Brightburn introduces a unique concept (superhero horror!) but suffers from an underdeveloped lead character and a rushed story that was spoiled by the trailer. While the idea is unique, the story is rather forgettable.
Produced by James Gunn and written by Brian and Mark Gunn, Brightburn questions what would happen if a child with superhuman powers didn’t fight for the good of mankind. Rather than the popular superhero action story, the movie attempts to define itself as superhero horror. Unfortunately, Brightburn introduces a unique concept but suffers from a rushed story that was spoiled by the trailer.
Here’s the official description of the movie – “What if a child from another world crash-landed on Earth, but instead of becoming a hero to mankind, he proved to be something far more sinister? With Brightburn, the visionary filmmaker of Guardians of the Galaxy and Slither presents a startling, subversive take on a radical new genre: superhero horror.”
Directed by David Yarovesky, Brightburn stars Elizabeth Banks, Jackson A. Dunn, David Denman, Matt Jones, and Meredith Hagner.
With superhero movies often clocking in around three hours these days, Brightburn keeps it short and to the point with a ninety-minute total run time. But that short time actually hurts the movie. We’ll get into that and more below, but first, if you’re not worried about seeing too much in the trailer (which you will) – take a look:
Brightburn introduces itself as a new, unique concept: superhero horror. In today’s superhero-driven pop culture, superhero movies and villain origin stories often fall into either the action or drama category. But this isn’t a hero’s origin story, nor is it the backstory of a well-known established villain. Brightburn introduces a new super-powered force.
The story revolves around 12-year-old Brandon Beyer (Dunn) and his parents Tori (Banks) and Kyle (Denman). After trying to conceive, the Beyers find a child in a spaceship that landed near their house. Rather than telling anyone about the discovery, they adopt the baby as their own child. Brandon is told nothing about his mysterious origins. Once he begins to hit puberty, he starts to notice changes in himself including super strength, invulnerability, and heat vision. Oh, and all of this takes place in Brightburn, Kansas.
Sound familiar? The story appears to borrow heavily from the classic Superman origin story. It borrows so much, in fact, that many people suspected the trailer was an as-yet unheard of Superman origin movie at first glance. As the trailer quickly explains, though, Brandon does not use his powers the way Clark Kent would. The story asks viewers to question what would happen if a child with superhero powers did not choose to defend mankind but instead used his powers for personal gain.
One could ask if Superman faced the same temptations to let his powers control him. Was it the parental guidance of Martha and Jonathan Kent that kept him from doing so? Was the desire to protect and defend innate to him?
Brightburn chooses to explore these questions but only fleetingly. Tori continually believes in Brandon and his goodness. He is not a monster, he is her child. Kyle, on the other hand, starts to question Brandon’s origins and realizes how much they really don’t know about their son. (More is given on the nature vs. nurture debate in the special feature “Nature Vs. Nurture”).
The problem with this debate is that the audience doesn’t have the same knowledge and history with Brandon that his parents do. Viewers are told that he was such a good child, always well-behaved. However, the movie starts with Brandon already starting to act out and misbehave. Unfortunately, viewers are only ever told about the good in Brandon and never given a chance to see it for themselves. Are his parents (his mother in particular) naïve in their beliefs about their child or actually correct about his past behavior? It’s hard for the audience to know and understand Brandon without any more context about his character pre-power discovery.
And possibly the short run time is problematic here. Maybe a longer movie would have given more opportunities to establish Brandon’s character. By skipping these details, it makes his motivations unclear. Is he being overtaken by his new powers, or was he already “on the dark side” before his powers were ever a factor? The movie never really takes the time to explain this.
The good news about the movie rushing through any real introduction for Brandon is that it wastes no time in getting to the movie’s action. The spaceship hidden in the barn (again, familiar) begins to send signals to Brandon, and within ten minutes of the run time, he is beginning to discover his powers and what he might be capable of.
Brandon’s darkness escalates until his powers result in someone’s death. From there, the movie begins to follow a repetitive, predictable pattern. The action reaches its peak early and plateaus to a steady, continuous pace from there. Early in the movie, after Brandon comes into his powers, the story shifts from being a character-driven psychological horror to a story that is just shy of being a slasher film. There are numerous, predictable deaths that appear to follow the pattern of: Brandon encounters character, character poses some threat or obstacle to him, character is killed. Again and again. And every one of these deaths was seen to some extent in the trailer.
One of Brightburn’s selling points is its use of gore in some of these death scenes, but the final cut of the movie seems unsure about how much gore to use. Characters are often violently injured or killed. Sometimes, the shot stays on the injuries in detail, but more often the movie quickly cuts away from the gore. For example, a shot in the trailer shows a woman getting her eye cut by a piece of glass (ugh . . .) early in the film, and the movie stays with that close-up long enough for viewers to see the glass removed. As the story progresses, the movie spends less and less time with its gore and tends to quickly cut away before viewers can fully see any detail. A character is crushed by a speeding object, but the aftermath is on screen for less than a second. It’s almost as if the movie wants to tease some of the gore but not actually show it. Now, gore and blood and guts aren’t everyone’s favorite things to see, but the movie feels inconsistent and uncertain on how often and how much it wants to show. In this case, staying on shots longer in the movie’s final act would have added to the tone of “superhero horror” that the movie wanted to show.
Overall, Brightburn is a really cool concept, and there is room for the idea of “superhero horror” to expand. Unfortunately, this particular movie suffered from a story that was given away by the trailer and a repetitive, predictable pattern in its scenes. The action begins quickly but plateaus early in the story. It’s unclear if Brandon, a formidable force, is a victim or a villain. A longer running time and more fleshed out characters would have greatly helped the movie.
Finally – the movie uses Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy” as its song for the credits. It’s clear that they were trying to keep the villain theme alive, but the song feels out of place and does not match the tone offered by the entire movie. It was an odd selection. Okay, mini-tangent over.
Is There a Scene After the Credits?
There is a scene during the credits that features Michael Rooker as a conspiracy theorist.
Special Features
The Blu-ray, DVD, and Digtial combo includes the following special features:
- Filmmaker Commentary – Director David Yarovesky, cinematographer Michael Dallatorre, and costume designer Autumn Steed walk viewers through the movie.
- Nature Vs. Nurture (5:05) – This feature takes a look at the ways different characters question and respond to changes in Brandon.
- Hero-Horror! – A Radical New Genre (4:46) – The traditional heroic origins story is shifted to a new view through the lens of horror.
- Quick Burns – Vignette Social Series (2:41 in total) – These mini-features look at specific ways the movie is different from any other.
- Elizabeth Banks
- James Gunn
- David Yarovesky
The slipcase and box for the Blu-ray combo lists a feature called “Creating a New Supervillain,” but it isn’t found on the discs. Instead, the feature “Nature Vs. Nurture” is offered. It could be that the feature was renamed or replaced, but the slipcase and box do not reflect whatever change was made. As for the features that are included – they’re . . . okay. None of the features are truly memorable, though the trio selected for the audio commentary are funny and play off of each other well. The best gift provided by the special features is actually actor Jackson A. Dunn. His real-life personality helps to show just how different he is from his dark character and highlights his skills as a young actor.
Takeaway
Brightburn really does revolve around a cool and unique concept. Unfortunately, a rushed running time and a revealing trailer keep the movie from being anything truly remarkable. The story suffers from telling viewers too much rather than showing them and doesn’t take the time to fully develop its central character. The movie also seems inconsistent on its use of gore. Though the audio commentary provided is entertaining, the special features as a whole don’t add anything to make the movie more memorable. While the story itself is rather simplistic and predictable, the movie overall does at least do a nice job of introducing the idea of superhero horror and all the possibilities that stem from it.
