‘Bright’ Backlash: Joel Edgerton Compares Criticism to ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’

The first major production from Netflix was a huge success with a sequel in the works, but the critical response to David Ayer’s film Bright has been anything but kind.

Actor Joel Edgerton, who plays the Orc cop Nick Jakoby, recently spoke with Collider about the discussion Bright generated among fans and critics, pointing out the film’s success.

“All I know is what was reported, which was something like—whatever number was reported—something like 11 million that first weekend,” said Edgerton “Whatever it was, it amounted to a $100 million-plus opening weekend. But, I have to be honest, that’s considering that people don’t have to get in their car, go buy a ticket, go buy the popcorn. There’s a certain age where you can roll over and press play on the remote control. But, according to them, the numbers were there.”

Netflix has already announced Bright 2, so they too think the film was a hit for them, like other films Okja, Mudbound, and surprise holiday hit A Christmas Prince.

Edgerton also took umbrage with the response critics had and even made a comparison to the situation with Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

“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],” Edgerton said. “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.

“I think there was a little bit of extra critical hate towards it because it’s changing the landscape of the movie business, 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.”

His comments have merit, but it’s unfair to think critics didn’t enjoy it solely because it was on Netflix. But his last part is especially apt, given that Ayer himself stated he doesn’t make movies for critics — he makes them for himself.

The director’s DC Films project Suicide Squad was panned by critics (and fans) as well, though that seemed more down to studio meddling. His World War II flick Fury was received well by critics and audiences. Perhaps Bright 2 won’t have the same problems as the first film, which mostly seem to stem from Max Landis’ script.

Bright is now streaming on Netflix.