After releasing 50 movies in 2017, Netflix plans on releasing 80 original films next year, which is a lot. There were just 93 wide studio releases in 2016—total. As you can imagine, to get to those very high numbers, Netflix is putting out some truly weird and random things. If you mad-libbed a movie plot right now, there would be a 50-50 chance Netflix already has something like it in motion. Still, the fact there’s a Will Smith police drama set in an alternate-reality Los Angeles where orcs and fairies roam the streets coming out in December is … bonkers.
The second trailer for Bright, from Suicide Squad director David Ayer, definitely has a Suicide Squad–esque vibe: It’s literally very dark, there’s a ton of chaotic gunfire, and Smith is always equipped with an old-fashioned zinger to throw at his orc partner, Jakoby (played by Joel Edgerton, in what looks like an unbearable amount of prosthetics). There’s talk of a “magic wand”—no name, just a wand that’s magic and “grants wishes”—and the task of protecting it (and presumably saving the world) appears to be up to this human-orc police duo. It’s a basic fantasy story, with some buddy cop tropes thrown in—imagine if Bad Boys took place in Middle Earth.
Bright looks like good, silly fun, the kind of movie you might stumble upon and enjoy but would never go to the theater to see. Of course, we’ve been burned by Ayer before—Suicide Squad looked awesome in trailers, but was an incoherent, lifeless mess. At least if Bright is a dud, there’ll be 80 more Netflix movies to choose from next year.
