Bright actor says director, Netflix should listen to criticism

Bright star Joel Edgerton thinks it’s important that director David Ayer and Netflix executives listen to fan feedback as they gear up for the sequel.

Edgerton told Collider that even though Netflix’s Bright had a strong response — he likened it to a $100 million opening weekend — there was clearly some disconnect between critics and fans. The film performed poorly with the majority of critics; we referred to the film as “the cinematic embodiment of a busted, spewing sewage pipe.”

He referred to it as the inverse of what happened to Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Critics didn’t hide their distaste for Bright, but fans clearly enjoyed it, Edgerton said, pointing to Rotten Tomatoes as proof.

The actor argued that it may be time for movies to be “reviewed by public opinion rather than viewed through the highbrow prism of film criticism,” but suggested it’s important to listen to feedback regardless of it being positive or negative.

“I always think the best of anything and it’s the filmmakers or Netflix or any us learn from the response to the movie,“ Edgerton said, “and I’m talking about the negative responses to the movie and what people out there on the street loved about the movie — I think if you take all that information it puts you in a nice spot to make a second and maybe a third movie perhaps. It’s always worth listening to the fans and the good and bad responses to it.”

Edgerton said he’s excited to return to the world of Bright regardless of the film’s critical reception. He hinted that Ayer wanted to bring the sequel into a new setting, and Edgerton has a few ideas of what he’d like to see his character, an orc named Nick Jakoby, get up to with his human partner, Daryl Ward (Will Smith).

“I personally was most curious of what was happening outside of Los Angeles, and obviously the world at large is populated by similar characters and how does that affect other cities,” Edgerton said. “I think it’d be awesome to have a look at that. It’s interesting where do Daryl and Nick go now that they’ve had that experience. Is Jakoby now suddenly more accepted because he went through that experience, or is he going to go back to work on Monday and have people mistreat him?”

Bright is currently streaming on Netflix.