We've rounded up the best critic slams of Smith and the fantasy-action feature directed by David Ayer and written by Max Landis, which begins streaming Friday.
Forbes:
"Congratulations, Netflix! You can make a visually grotesque, dreadfully dull and hopelessly convoluted would-be franchise action movie just as well as the stereotypical Hollywood machine! If anything, Bright is a giant Christmas/Hanukkah gift from Netflix to the major studios. It shows the streaming giant falling on its face in its attempts to replicate the so-called Hollywood blockbuster."
Cinemablend:
"The problem is that this richly-constructed world often comes at the expense of characters ... Will Smith is more or less on autopilot, doing what everyone pretty much expects from a Will Smith action movie these days. In fact, if the name 'Ward' wasn't directly printed on the uniform of Smith's character, we would've just assumed that we were looking at Suicide Squad's Floyd Lawton."
IndieWire:
A movie that "boasts all the production value of an episode of Charmed, Netflix’s first mega-budget film effort starts with a potentially compelling premise that never gets off the ground."
Rolling Stone:
"You'll get lots of violence and colorful threats and confusing shoot-outs, but you're not going to get much meaning."
The Wrap:
"Astoundingly bad in virtually every way, Bright shares in common several of the shortcomings of Ayer’s previous film, including conspicuous evidence of desperate efforts to cobble its under-explained and yet somehow overcomplicated mythology into something coherent."
And: "Smith seems lost here as Daryl, even as he retreads his wiseacre pose from films like Independence Day and especially Men in Black."
The New York Times:
"(Ayer) strayed into empty superhero theatrics with the slapdash Suicide Squad (co-starring Mr. Smith) and again dilutes his integrity with Mr. Smith’s lightweight sitcom likability. You’ll find beatings, shootouts, car crashes, awkward analogies and a measure of buddy badinage in Bright, but true enchantment is in short supply."