Will Smith played Will Smith, but that was fine for the movie. Joel Edgerton's performance as Jakoby was great. The dynamic between those two to be compelling and carried the movie. Certainly, if you aren't sold on the Ward/Jakoby dynamic then you probably won't like the movie. But I thought it was good.

Tikka's reluctance to speak English or use the wand early on in the plot did strain creduily a bit, but upon watching a second time it's clear the filmmakers did make an effort to keep the wand out of her possession and justify her reluctance to open up to the two protagonists. Again it's not perfect but it's also not completely incompetent.

While the social commentary is a bit clumsy and heavy-handed, I found the earnest, straightforward portrayal of that message refreshing. In a world of increasingly group-based identity politics, a clear and simple message about treating people as individuals is a rather nice change of pace.

The use of graffiti as world building, some call lazy but I enjoyed it and found worked well enough for a 2-hour movie. The vagueness with regard to the history and backstory did not bother me. It was quickly apparent that the movie wanted to include both familiar real-world elements and familiar fantasy elements without actually running a complete alternate-reality simulation from first principles. For the sake of a single 2-hour movie, it's easy for me to forgive a top-down, less rigorous approach to world building.

The characters introduced by the story were compelling enough for me to be interested to learn more. I liked the role played by the Department of Magic. I'm interested to see more about the elves and about the fogteeth clan and the shield of light. Again, while these elements are painted with broad strokes, it's a popcorn movie not a 10-hour TV series, a serious novel, or an RPG campaign setting. I give the sequel about a 50:50 odds at being a disappointment.

The humor was uneven, sometimes it worked well and sometimes it didn't. I found myself laughing in spite of myself at lines like "we're not in a prophecy we're in a stolen Toyota Corolla." The action scenes were not well lit, but were much better at conveying a sense of real tension and danger than typical Marvel-style superhero blockbusters.

The plot succeeded in developing characters and revealing mysteries. The turning point in the church is exciting. We'd been carrying around the Wand for several scenes and the first use is dramatic and satisfying, as well as carrying with it meaningful consequences for the characters and the story. The climax and big reveal, predictable as it was, is still exciting. Classical music always resolves the dominant to the tonic but it's still fun to hear.

I certainly had some complaints. I'm mildly disappointed Ward's wife character went nowhere, although I appreciated the small scene where she appears halfway through. I thought the fairy scene in the beginning was dumb. I think the "kick me" scene was dumb. I thought the scene with the police beating the Orcs was a bit much. In general, the police were portrayed as frustratingly and irredeemably corrupt(and I don't think that was necessarily the intent). A bit more subtlety would have been nice. Jakoby's "I always wanted to be a cop" motivation is cliched (but Edgerton sells it anyway). The villains were introduced as super-powered fighers but then the protagonists didn't have much trouble when the final battle came. There's one moment in particular when four characters are standing in an open parking lot, one gets sniped and the others make it to cover without even taking additional fire. I think there were too many scenes set in a generic urban landscape. The villain is style over substance with no development at all.