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LA cops Ward (Will Smith) and Jakoby (Joel Edgerton) help an elf who is on the run from evil assassin Leila (Noomi Rapace) who wants to retrieve a magic wand that will bring about the return of the dark lord.

It’s easy to see why director David Ayer was chosen for this movie, as it’s a perfect fusion of two of his previous films: the buddy cop drama of End of Watch and the high-octane monster villain mayhem of Suicide Squad. Unfortunately, it’s closer to the latter in terms of quality, meaning it’s a bit of a generic mess that’s dark, dingy and not engaging. In fact, a closer comparison would be Graham Baker’s superior Alien Nation, with Will Smith playing the bigoted James Caan role and Joel Edgerton being the friendlier non-human, but this time an orc rather than an alien.

It’s a fascinating premise that escapees from a Tolkien bestiary are now living side by side with human in modern day LA, inevitably as an under-class, but also alongside the Hispanics. In addition to the orcs and elves, a fairy gets splatted with a broomstick and a giant dragon hovers above the city, and yet these elements are ignored over noisy gunfights and endless chase scenes with the baddies getting closer and closer.

Noomi Rapace is fine as the icy elf queen, her dialogue alternating between steely threats and elvish incantations. Joel Edgerton also tries his best under a tonne of make-up, but Will Smith is on autopilot bad Willie style and even less involving than Suicide Squad’s Deadshot.

Verdict: An intriguing premise is quickly forgotten in favour of genre tropes, predictable  story points and ho-hum bangs and explosions. 6/10

Nick Joy