Set in our normal world human's live alongside mystical creatures such as orcs and elves. Our story is around two cops, one human Daryl Ward and one orc Nick Jakoby who end up in a battle for a weapon which many are willing to kill for!
Let's face it Netflix have been pushing this one for many months, I'd like to even say from the summer? With the trailer and it being featured now at the top when you first sign in. Probably the biggest film they have produced so far with Will Smith being such a huge name. I have therefore found myself very interested in this film especially considering it features orcs and elves, total Lord of the Rings geek here! That is pretty much how Will Smith described the film on the Graham Norton Show, Lord of the Rings meets Training Day. Which I think is a pretty bold statement but pretty true as well.
The overall reaction to the film has been very poor and pretty bad, I don't really get why I was pretty much liked it. I thought it was a daunting idea and a very interesting concept to have different creatures in the current world.
It is not easy for Nick at all he isn't accepted by the humans and not by the other orcs either. You cannot help but feel sorry for him when he feels being a cop is the only way he can actually make a difference and have a better life. Daryl is not happy about having him as a partner but cannot get it changed no matter how hard he tries.
One night then when on a routine job everything will have when a Bright appears and the wand is then the focus of all different groups and people. The thing is the film has a very high proportion of it is actually addressing racism in a rather different way than we have seen before. Each of the different races keep to the groups and that is why Nick is breaking boundaries by being a cop with the humans. The elves pretty much rule this world and have the most money.I did think the soundtrack was very good and fit in well with the action that was happening on-screen. We got quite a few action sequences which were decent.
The main issue or issues I had with the film though was that I didn't really get enough understanding of the wand and how the ownership worked from the elf. I think as a viewer we aren't given enough background of this and it just falls off a bit with that. Whilst the concepts around the world with the different species is very interesting this does make it rather difficult at times when we don't have much of a back story or understanding about the different groups then within the species.
Smith and Edgerton worked very well togehter and managed to created some humour alone with the seriousness of the chracters. Overall though I thought it was a daring film which could have offered a lot more and a sequel has already been ordered so it will be interesting to see if we get a series of these films and gain more understanding of this new world.