Brightburn (2019) Review

"I will never turn against our son."
-Tori Breyer



A spaceship falls from the sky and crashes at a farm.  Tori and Kyle Breyer (Elizabeth Banks and David Denman) find a baby boy inside and decide to raise him as their own.  As he grows up, they notices that the boy, Brandon (Jackson A. Dunn), never seems to get cut, bruised, or injured in any way.  Once he hits puberty, Brandon begins to change and the darker and more violent side of him begins to emerge.


What Works:

I love the concept of this movie.  It's literally Superman if Clark Kent was a psychotic killer.  That's an absolutely brilliant premise and this movie mostly succeeds in the execution of said premise.  It's virtually beat-for-beat Superman's origin story and it's a lot of fun seeing it play out with such a dark twist.

The gore is absolutely insane.  Each kill is violent, over-the-top, and memorable, which is exactly how I like it.  One scene even has a jaw being ripped off and it looks amazing.  There is another scene where someone gets a glass shard in their eyeball.  I have never been more uncomfortable watching a gore scene in my life.  I have a phobia of eyeballs and I have never had to cover my eyes this much in a movie before.  Props to the filmmakers for going all out on the gore.

Jackson A. Dunn pulls off a very disturbing performance.  He does a great job of being menacing and off-putting.  He's really scary for a 12-year old.

Finally, I really liked both David Denman as Kyle and Matt Jones as Brandon's uncle, Noah.  Both of them give very genuine performances and make very rationale and reasonable decisions.  I love the direction the film takes Kyle and I was on his side the whole way and Noah's reaction to seeing Brandon fly is incredible and hilarious.


What Sucks:

I did find Elizabeth Banks' character, Tori, and Meredith Hagner's character, Merilee, to be frustrating.  Both make some truly awful and stupid decisions with Merilee's mostly being classic horror movie tropes, like going outside to investigate a strange noise.  Tori is frustrating because she is in denial about her son for so long.  There is blatant evidence staring her in the face, but she still denies that there is anything wrong with Brandon.  She is our protagonist, but she is tough to relate to because no one is on the same page as her.

Finally, there is too much shaky cam.  I am not a fan of shaky cam in general.  There are uses for it, yes, like war scenes, but when filming something as simple as a lighthearted game of hide-and-seek, it's wholly inappropriate.  Set the camera on a tripod!  Having the frame shake so much is distracting.


Verdict:

Brightburn has an amazing concept and executes it pretty well.  Dunn, Denman, and Jones all give great performances, the gore is insane, and I liked watching this twisted take on a superhero origin story.  I did find both Banks' and Hagner's characters to be frustrating and the shaky cam was a bit much, but this movie has still got it going on.

 8/10: Really Good         

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