Bright, is a new movie starring Will Smith, released by Netflix on Dec. 22, 2017.

Bright was a decent movie but it carried a very complicated story line which just adds more complications to an already awkward premise.

Plot Spoiler

In this movie, Orcs, Elves, and even Fairies live among all of us, in the same world and in our same timeline. The Orcs live in Orc Ghettos, while the elves live in super rich, downtown skyscrapers. The movie picks up this story line just as the first Orc is becoming a city police officer, with Will Smith as a partner.

Awkward

The Orc in the Police uniform definitely felt Awkward to me but that is not the entire extent.

I have played a lot of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) in my life and I am still a huge Lord of the Rings fan. So I feel highly knowledgeable in the topics of Orcs and Elves, which is where the awkwardness come into play for me.

Bright's story line tried to focus on racism and how people are treated based on their looks, or the way people of the same race behaved in the past. While this is a very noble topic, I found it very difficult to identify with based on my strong D&D background.

All racism aside, to me... The only good Orc, is a dead Orc.

Orcs

Orcs are not intended to be friends with humans in any way shape or form, and in my D&D world, we made damn sure Orcs and Humans would never, ever be friends. Even the concept of a half-orc is taken very seriously where I come from.

A half orc is the result of an orc and a human having sex. Which is an appalling thought, but it is supposed to be appalling. Orcs are creatures of evil, ascending only from the darkest magic. Heck, even in Lord of the Rings, Orcs were created by torturing an Elf for thousands of years. These creatures cannot be reasoned with, they will not play along and try to fit in. They are essentially the physical embodiment of demons and they have absolutely no interest in anything other than crushing human skulls.

Therefore, seeing an Orc as a good guy, or as something that doesn't want to eat Humans is tough for me to get over. It would be like creating a story where the leader of North Korea becomes a cop in the US. This just would not happen and is simply un-imaginable.

Elves

The concept of Elves went through quite a change too. To me, the reason that elves are so cool, also makes them a bit creepy, which is that Elves are immortal and will never die of old age.

This means that many Elves are very old, sometimes even thousands of years old. The lapse of so much time changes the way Elves think and behave. To an Elf who has been alive for 3000 years, the entire life span of a typical Orc is nothing but a cat nap. The Elves in Lord of the Rings displayed these traits better.

In the scene above, the Wood Elf Queen has been alive for many thousands of years. The knowledge she has collected in that time seems like magic to everyone else but to her, it is common practice. I absolutely love how creepy she is, any person who is 3000 years old or more is probably going to be a bit strange acting. Again, the lifespan of Frodo is next to nothing for her.

So my point is that Elves don't act like Humans, or Orcs. Elves are still pretty creepy because they have seen a lot more than anyone else. This is why they walk around with their nose in the air, almost as if they are Gods.

My Review

This was a fine Will Smith movie, similar to what we have all come to expect. The movie paced right along side so many of Smith's previous action/fantasy movies, so it was pretty easy to watch and carried many of the qualities we love.

I liked the movie, I really did.

However, I just thought it was funny looking at it from my perspective.