^[13] reported on a series of tweets alleging that Bright's screenwriter Max Landis of sexual assault. The article points to a number of tweets made by women in Hollywood saying or alluding to Landis' history of sexual assault. Actor Anna Akana tweeted^[10] (shown below, left) in response to Netflix tweeting about Bright with "Written by a psychopath who sexually abused and assaults women, right? Cool."

Video game developer Zoe Quinn also tweeted a number of responses, claiming that Landis' allegations were an "open secret" in Hollywood. She tweeted (shown below, center), "I’ve been holding in this shit for years as more friends have accrued “max landis stories” bc it wasn’t my place and him & his dad are powerful figures so naturally going against that is terrifying for survivors so I’m SO glad people are finding out what a piece of shit he is."

Actor Siobhan Thompson responded to a thread that cryptically referred to Landis' reputation and alleged that Landis sexually assault several of her friends. She tweeted,^[12] "I don't know who you mean but if that's true I bet I have SEVERAL friends who have been sexually assaulted by him."

As of December 28th, 2017, Landis has yet to respond to the allegations.

Criticism of Racial Politics

On December 26th, recording artist Chance the Rapper tweeted^[14] a number of criticisms regarding Bright's racial politics. In the most widely shared tweet, he wrote, "I always feel a lil cheated when I see allegorical racism in movies cause that racism usually stems from human emotion or tolerance but not by law or systems the way it is in real life. The characters in #Bright live in a timeline where racism is gone… cause we hate ork now." The post (shown below) received more than 4,200 retweets and 25,000 likes in two days.

Twitter^[15] published a Moments page, archiving all of Chance the Rapper's thoughts on the movie.

Fandom

On December 13th, 2016, the Twitter^[16] handle @BrightNetflix launched. Within one year, it had garnered more than 9,200 followers. The Facebook ^[17] page for Bright launched on February 26th, 2017, and has received more than 266,000 likes and 275,000 followers in less than one year.

Related Memes

Orc Cop

Orc Cop refers to a sarcastic title many online gave to Bright. Online, people would dismissively refer to the film as "orc cop." The title became so widespread that even Netflix used the expression. On December 23rd, they tweeted,^[18] "[whispering to date while watching the orc cop movie when the orc cop first appears on the screen] That's the orc cop." The post (shown below) received more than 890 retweets and 8,000 likes in one week.

Search Interest

External References