Brightburn Review by Joe Stark
May 26, 2019 8:54 pm |
An alien baby is adopted by a loving couple after his spacecraft crash lands in rural Kansas. Oh,
you’ve heard this story, have you? So, you know that he manifests super-abilities as a child and grows to
become the superhero we all know and love: Superman. But Brightburn’s super-powered “hero” is
anything but. And Superman? Of course, we hear no direct mention of the Man of Steel, but Brightburn
is going to town on subverting the big guy’s mythos.
Brightburn is directed by David Yarovesky, written by Brian and Mark Gunn, and produced by a
whole gang of people including James Gunn. I had been looking forward to this film since first hearing
the concept. Being a fan of the DC Elseworlds comic books that do this very thing, it was an easy sell to
me.
In an interview with ET, James Gunn stated, “I think of it as a mash-up. I think of it as taking all of
the things that I love about superhero movies and all of the things that I love about horror movies and
putting them together into one thing. I think at its heart though it is a horror movie.”
I couldn’t agree more. Though it features a super-powered antagonist, the movie brushes that
aside with barely a mention and instead leans into the family going through a crisis thing up until the
house is quite literally going to pieces around them. The movie carries a very similar vibe to such films as
The Omen, where a parent comes to terms with the fact that their child is a monster.
The cast in Brightburn does an excellent job of creating this vibe and reacting in ways that I
empathized with. Elizabeth Banks plays Tory Breyer, a woman with a bookshelf that is lined with fertility
books and who wants nothing more in the world than a child. Tory and her husband, Kyle, played by
David Denman, see their prayers seemingly answered when a spaceship crash lands near their house
and gives them the baby they have so desperately wished to have. Tory and Kyle make busy hiding the
spaceship and concoct a false adoption story about their newfound son. What could go wrong?!
Fast-forward now a bit. Young Brandon Byers, played by Jackson A. Dunn, is a sweet young lad.
He’s a doting son, brilliant in school, his teachers love him; he’s a great kid. Jackson was a standout in
this role to me. He sold the way that Brandon turns from a cheerful child to a nearly emotionless killer. I
say nearly because you do not want to piss this kid off. He plays the super-powered sociopath character
in a way that made the horror aspect that much deeper. Paired with the darkly ominous musical tones
given to us by Tim Williams, Brightburn delivered on adding a suspenseful tone that built and
culminated with a score of grisly and graphic onscreen deaths that you’ll never un-see.
In the midst of all this chaos, Elizabeth Banks does a fantastic job of portraying Brandon’s
mother. She carries this film in the way that we see her story unfold and empathize with what she is
going through as the thing she loves most becomes a thing to fear. David Denman plays well with this as
the practical father of young Brandon. One of my favorite scenes in the movie was a nightmare
sequence showing Denman’s Kyle Breyer coming to terms with what his son is becoming and what it
ultimately means.
Brightburn delivers on its promise of mashing the superhero genre into a horror movie, but
outside of a few jump-scares, don’t go in expecting a scary movie. Gory, yes. So very gory. There’s
nothing all that surprising in this movie either. I saw the beats coming from a mile away and walked out
of the theater far less impressed than the other people in my showing. I’m actually more interested in
the possibility of what could be done in a sequel.
And we get set up with the possibility for a sequel in a really big way during Brightburn’s version
of a mid-credit’s scene. Will we get that sequel? Who knows? Is the idea of a sequel rife with evil-
Superman-esque stories? Of course, it is! What kind of dope action movie could we get out of that?!?
The possibilities are endless. But if at the end of the day I am raving about the potential plot lines of an
unplanned (as far as I know) sequel whilst having little to no desire to re-watch this movie again any
time soon, I must reluctantly admit that Brightburn, by itself, is just an OK movie.
PCL Rating: Low Taste It
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: ROTTEN
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Tags: Brian Gunn, Brightburn movie 2019, Brightburn Review, David Yarovesky, Elizabeth Banks, james gunn, James Gunn Brightburn, Joe Stark, Mark Gunn, pop culture leftovers
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