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How Bright could've been a better movie [spoilers]

CLG ear·2/8/2018, 4:23:08 PM·1 votes·232 views

TL;DR - Copy End of Watch and add Orcs

While I don't know what Max Landis's original script was, seeing as he said that they made numerous changes after he had finished the screenplay, what we got wasn't a very good movie; though I enjoyed watching it. It could've been a lot better, and these are my ideas as to how it could've been improved.

  1. Scale Down the Story -- Two Street Cops, One human one Orc, was fine by itself. There was no need for the evil elf lady; magic wand that can destroy the planet, or cops on the run for murdering corrupt cops and running from Mexican and Orc gangs. The story should've just been an average day (or days) of a human cop and orc cop working patrol. You can have a magic wand, but make it just a normal weapon that they'd have to file into evidence.

  2. Remove the Racism Allegory -- Having lowborn fantasy races as a representative of blacks in America is tired and played out. It would've actually been refreshing if all of the races had similar backgrounds and / or jobs: e.g. Not all Elves are rich and stuck up; some you'd find working at mcDonalds; Some Orcs could be wealthy; etc. Also more races. You might've seen a Centaur one time throughout the movie, but the main fantasy races were Orcs and Elves. Maybe add some Trolls or Ogres, and the Ogres are primarily construction workers and / or linebackers in football.

  3. Expand on the main characters' lives a lot more -- We learn a little about Will Smith's character: He has a wife and kid and wants to sell his house because he can't afford it? But, what do we learn about Jakoby? He had a father. That's it. We don't know if he too has a wife and kids, where he lives, what he does in his spare time; or anything. They need to spend more time with the characters and Jakoby and Ward need to be more friendly with one another. We don't know how long they've been partners, but it's probably been for a good amount of time, you'd think Ward would've gotten over riding with an Orc who seems like a good cop himself. Also, don't have Ward have animosity towards Jakoby because it was stupid anyway. Let's see what Jakoby's life is like outside of the force, and have Ward interact more with his family too.

  4. No music -- Remove the music unless the scene calls for it, i.e. some thug is listening to rap music. This would give the movie a more Documentary feel to it, as there's no stupid pop hip-hop garbage music throughout.

That's all I can think of right now.

3 Comments

Jo0o2/8/2018, 5:01:46 PM1 votes

I was fine with the racial comparisons, though they were frequently very heavy-handed. I actually really liked the first act of the film, with a world similar to ours but clearly developed from what once looked something like Middle Earth, a hinted-at past that may become relevant to the present, and an intriguing society to explore. But as soon as Will Smith shot those cops, everything became a forgettable mess of repetitive shoot-outs, stupid magical plot contrivances, and incredibly one-note characters.

I'd have really enjoyed a show, rather than a movie, following the two main characters and without any focus on the magic wand, conspiracy, etc. Fantasy worlds often bug me with how stagnant society and technology tend to be. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but the only real difference between the first age and third age in the Lord of the Rings universe is slightly bigger towers and cooler rings. I was excited to experience a story where elves, orcs, and humans actually progressed to the point of living in a modern world, and I wish we had explored the nuances of that more.

Also, Will Smith as the Chosen One/Bright was fucking stupid. Will Smith doesn't have to be the ubermensch in everything he's ever in, damn. If they had to do the magic wand story, I'd have been much more satisfied with it if the Orc had actually been the one to turn out to be a Bright. It would make him a much more layered character, and let Will Smith play second fiddle for once in his damn life. Hell, I wonder if there was an earlier draft where that happened, but they had to change it around when Will Smith got attached to the project.