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emma_in_dreamI watched the Netlix movie *Bright* last week and I feel it was underserved by its reviews. It is by no means perfect – the plot is just an endless repetition of the same string of violence – but it is an interesting attempt to bring the genre of urban fantasy to film.
The reviewers all seemed to fundamentally misunderstand what genre they were watching. I found reviews that were essentially: ‘Why is this not *The Lord of the Rings*? If there are elves, where are the mountains? Where are the stately palaces and forests? Why is there rap music? Why am I seeing graffiti?’ And there was another school of reviews that also wanted it to be something else: ‘Why is this fiction? Why are we using the thin veil of orcs being black Americans? I want a Black Lives Matter documentary!’
The reviewers all seemed to fundamentally misunderstand what genre they were watching. I found reviews that were essentially: ‘Why is this not *The Lord of the Rings*? If there are elves, where are the mountains? Where are the stately palaces and forests? Why is there rap music? Why am I seeing graffiti?’ And there was another school of reviews that also wanted it to be something else: ‘Why is this fiction? Why are we using the thin veil of orcs being black Americans? I want a Black Lives Matter documentary!’
