Summary:
A retelling of the Superman origin story wherein the Superman figure decides to be evil.
My Thoughts:
For what it’s worth, I really enjoyed my time in “Brightburn”, though I can’t say it’s a particularly smart or well-done movie. It has a problem with settling on a tone, the acting is pretty spotty, there are dozens of small plot holes and a couple glaring ones, most of the characters are stupider than those in most slasher films, and nobody in the movie is remarkably likeable overall… but, there are a lot of fun horror-esque sequences with far more bloody violence than I anticipated, and some of those sequences were an absolute blast. In a world that is polluted by an overabundance of superhero films, I’m glad this one at least tried to do something a little different, and I’m also glad that it didn’t shy away from the horror.
There will be some minor spoilers spattered throughout the review.
“I know there is good inside you.”
Tori (Elizabeth Banks, “The 40-Year-Old Virgin”) and Kyle Breyer (David Denman, “After Earth”) are an infertile couple living in Brightburn, Kansas. One day a strange object falls from the sky, and inside it is a baby boy. This boy grows up to be Brandon (Jackson A. Dunn, “Avengers: Endgame”). Around his twelfth birthday, Brandon begins discovering incredible powers, and he also discovers he likes hurting people. So begins a horrific chain of events.
The biggest problem with this movie is it doesn’t know what tone it wants to take. Should we be rooting for Brandon as he gradually becomes more evil (like we would in a slasher film), or should we be rooting for his mom and dad to figure out that he’s evil and hope that they do something about it? I was never really sure. I am a huge horror fan, and I generally enjoy slasher films; for the most part, that’s the formula this film followed. There is a rather slow buildup to Brandon’s eventual and inevitable turn to evil, and some of those scenes were crafted well, like, for example, the scenes leading up to and after the slaughter of the chickens in the coop. I really enjoyed the creepy stalker-like behavior he displays around Caitlyn (Emmie Hunter).
But then, when we get to the actual evil parts the film gets a bit uneven: there are moments when the film goes way off the rails, and other moments where I didn’t think it went far enough. At times, I was laughing hysterically, because some of the stuff Brandon does is absolutely bonkers (he has more crazy kills than Chucky in “Child’s Play”), but there were other times when I was scratching my head at some of the other characters’ logic. There are so many choices made by Brandon’s victims that are only made to put them in Brandon’s way so he can kill them (again, it follows the logic of many a horrible slasher film).
If you look at this film with any kind of intelligence, the plot would start to unravel: how stupid does Brandon’s Mom have to be to believe her son isn’t hurting people? Why did Brandon’s uncle Noah (Matt Jones, “Red State”) give him a rifle for his twelfth birthday without asking his parents, and why did he drive him home without waking up his wife when he found Brandon lurking in his closet with a mask on? Why did Caitlyn’s mother Erica (Becky Wahlstrom) believe her daughter when she said her classmate had snuck into her room when there was absolutely no evidence of it happening, wouldn’t it have been more likely the girl had been having a dream? One of the biggest plot holes: Why did Sheriff Deever (Gregory Alan Williams, “Hidden Figures”) drive out to the Breyer’s house to show Tori a snapshot of a symbol that looked like two ‘B’s put back to back? Is a strange symbol that looks like the initials of a child really enough evidence for an officer to suggest a twelve-year-old child is responsible for murder? I don’t think so… There are so many plot holes that if movies were houses this one would collapse due to structural damage.
The acting in this film is pretty spotty throughout. I’ve seen Elizabeth Banks in quite a few films as a supporting character, but most of the rolls I’ve seen her in have been comedic ones. There are so many moments in this film where her acting felt over-sincere or melodramatic that I never really connected with her character, I just thought she was whiney (and rather stupid at times). David Denman gave a completely middling performance. Most of this film hinges on Jackson Dunn’s performance, and there were certainly scenes where he was really convincing, but there were other scenes that just didn’t work for me. In order for a killer to be really scary, the underlying character tension really needs to remain throughout the film, and in some sequences, the terror he brought to the scene was nonexistent. He had some really good moments, but the unevenness makes it hard for me to label his overall performance good.
While the overall execution is a bit lacking, this movie is a ton of fun if you just let what happens happen and don’t think about it. As I’ve already mentioned a few times this movie feels like a slasher flick, though, the slasher in question is more powerful than Freddy, Jason, Chucky, and Michael Myers combined. The way Brandon uses powers lead to some pretty cool kills, and some genuinely graphic and disturbing ones as well. As a horror fan, I really liked those scenes. The scene in the diner, where Erika gets glass in her eye is really gross (and also pretty great). The scene where Noah dies is also pretty disturbing (and awesome). The ending goes off the rails in terms of how the plot progresses, but it also doesn’t go far enough in terms of where this story could’vegone if handled correctly.
I really wanted more from this ending. I feel like this movie had just reached the point where Brandon takes off his gloves off and is ready to get into the dirty stuff, and then the movie ends. We were just getting to what could’ve been the most interesting part of the film. I wanted to see more scenes where Brandon completely obliterates things without rhyme or reason. I wanted Tetsuo post-transformation (from “Akira”) levels of destruction. I wanted to see Brandon like Leto Atreides II just after he visits the Sietch Jacurutu- able to sever heads with the swipe of his hand (Frank Herbert’s Children of Dune). I wanted to see Brandon sitting on a throne at the head of the world, forcing humankind into slavery… and instead we get a mid-credits sequence with Michael Rooker (“Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer”) as a TV anchor telling us about a strange figure that is going round destroying buildings. This movie could’ve been so much more if they had condensed what happened in this film to the first half hour, and really explored the darkness of Brandon’s character after he went full-on evil, but instead, they turned superman into a slasher villain that kills a few people and vanishes into the night.
Verdict:
“Brightburn” is not terrible, but it certainly could’ve been a hundred times better. There were so many weak moments that I have a hard time really giving this an honest recommendation, but at the same time, I did have a lot of fun with the horror elements. It’s up to you if you want to see this film; it teeters on the line of good and bad, and I honestly think the viewer’s own personal preferences will decide if they enjoy or don’t enjoy this film. For me, it was worth the hour and a half I spent watching it, though I doubt I’ll ever return.
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