The idea that
absolute power corrupts absolutely isn't new by any means. As long as there
have been superheros, there have been villains to match them. The yin and yang
balance has driven the idea superheroes from the very beginning. It isn't often
that we only see the supervillain without a counter-balance though, which is
exactly the idea behind the latest genre bender, Brightburn.
It's a pretty
efficient 90 minute movie that takes the Superman origin story - a couple on a
farm finds an alien baby crash landed on their land and raise him as their own
- then proceeds to give the worst-case scenario. Early on, everything seems
pretty nice. Brandon (Jackson A. Dunn) is a normal enough kid. He has loving
parents (Elizabeth Banks and David Denman). At school, he's a bit of a nerd,
but overall, his life is good. Then puberty - or the alien equivalent of it -
happens and everything goes to hell. Some mysterious force rejiggers his brain,
and the sweet kid we get a glimpse of early on goes full psychopath. Even
worse, he starts to realize that he has super-strength and can't be hurt. Then
his parents make the mistake of informing him of his origin. From there, let's just
say it's a shame this world doesn't have a Superman.
As a genre
experiment, I liked the movie. It doesn't get bogged down in the details of
what Brandon is exactly or, more importantly, why he is. It only introduces the
characters that it needs to. The movie is at its best when it leans all the way
into horror. There's a scene in a diner that all the trailers have been using
which really is the best part of the movie. It captures the terror of the whole
situation with Brandon. It's not a fair fight. It's not pretty. This is a grim
movie.
I am a little low
on the movie overall. The foundation of it isn't solid. It tries to strip the
story down too much, and as a result, I don't understand any of the characters.
What's the nature of Brandon's change in the movie? Has he always had powers
and the change is just mental? His father mentions that Brandon never got hurt
growing up, so that much is not new. How about the flying, super-strength, and
super-speed? There's a scene with Brandon and a lawnmower that suggests that
he's only learning of his impermeability when he's 12. I find that had to
believe, but if that is his only power he has until the movie begins, I could
maybe be convinced that he was unaware. Or has he always had the powers and the
inciting events of the movie just unlock him as a psychopath? If that's the
case, I don't buy it at all. I mean, there must be an incident of him playing
tee-ball and hitting the ball three counties over, right? The movie doesn't
establish that the parents kept him away from things that might expose his
abilities. They seem genuinely surprised by many of them. On that note, if you
are a parent knowingly raising a mysterious alien baby, you should be much more
on alert than Banks and Denman are. Denman is suspicious sooner than Banks, but
even that seems more like a development in the timespan of the movie rather
than a long-held concern. This all may come off as "death by a thousand
cuts" criticism, but it's not. All these nitpicks stem from the movie
being underwritten, and they inform how I'm supposed to view the characters.
Elizabeth Banks is good in this movie, but I have no idea how to read her. Is
she willfully naive or generally naive? Has Brandon actually been acting
different or is she only noticing it now? Was she ever worried that something
could be wrong with him or was she so desperate for a son that she never
questioned it? There are so many little details the movie is missing that would
enrich the whole thing.
Dammit. I think I
just talked myself out of liking this movie. Oh well.
It really is a
decent movie. I just think the things that interested the people who made it
weren't the things that interested me about it. They put together some great
horror set pieces. It has a lot of striking visuals. They get good performances
out of the actors for what the movie requires. The character motivations don't
really make sense to me though and the starting point, as it's presented in the
movie, isn't that well thought out.
Verdict: Weakly
Don't Recommend
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