Brightburn

Brightburn

Starring Elizabeth Banks, David Denman, Jackson A. Dunn, Matt Jones

Directed by David Yarovesky

The Story:
In the small town of Brightburn, Kansas, married couple Tori (Elizabeth Banks) and Kyle (David Denman) are trying to conceive a child to no avail.  One night a spaceship lands in their backyard, containing a baby that they immediately adopt and name Brandon.

Ten years later, Brandon (Jackson A. Dunn) turns twelve, and begins exhibiting strange behaviors and hearing voices in his head that leads him to his crashed spaceship hidden in the family barn.  He levitates, finds that he has super strength, and is able to project lasers from his eyes, and also becomes more angry and disobedient.  As his actions escalate to murder and mayhem, Tori works to find out why Brandon is like this, and if there's a way to bring her once loving son back from the brink of madness.

The Synopsis:
"We got lucky with Superman.  He shared our values.  The next Superman might not."  Those words were spoken by Amanda Waller in "Suicide Squad," and from there it seems writers Brian and Mark Gunn (whose brother, James, directed another superhero movie called "Guardians of the Galaxy" and its sequel, and who served as a producer here) got the idea to make their own movie that focuses on what would happen if Superman was evil.  The result is "Brightburn," a film that gives a decent blend of superhero and horror, even if it relies more on traditional horror tropes than one would like.

Even though the Man of Steel is never mentioned (and I wonder if they got permission from DC to do this, since it's a rather blatant rip-off), there's so many connections that you'd have to be blind twice over to miss them - especially the ending credit scene, which you should stick around for, because it features a great cameo and really ties a new possible universe together.  The movie is even shot with the same angles and music as the recent Superman films, which is both a nod to the original and also pulls you into this twisted world where everyone's favorite superhero turns super evil.

We all know the story of Superman's origin, and Brandon's origin befalls exactly the same way.  Alien baby crash lands on a small Kansas farmhouse, where a loving couple take the child in as their own.  As the child grows up, he feels different and is picked on because of it, until finally realizing his true identity and deciding what to do with this great gift that was given to him.  This is where both stories begin, and where they take two totally different paths.  For Clark Kent, he goes the path of righteousness where he sets out to do good for everyone, while Brandon Breyer goes the other way and sets out to do evil, and to do what the voice inside his head tells him to - take the world.

While the film is supposed to be about Brandon and his rise to supervillainy, there's a surprising lack of depth to the character.  We don't really know why he decides to go the dark path, or what drives him to do so, except the voice in his head that leads him to his hidden spaceship when he turns twelve.  In fact, we don't really get much characterization of Brandon at all, which serves as a detriment to his character - we don't always need to know the "why" of things, but it'd be nice to have at least a little bit of development.  Newcomer Jackson A. Dunn does well with the limited material he's given, but it isn't enough to make him a scary character or even one that has a tortured past that could have us feeling sympathy for him - he's a blank slate, which I guess is also true for Clark Kent, who also was a rather bland character.

Maybe the film tried to be an allegory for puberty, and if that's the case it does well at it.  When Brandon turns twelve, he starts hearing voices and experiencing changes to his body - but unlike most boys, his changes involve flight, super strength, and shooting laser beams through his eyes.  Like most teens going through this life phase, there's not a lot of rhyme or reason to their decisions, so again it could serve as an allegory, but I don't think that's the writer's ultimate goal - they seemingly wanted to set out to create an alternate universe where a boy possessing Superman-like powers is evil, and even to that end they do fairly well.

The violence in the film is its saving grace, as there's copious amounts of blood, gore, and even some cringe-worthy moments (one in particular involves a woman, a broken light, and an eye) that'll feed the normal horror aficionado sufficiently.  Even though the film had a light budget, it also managed to pull off some impressive effects as well, and really gives you a feeling of impending doom at every corner.  It's fun when Brandon really gets into it, but it takes a while to rev him up - but once he's round up, there's no stopping him.

Where the film falters is with the characters.  As mentioned before, Brandon doesn't really seem to have any internal conflict, any struggle with who he is - he performs with a continual stoic nature that's unnerving, but also frustrating because we want to know where his mind is at.  Likewise, the entire town of Brightburn is basically full of your horror trope characters (and possibly a tongue-in-cheek look at how the Gunn brothers see middle America) that do the stupidest things that don't make a lick of sense.  Tori and Kyle find Brandon after his ship crashes, but doesn't tell anyone about it, and hides the ship instead of destroying it.  Tori continually defends her son even in the midst of his most obvious evil deeds, and doesn't deter from it - except the one moment she tries to find out Brandon's heritage, but settles for a glossed-over Google search.  Kyle believes Brandon is evil, and blames him (rightfully) for everything, while Tori defends him.  The town sheriff is as bumbling as they come, someone who probably studied more Andy Griffith than criminal law, and everyone around Brandon seems just all too willing to simply die.

It sounds like I didn't like the film, but I was actually very entertained by it due to the stupidity of the characters, as they made me not really care for any of them.  The kills are horrifically graphic and cringe-inducing, and provides for a fun little ride if you don't look too much into it - like the fact that Brandon is supposed to "take the world," but seemingly settles to kill country bumpkins instead.

The Summary:
While it adheres more to the traditional horror tropes than I'd like, "Brightburn" does manage to offer a different spin on the Superman mythos, giving birth to a truly terrifying anti-hero who slays and flays with ease, while providing some graphic and unnerving kills in the process.

The Score: A-