Geek Culture
Orc Training Day: A Review of Netflix’s Bright
Bright is Netflix’s newest and most ambitious title to date, it melds a gritty buddy cop genre with high fantasy similar to the worlds of Lord of the Rings and Warcraft. This in itself is enough reason to take interest in Bright, such an ambitiously different idea could never go wrong. Well, it goes very wrong because the film is just plain bad. David Ayer (Suicide Squad) is at the Helm of the film and he teams up once again with superstar Will Smith. Smith plays a LAPD cop named Daryl Ward and he is partnered with Nick Jakoby, an Orc portrayed by the fantastic Joel Edgerton (Warrior). The film’s screenplay was written by Max Landis (Chronicle).
These two mega talents go to waste as the film is a messy take on a buddy cop action-adventure flick. One immediate problem with the film is there is virtually no world-building, as we get dropped into this cool, alternate fantasy version of Los Angeles with no real back story on events prior. All we know going into the film is there was a war between Orcs and humans two thousand years ago, and humans are belligerently racist towards them because of this old conflict.
Of course the film has elves as well, and they are considered the top of the race ladder, the rich Caucasian demographic of Bright’s version of America. Orcs, including Jakoby are treated like scum by the humans and especially Elves. The movie tries to force the topic of racism in many ways and I like that it has this theme throughout but it just doesn’t work when the writing is this poor and that it can’t be taken seriously.
Bright has an identity issue, it wants to be a gritty drama at times, but slips into bad buddy cop comedy territory with its cringe-worthy dialogue between Smith and Edgerton. None of the films elements mix together which causes an absolute mess. The villains are another issue I have with the movie, they keep throwing them into the film with no real indication of who they are or their motive. They just plant a random bad guy in places and let the bad writing and over-use on slo-mo shots try to carry the scenes.
The main antagonist in the film is a cool looking, yet shallow elven woman named Leilah (Noomi Papace) who is after a special magic wand so she can bring back the “Dark Lord”, in which we never get much information on who this evil lord is. The film is about keeping a magic wand away from the hands of evil which is a been there, done that situation. For a film that has such a unique premise, there is actually nothing special or different about the actual plot. It is mundane and boring to its core, which is a shame because the world they created for the film is interesting in many ways.
One positive from this film are its visuals, which is has become a staple in Ayer’s films. The makeup/costume design is top notch and the visual effects during some of these action scenes are done well. It has the same visual grit that Ayer movies are known for while mixing it with fun magical effects that truly pop out.
To put it simply, Bright is an ambitious $90 million disappointment. David Ayer and Will Smith teamed up again and made a movie that is sometimes worse than the Disaster that was Suicide Squad but here it is. Despite the well-made visuals, there is still much wrong with the film as it lets talent go to waste with its bad writing and poor use of character.
The never-ending saga surrounding Microsoft’s proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard has a new participant. Today, Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from the state of Washington, said some things about the subject that were hard to understand.
The senator, whose remarks were reported on by ResetEra, spoke at a Senate finance committee hearing on “the president’s 2023 Trade Policy Plan,” which we are sure was quite interesting.
Senator Cantwell said that she had been told that Sony “controls a monopoly of 98% of the high-end game market” despite the fact that “Japan’s government has allowed Sony to engage in blatant anti-competitive conduct through exclusive deals and payments to game publishers, establishing games that are among the most popular in Japan.”
This 98% statistic is highly deceptive because it ignores PC, Nintendo, and mobile games and instead refers to Sony’s adoption rate over Microsoft in Sony’s native country of Japan, a fact that shouldn’t surprise anyone who is even somewhat familiar with the video game business.
What can we do to rectify these problems and create a level playing field, she said of US Trade Representative Katherine Tai after charging Japan’s Federal Trade Commission with improperly failing to look into this purported “exclusionary conduct”?
It is absurd to claim that Sony has a monopoly on the Japanese video game market, as Luke Plunkett of Kotaku correctly points out, “because Sony doesn’t even have a 98% share of the market for the God of War series, a title they own, as Steam is getting 30% of every sale on PC.”
It goes without saying that we can’t expect elected officials to be experts in every field, but this is a visible step at a time when the ongoing attempt to buy the company is at a very important point.
Is it significant that Microsoft, along with Nintendo, maintains its headquarters in Redmond, Washington—Senator Cantwell’s district—or that Microsoft has given Cantwell more than $500,000 over the past two decades? Let us leave that up to you.
Pizza Possum is an arcade action game in which you, a possum, attempt to consume as much trash as you can without being discovered. It is a web-based sequel to the anarchy simulator Untitled Goose Game.It will eventually be available on the PS5.
We couldn’t help but notice that the possum in the title doesn’t look like the cute Australian possum that comes out at night to visit people.On the other hand, it looks like the horrible North American opossums are the ones that will attack trash cans and cause general chaos.Even though we think the second choice was better in terms of theme, we prefer the first one and are happy to explain why.
Your thoughts on Pizza Possum? Does it possess the necessary mass appeal to successfully skitter along the back fenceline while setting the dog off in the process?
Resident Evil 4 is now out, and the excellent remake can be bought right away.Even though you probably plan to play it all this weekend, you can take comfort in the fact that The Mercenaries, Resident Evil’s almost-required challenge mode, will be available as free DLC on April 7.
The mode’s exact details are still unknown, but if it’s anything like previous versions, you can expect some pretty hard tasks to test your skills.
You’re stumped about something? If you are still debating whether to purchase Resident Evil 4 Remake, be sure to look at our exhaustive guide for the answer or our in-depth review. Are you spending this weekend playing Resident Evil 4? Are you anticipating The Mercenaries?
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