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 Galas wrote:
Maybe is because here in Spain we don't have that political enviroment, but I had 0 problems with the lockeroom scene. In this kind of fantasy settings I don't separate humans. If a human is being racist, is just reflecting a racist human, it doesn't matter his skin colour when you have orcs, centaurs, elfs, etc...
The female officer was assian, and racist towards the orc too. And she was the only assian in the movie that I noticed. Everyone was racist towards the orc, even Will Smith during the first half of the movie.

The convenience store guy was also Asian.

Federal Magic men were white - I don't recall them speaking or acting in a racist way.

I think the elf fed was more hispanic looking than just "white" - even the elves had a few skin tones. The bearded fed was white, though.

One of the elves was asian (the same actress who played "Paige Tico, Rose's sister in TLJ).

 chromedog wrote:
I think the elf fed was more hispanic looking than just "white" - even the elves had a few skin tones. The bearded fed was white, though.

One of the elves was asian (the same actress who played "Paige Tico, Rose's sister in TLJ).

The elf fed looked more hispanic because he is a venezuelan actor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89dgar_Ram%C3%ADrez
But to be honest, in Spain someone like him would be considered white.

 Frazzled wrote:
Will Smith attracts a lot of negative reviews at this point as well.

I never understood this...

Will Smith's movies never disappointed me.

 whembly wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:
Will Smith attracts a lot of negative reviews at this point as well.

I never understood this...

Will Smith's movies never disappointed me.

I cannot say that every Will Smith movie has been enjoyable or as good as his peak performance in the blockbuster hit Wild Wild West. But I do not hear Will Smith and think "dear god that film is ruined!"

Only real Will Smith stinker I can think of is that sci-fi one with his kid where he was the man without fear, or apparently any other emotion. I thought his performance in that one was particularly poor.

Best part is it inspired my buddy to GM again in a Savage Worlds modern fantasy setting, where we are beat cops shifted onto a new anti-magic task force.

I'm having a fine old time as the department's only pixie, who in our first session being the size of a Ken doll was a point of humor among our group.....until some members from a rogue militant group with machineguns took cover behind a vehicle, and I realized I could simply fly under it and begin shooting them in the ankles with my teensy-weensy bow shooting these cute little arrows....tipped with the horrendously incapacitating pixie poison that I gave myself as a racial trait at character creation.

 AduroT wrote:
Only real Will Smith stinker I can think of is that sci-fi one with his kid where he was the man without fear, or apparently any other emotion. I thought his performance in that one was particularly poor.

Shark Tales aged poorly now, and Seven Pounds was awful. Though that one was just more of a personal dislike since I'm not sure how well it sold.

I don’t get the will smith hate either. I don’t love all of his movies but most of the time he does a good job. There’s definitely a lot worse leading men in Hollywood that somehow keep getting parts.

I think Will Smith has been in quite a lot of bad movies, without necessarily being bad in them. Suicide Squad, Hitch, I Am Legend, Focus, Collateral Beauty, After Earth, Hancock etc etc. Not all complete Turkeys, but I'd say his hit rate is down towards 50/50 in terms of quality, which isn't great for a supposed A list lead actor.

Plus there's "a touch of the Cruise" about him, it may just be my natural British cynicism, but there's something a little false about him whenever I see him being himself on camera that just makes me think there's skeletons littered in a variety of closets all over the place.

My god, I love Hancock, corny as it is.

 AegisGrimm wrote:
My god, I love Hancock, corny as it is.

Me too bro....

Maybe it's because I have a man-crush on him.

Also Charlize Theron doesn't hurt either...

 Azreal13 wrote:
I think Will Smith has been in quite a lot of bad movies, without necessarily being bad in them. Suicide Squad, Hitch, I Am Legend, Focus, Collateral Beauty, After Earth, Hancock etc etc. Not all complete Turkeys, but I'd say his hit rate is down towards 50/50 in terms of quality, which isn't great for a supposed A list lead actor.

Plus there's "a touch of the Cruise" about him, it may just be my natural British cynicism, but there's something a little false about him whenever I see him being himself on camera that just makes me think there's skeletons littered in a variety of closets all over the place.

Pretty much my take on him, I think he's moved beyond 'actor' into 'brand', so long as you don't expect anything other than 'hell no' Smith he can put in passable 3 star turns

He's like the black Sean Connery - no matter what film he's in, he always plays Will Smith. That works sometimes, and not so well at others.

Although Sir Sean did that during his film career. IIRC. He's still playing himself in the Bond films, but that was the first thing anyone remembers him from, so that's OK. With Mr Smith, he made his name in TV, so when Independence Day came around, he was playing the Fresh Prince of Area 51.

He absolutely did not play “Will Smith” in After Earth, and his performance in that movie was particularly poor. I did quite enjoy Hancock though, even I Am Legend.

 AduroT wrote:
He absolutely did not play “Will Smith” in After Earth, and his performance in that movie was particularly poor. I did quite enjoy Hancock though, even I Am Legend.

sadly like a lot of Shyamalan output there was a half decent film fighting to get out but for some reason his idiosyncratic fupwittery always derails proceedings

 Turnip Jedi wrote:

 AduroT wrote:
He absolutely did not play “Will Smith” in After Earth, and his performance in that movie was particularly poor. I did quite enjoy Hancock though, even I Am Legend.

sadly like a lot of Shyamalan output there was a half decent film fighting to get out but for some reason his idiosyncratic fupwittery always derails proceedings

Had a chuckle at that description...

Imma steal that!

Also, news on Bright front, via twitter (that I can't find atm), there are discussions of a Bright series too. Not sure if it's a spinoff or continuation of this movie's characters.

I could stand to watch a few episodes of a Sarcastic Ginger Fed & Prim Elvish Fed cop series, or something along those lines. The Magic Task Force would be a good vehicle for exploring the setting.

I don’t know that MTF would work for the setting since magic is apparently rare in day to day life and their whole thing is seeking it out.

 AduroT wrote:
I don’t know that MTF would work for the setting since magic is apparently rare in day to day life and their whole thing is seeking it out.

Its not just magic. It seems they deal with cults like the Inferni and the Shield of Light as well, who are looking for magic and might find it.
Not to mention that there could be incidents that might be seen as magical, but have completely mundane reasons behind them. The vatican would do that with miracles; if they hear talk of a miracle, the church would send down some priests to see if God is really behind it.

Wife, Daughter and I watched it last night. We all enjoyed it.

The Racism sub-text was about as subtle as the Oscar Movie of the Year Award Winning film Crash. However, it hit all the right notes for a urban, buddy cop movie in a Tolkeinesque setting. Overall, a competently done film which many genre movies can not pull off.

The only wierd part for me was the initial "Shield of Light" guy, what his role was, and why it was in the film. It seemed like an excuse to shoehorn in exposition. However, the grafitti in the credits was an inspired way to tell and share backstory and immerse you in the setting.

I agree, the ending was a bit klunky but overall it did what it needed to do. Another pass through the script and possibly some different editting was needed.

I would watch it again.

 Necros wrote:
Watched it this weekend, really enjoyed it. Agree the story itself wasn't the greatest, but really would love sequels and/or a series to expand upon the world. They gave a nice amount of background fluff and I wanna see more.

I was sad that I didn't see any dwarves, and I totally missed the Centaur cop, so now I have to watch it again.

My girlfriend had a hard time following what was going on at first, till I told her "It's lord of the rings only it takes place now instead of 1000 years ago" and then she got it. She didn't like the fairy bashing though, she thought it was mean.

Switch “girlfriend” to “wife” and remove the bit about missing the Centaur, and this is spot on to how my experience with it went. I felt it was the lovechild of LotR and Underworld. The racist tones were pretty powerful, and I thought the movie was great. My wife was PISSED at the fairy bashing though.

Watched it in dribs and drabs this weekend when my tiny people weren't bothering me but I enjoyed it. It's not going to win any awards but I really dig the world they built. Will Smith was fine in it. I'm interested in the sequel but I think I'd be even more interested in a spin off series that didn't focus on the cops and could grow the world.

I thought it was so-so. I liked the concept very much, but I thought they could have been a little more creative with how orcs and elves were represented beyond urban African-American/Latino equivalents and rich people.

Random thought:



.... his bullets can be seen in the backgroudn sparking and such. Do you think that the LAPD in this world are using Explosive ammo ala Shadowrun to deal with the tougher exteriors of the Orcs

Also I love the line where the one cop says, "My ancestors in Russia were killing Orcs by the hundreds" Great throw away line that added a lot of depth to the character and the world.

 Easy E wrote:
Random thought:

Spoiler:

In the scene where Will's character is shooting at the corrupt cops

.... his bullets can be seen in the backgroudn sparking and such. Do you think that the LAPD in this world are using Explosive ammo ala Shadowrun to deal with the tougher exteriors of the Orcs

Also I love the line where the one cop says, "My ancestors in Russia were killing Orcs by the hundreds" Great throw away line that added a lot of depth to the character and the world.

 timetowaste85 wrote:


Switch “girlfriend” to “wife” and remove the bit about missing the Centaur, and this is spot on to how my experience with it went. I felt it was the lovechild of LotR and Underworld. The racist tones were pretty powerful, and I thought the movie was great. My wife was PISSED at the fairy bashing though.

Better not show her Lady Cottington's book of pressed fairies then.
https://www.amazon.com/Lady-Cottingtons-Pressed-Fairy-Book/dp/1857933362
A few of the faeries in that book were caught by slamming the book closed on them. They looked much like the broomed faerie.

Yes, that is THE same Brian Froud who did so much design work for both The Dark Crystal AND Labyrinth (and the other guy is from Monty Python).

I thought that line was amusing ("Today, faerie lives DO NOT matter." ).

It has a sequel greenlit.