Netflix's Bright Failed its Female Characters

David Ayer’s latest feature, Bright, written by controversial screenwriter Max Landis, has been dubbed one of the worst films of the year by a number of critics. And while there are certainly some bright spots (pun intended), the film ultimately fails to succeed on more than a few fronts. Perhaps the most shocking, however, is the film’s inability to properly make use of its female characters.

Bright tells the story of a cop named Daryl Ward (Will Smith) and an Orc named Nick Jakoby (Joel Edgerton) as they learn to work together in a world full of racial tensions between humans, Orcs, fairies and Elves. Jakoby, who has joined the force as a diversity hire, simply wants to be a cop. However, Ward is struggling to come to terms with his partner being an Orc when he's shot by an unknown Orc while waiting on his partner. It's this opening that brings us to our first female character in Bright, Ward's wife, Sherri, played by actress Dawn Olivieri.

Olivieri's character's screen time can't be more than fifteen minutes max in Bright, because her character essentially exists to try and prevent Ward from working not only on the force, but alongside Jakoby, for fear that she'll lose him. With the film taking place over the course of a day, Sherri seemingly disappears until the very end, at which point she returns with absolutely no dialogue. There's no character growth, nothing showing that she's overcome the hatred of Orcs after one came to the rescue of her husband. Nothing.

But Sherri's lack of character growth and development is nothing when compared to both Leilah, played by the wonderful Noomi Rapace, and Tikka, played by Lucy Fry, the two central female characters throughout Bright.

Page 2: [valnet-url-page page=2 paginated=0 text='Bright%3A%20But%20Wait%2C%20It%20Gets%20Worse...']

Rapace’s Leilah should have been a force to be reckoned with as the key villain throughout the film. But with hardly any dialogue and the lack of true character development, Leilah (as well as her sister Tikka) serve as nothing more than a plot point. They're meant to develop Smith’s Ward and help him discover that he’s one of the rare humans that is able to wield a magic wand, aka a Bright.

Sure, when Leilah is (finally) introduced, the film makes sure viewers are wary of her and what she's capable of. However, rather than developing Leilah further -- think Hela in Thor: Ragnarok -- Bright's script chooses to focus more on her action scenes than any sense of character development. We know that she wants her wand back from Tikka, and that she seeks to rise the Dark Lord. But that's essentially all we come to know regarding the character over the course of the entire film. To put it mildly, that's rather unfortunate. For character who is so central to the story, for Leilah's development to seemingly be pushed aside to further the likes of the secondary male villains Dorghu (Brad William Henke) and Poison (Enrique Murciano) is a genuine shame.

The treatment of Leilah's character is, unfortunately, not the worst the movie has to offer. Fry's Tikka is introduced to us when Ward and Jakoby respond to a call at what looks to be a sketchy warehouse full of burning corpses. There are signs throughout that magic is involved, indicating that a Bright is on site. And yet, instead of focusing on that, the film chooses instead to present Tikka as a scared, spazzed out Elf who is in need of protection of the cops.

All we know about her is that she seeks to protect the wand from a larger evil, and is scared of pretty much everything. The only moment where her character is given any chance to shine is when Tikka helps to bring Jakoby back from the dead with her wand, proving that she is, in fact, a Bright. But the moment is short-lived, as she's immediately returned to serving as a mere plot point in Ward's story, helping to bring him back to the location from the earlier call where it's revealed that he is also a Bright.

At a time when fans are eager to see more female-led projects in Hollywood and Wonder Woman has proven women are just as capable of leading a franchise, it's surprising to see a film seemingly ignore all of that and instead treat the female characters as afterthoughts.

Despite the critical backlash, Netflix has already announced plans for a sequel. While little is known regarding the proposed follow-up, one can only hope those involved with the project will take the time to offer fully developed female characters. Perhaps even advancing Tikka’s story and allowing her to become something more than the spooked Elf Ward and Jakoby have to protect.

Directed by David Ayer from a script by Max Landis and starring Will Smith, Bright is now streaming on Netflix.