It’s official – Bright is getting a sequel.
But will Netflix eventually come to regret it?
It’s no secret that Bright is an odd movie. A mashup between fantasy and buddy cop movie, Bright promises to be a rather unique experience. Starring Will Smith as a beat cop alongside Joel Edgerton as his orc partner (yes, really), Bright certainly doesn’t shy away from trying something new.
But the critics aren’t exactly loving it.
A slew of early press reviews dropped yesterday… and it’s not looking good.
“There’s boring, there’s bad, and then there’s ‘Bright’,” said IndieWire critic David Ehrlich. “[It’s] a movie so profoundly awful that Republicans will probably try to pass it into law over Christmas break. From the director of ‘Suicide Squad’ and the writer of ‘Victor Frankenstein’ comes a fresh slice of hell that somehow represents new lows for them both – a dull and painfully derivative ordeal that often feels like it was made just to put those earlier misfires into perspective.”
Ouch. And he’s not the only one who didn’t like it.
Bright currently holds a 32% rating at RottenTomatoes, despite extraordinarily high levels of audience anticipation. Not exactly encouraging – especially as the film hasn’t appeared online just yet, and so general audiences still haven’t seen the movie.
But weirdly, that hasn’t stopped Netflix from green lighting a sequel.
It’s an ambitious project for Netflix – the first of the studio’s mega-budget movies, costing a whopping $90 million to make. And with a host of Hollywood names appearing in Bright, it seems as though Netflix was banking on this one to be a big hit.
Sure, it could still impress the general Netflix audience.
After all, they’re likely more willing to give this high-concept flick a chance since they’re not forking out a full ticket price to see it. But I personally have some doubts. It’s an interesting idea, but it all depends how well that translates to the screen.
And so far, the critics don’t exactly give us much hope.
Either way, a sequel is coming.
But whether or not anyone will want to see it after watching Bright is another matter entirely.
Bright stars Will Smith and Joel Edgerton, as well as Noomi Rapace, Lucy Fry, Edgar Ramirez, Margaret Cho, and Ike Barinholtz.
David Ayer directed the movie, based on a script by Max Landis.
Bright heads to Netflix on 22 December 2017.
