No, I'm not kidding.
OK, so it's modern-day L.A. rather than the future, but still. It's Shadowrun with the serial numbers filed off, as far as I'm concerned.

Nice!

Link won't load. Could you please tell us the name of the film?

Bright

Thanks. Looks like it won't be out until Christmas.

Interesting. Looks more like Hellboy, lacks dwarfs and trolls, and anything more cyberpunk than current-day America (which admittedly is viable cybernetics away from CP2020, murder-cops and thugs with machine guns and all) but ... probably at least fun.

Maybe they'll make a show out of it. That'd be nice. Like Alien Nation but more modern and with orks and elves and magic.

The only thing missing really is cybernetics... and the dystopian society.

Also notice that the blonde elf girl seems to be some sort of Phys Ad.

It's very tempting…

But:

- By the director of Fury and Suicide Squad

- Netflix trapped me already once in watching War Machine

- By the director of Fury and Suicide Squad

What, even more dystopian?

Compared to Shadowrun's Seattle, modern day LA is a Paradise!

No acid rain, no smog, very much reduced gang violence, no crippling taxes. So yeah, LA has it good.

I suppose it's about where you start from. And what crippling taxes?

The trailer doesn't make it very exciting. Looks like a bland cop-buddy movie with a coat of paint.
Considering that having modern days + magic + cyber is enough to be Shadowrun with serial numbers filed off is one of the reason why I've been disappointed in a lot of what I've seen in the Shadowrun line since the end of 4th ed. The cyberpunk elements of the SINner/SINless divide, the ubiquitous technology and its impact on the metahumanity, the neo-feudal corporatist order and the over-mediatisation are just as important as magic and cyber.

I thought one of the things that SINners had was unusually high taxes.

Uhm ... no?

Income tax rates in the US vary by income from 10% to 39.5%. In other developed countries, they can go up to 75% for the top 1%. Compared to that, Shadowrun SINner taxes (10% to 20%, a flat rate independent of personal income apparently) don't seem very excessive. Add to that a basic DocWagon contract at 417 Nuyen/month (considering services offered and Shadowrun's healthcare pricing, a bargain!), and your average UCAS national SINner (unless they are in the less than 778/month income bracket, where the flat 15% tax fucks them over compared to today) is equal or even better off than a current US citizen in terms of taxes and health insurance (DW doesn't seem to mind pre-existing conditions or hazardous employment, so long as their bills are paid).

A CrimSIN cuts into your civil rights, but no worse than the US guts ex-con civil rights. Maybe less, actually, since it at least doesn't say whether a CrimSINner is allowed to partake in votes.

So no, tax-wise, SR is not very dystopian, though the low tax rates do not bode well for the power of the UCAS armed forces.

Well color me surprised. I would have thought it would have been a much higher percentage.

Thank for you for the correction.

It looks like a movie that could exist in Shadowrun world about the 2020ies...

"A very good portrayal of the years that followed goblinization and a reminder of when magic and augmentations weren't so widespread, and the Matrix simply did not exist."

"As usual, it seems there are no dwarf or troll actor available in Hollywood."

"You can wonder about the casting of Elvgar Ramirez and the very choice to feature a thirty- or forty- something years old elven character at a time the oldest were in their early twenties."

It is almost scary how true your post could be...

Like most trailers, it has potential.

I shall remain cautiously optimistic but withhold my final verdict until I see it--but thanks for letting me know it's out there! I'll defiantly give it a look.

Sign--
Wacky

~hmm~ Interestingly enough my first thoughts while and after seeing the trailer weren't about Shadowrun. My initial reaction was in fact "So someone decided to make a fantasy based re-imaging of 'Alien Nation' with orks, elfs and pixies instead of the alien Tenctonese".

If they didn't have magic in it, then I'd agree with you, but add in magic and you've kinda sorta got Shadowrun

I'd say "magic" comes with the "fantasy based" part of my comment. Just because it has orcs, elfs, magic and some tech it still doesn't scream "Shadowrun" to me. As I said: the neo-noir buddy cop premise says Alien Nation for me rather than SR

Hey I'm just happy to see something close to it. Hopefully it spins off into something more.

My thoughts too. The fae-hating human cop and his new partner. I wonder if his name (Scott Ward) means "shitpile" in Orkish ...

That said, Landis' work on Dirk Gently was okay, I enjoyed that show. Maybe this will be nice too. Maybe even nice enough to be turned into a series.

Given what happened to Sense8 with a similarly niche target audience I'd doubt that Bright has a serious chance of turning into a series ... unless a major recast occurs and expenditures on FX are reduced.

Will Smith - just like Mr. Caan back in the day - currently doesn't look like a serious contender for such an ongoing serial production.

Netflix policy is to create, and then axe, lots of projects, in hopes that some crazy idea goes viral. With that in mind, I'd say Bright has a better chance in becoming a series than most (which is still pretty slim).

Well, the typical cyberpunk economy has always been the bathtub state taken to its extremes


And I must say I'm more reminded of Almost Human: Looked a lot like SR, but ended up being a very standard buddy cop story and canceled after one season. Although the DNA grenade was a great idea.

Almost Human had Asimov robots though. Ubiquitous AI androids locked into one cassis with little to no networking capacity. More different than Bright, I'd say. But yes, looks like a classic Buddy Cop setup. As I said before, my first thought was Alien Nation. Seems to try and broach minority topics too (which, then, would make it even more like SR).

That US tax rate is only Federal Income Tax. CA has high enough state taxes athletes and movie stars have moved claiming an attempt to escape it. On top of Federal and State tax are Energy taxes on the gasoline and electricity one buys. Sales tax exists in all but a handful of states. Taxes on your phone and internet. Inheritance taxes only come along rarely but they take a huge bite out of an estate. Property taxes in general mean you pay enough every 20 years to buy the property again. In short, US citizens pay 50% and more in taxes and do not get things our European counterparts enjoy, like health care, or free or low cost education, or multiple weeks of paid vacation a year compared to those in the US maybe lucky enough to get 2 weeks unpaid vacation in most jobs, then 2 weeks paid vacation in some jobs after 2 years service and maybe topping out at 5-7 weeks paid vacation after decades with the same company.

And companies all the time are trying to roll over employees so no one ever qualifies for those better benefits. That is the dystopia. Or companies only hiring through a temp agency to avoid employees qualifying for benefits, or at least putting off the time they will start accruing because the employee works for the temp co. not the actual place he works. And the temp co. gets a portion of the workers wages, either from the employer or the worker or both. I play this up in my games.

Also, who is to say the extraterritorial company doesn't have their own income tax, or similar deduction to the wages they pay? Or they pay in company script and the only place to spend it is the company store and the company sets the prices unaffected by free market factors, so they can imply a tax that way just by overcharging.

I'd play these themes up showing the gap between the haves and the have nots and relate it to our own time and show it is only going to get worse and why there are shadowrunners and what exactly they are rebelling against.

...and throw in the fantasy, magic, and tech elements that give them some sort of meager hope.

So.
Nice costumes (not liking the orcs, but they look believable), passable action, really stupid.

Still no real SR vibe for me ... and lots of wasted potential in terms of story telling.

No, it never had that for me, either.

More like other generic Urban Fantasy. Had hoped for a bit more magic, though.

Still, Noomi Rapace makes a nice looking elf.

I actually would have preferred less magic. At least less of what they all fussed about then never really showed. I kinda dug the buddy cop story right up to the point where the wand became the equivalent of a D&D wish where only one in a million has the chance to use the item while all others just burn to cinders. Things got really messy due to the fact that "Brights" as such weren't explained well enough ... First half had a well enough flow, the second half then just became a string of sequences with flashy looks, little insight and ultimately a very disappointing showdown.

Ofc that's just like my opinion man!

I mean, actual magic users.

Not ...

"Oh, I'm a super badass physical adept and / or just plain super elfy, but when I've got my wand, I can do all kinds of things."
They build the things up like mystical nuclear bombs, and the big bad evil uses it to blast stuff, and loans it out to random assassins.

You never see a magician using spells, and I think the movie is less for it. This, and a bunch of other reasons.

Ok, just started watching this on Netflix. First thoughts:

I'd swear the screenwriters have at least read the Shadowrun Core Rules book. Looks like they changed things just enough to not have to pay royalties or get sued.

The LAPD sounds a lot like Lone Star. "We don't want none o' them trogs 'round here!"

So far...needs more mages. I'll admit to being prejudiced here (I'm an open mage supremacist), but I'm only 15 minutes in. Let's see if it picks up...

I thought it was alright. More buddy cop than SR. While I don't feel like I was robbed of a couple of hours of my life, I'm glad it was on Netflix and I didn't have to pay for a movie in the theater.

I liked it... was a fun ride

Also, SOP when finding any of these super powerful things that also get loaned out to random mooks seems to be to just call in some other beat cops...this movie just doesn't make sense.

Only if You don't weant to make it any sense (Riminds me of a Dystopian RPG with a lot af ....Ambivalent Rules and lots of People say that they don't make any Sense)


No, they didn't .
Its only Jacoby who says that , well he's a good guy, but he isn't ....very bright ( Pun intended )
and even though a Wand is NOT a nuklear Bomb its quite explosive an Leathal ( don't breathe in the Mundanes that try to touch it )


like i saifd before (maybe in another Forum ? )
Bright is NOT an SR Movie
Just because there's Orks and Elves (and Dwarfs,Centaurs and Dragons) in it, doesn't make it automatically a SR Movie.
IF you've got to compare it, it's a D20 Urban Arcana Movie .
The Bright Background has the Races Living along for at least 2000 Years they have their own Background and all and nothing compares to SR !
Bright's not even a Dystopia because it "runs" in the Present ( maybe , at most, 2020) there's no advanced Technology, no Cyber/Bioware, no Megacorporations, nothing with a comparable Background to SR except for the Metaraces !


....ooO( on the Plus side we now have an official Answer to the Question :
Who goes to Gunfight with only a Knife ?
Answer : An Inferni ! )

He who dances with the Inferni
Medicineman

Yes they did.
Watch it again, if you can stand it, and then take a look at a) the gossip that surrounds the thing, b) the reactions of the plebs and just about everyone wanting to get a hold of it, and then c) the main feat the thing does in the film, namely: the Orc Jesus moment, which I found pretty cool, but ultimately too little fucks are given about it.
Those are not the rumours or reactions of people wanting to get their hands on a glorified magical handgun that's apt to give you a terminal case of unexistentialism.
The people in the movie think of it - and the makers of the movie present it - as a wish fulfillment device, a miracle cure, and as ONE out of THREE (a full THIRD of) sticks necessary to revive some evil elf who wields influence from beyond the grave for 2000 years. Hey, that's another Jesus right there.

In short: You don't give that thing away to random assassins, and you don't use it for mundane tasks like blasting mouthy cops from a swimming pool and across the room. You vaporize them and make the world forget that they ever existed, and you certainly don't need to aim that shit, if it's build up to such ridiculous proportions.


Basic storytelling devices. Bright aptly serves as an example of how not to do them.

I saw it after hearing many many bad things about it… So that might be because I expected the worst than I didn't find it so abysmally bad… Especially compared to other movies about some cult universe that I really enjoy and that are worse than shit and that would happen to be in the cinemas this december…

There's definitely a shadowrun feel to it, though I agree this is really NOT a shadowrun movie. On the plus side, the general pitch is not that bad if not that original. The introduction and the conclusion of the movies are actually quite enjoyable. The characters are interesting and not that cliche. Also, sometimes will Smith is trying to act and we happen to see other people on the screen. But there's like more than one hour of endless action scenes, vague twists and stuff that are bringing absolutely nothing to the movie and end up being quite boring (safe for the Orc Jesus moment, which I agree was cool), which kills the movie by riddling it with incoherences and stupid cliches (Badass elves wipe out a full gang in 30 seconds with swords and knives, but aren't able to shoot Will Smith unloading whole clips from SMGs at 5 meters?).

Frankly, if you're with friends and already have Netflix, this is not such a bad idea to watch it. And also, comparing to War Machine, another Netflix movie, there clearly is much better production…

(All this IMHO)

There's your answer to the problem right there. With swords and knives they are badass, but with guns they can't hit the broad side of a barn while standing right next to it. If they wanted to geek Smith's character they should've stuck with the swords and knives.

Honestly, I've tried watching it, but got about half an hour in before getting totally bored with it. TBH I thought of the cannon character Kawai-i when I saw the centaur in police body armor.

Not intentionally trying for a double post, but I thought this way would garner more notice.

Just found that Netflix has announced a sequel movie.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/...star/999818001/
https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/03/netflix-i...-bright-sequel/
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/0...-netflix-sequel

Mmm… Either that, or either it's become one of the most overused cliches of Hollywood cinema… Seriously, I can't count the times I've seen such things on the screen, and that's one of the best way to break my own little suspension of disbelief…

I really don't know, maybe it's because I've seen a lot of shitty boring-to-death things recently (Justice League and episode VIII), but I actually didn't have a problem going to the end of it.

Not actually surprised with the sequel. There are 3 wands, we only see the one.

Sorry , but we don't really know how many Wands exist, we only know that You need 3 Wands to resurrect the Drk Lord . they may be rare but most likely mre than just 3 .

The Inferni are also quite competent with firearms (as long as the Target is in the Open and only a few Feet away ( See Titty Bar Fight )
but a moving/runnig target or someone behind Cover is something completey different ( Fight in the Gasstation/supermarket)

HokaHey
Medicineman

Heh. Last Airbender was set up in the end to have sequels due to the arrival of the comet three years after the end of the first. Thankfully that piece of trash never got green lit for a second movie.

But apparently someone with clout in Netflix has faith in these movies. Now if only I can drum up the interest to finish watching the first one.

Overall, my opinion was "not bad." Not great, but not bad. Magic was kind of all or nothing, which isn't really a great approach, IMHO. A few pieces of Phenomenal Cosmic Power ™, or nothing else that I could see (unless you count all the elves as super Adepts, and really, they were even a bit more Mary Sueish than usual here).

You're totally right about the wands.

But sorry, the titty bar fight and gas station are precisely the scenes I mentioned. I just rewatched the two scenes just in case. The inferni wipe out a whole gang AND a swat team equipped with firearms using mostly blades (I think they kill 5 people using guns), before failing pathetically at shooting Will Smith and his friend from 5 feet away. Why don't they use their super speed with a knife in hand? Why can't they one shot ennemies suddenly without even looking at them? Probably because the gas station is built out of scenarium, which affects their abilities. The editing of this particular scene is actually pretty ridiculous. Characters disappear and reappear constantly to help keeping Smith alive. Seriously, if the whole movie wasn't fool of such ridiculeness, it would be quite enjoyable.

I guess you probably hate 98% of action films, series that ever came out.

Anyway, I liked that film. It was nice to watch.

Nice false dilemma.

Probably a premade character and the player overlooked that Incompetent (Firearms) on the sheet