Netflix’s sci-fi action thriller Bright may not have been met with many positive reviews, but it was a huge success for the streaming giant. A record number of viewers watched the movie, and there is a sequel on the way. The producers and stars have been quick to defend it too–following comments in January by Netflix CEO Rex Hastings, star Joel Edgerton has commented on the critical response.
In an interview with Collider, Edgerton blamed some of the negativity on the fact that Netflix is disrupting the way the films are released. “I think there was a little bit of extra critical hate towards it because it’s changing the landscape of the movie business,” he said. “But I think Bright is maybe a movie that needs to be reviewed by public opinion rather than viewed through the highbrow prism of film criticism.”
Edgerton went on to compare the film to Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which was well received by critics but found a more mixed reaction amongst fans. “According to [Netflix], the numbers were there”, he said. “And I think that would be supported by the wild discrepancy between the audience score and the Rotten Tomatoes aggregate score, it’s almost the inverse of Star Wars [The Last Jedi]. You’ve got critics at 93 or 92%, and the audience gave it a 50-something, and you get to Bright, which is sort of slammed by critics, but it has a 90% audience score.”
Neverthless, Edgerton did state that the filmmakers would listen to criticism when making the follow-up. “[Whether] it’s the filmmakers or Netflix or any of us, [we can] learn from the response to the movie–and I’m talking about the negative responses to the movie and what people out there on the street loved about the movie,” he said. “I think if you take all that information, it puts you in a nice spot to make a second and maybe a third movie. It’s always worth listening to the fans and the good and bad responses to it.”
It has been confirmed that Edgerton and co-star Will Smith are returning for the Bright sequel, as well as director David Ayer. Writer Max Landis is however not coming back, so Ayer will handle script-writing duties himself. The movie currently has no confirmed release date. Click here to find out how GameSpot thinks Bright 2 could be a much better film than the original.
