Brightburn

The Horror Binge 2019 has begun! 

To start off the month we have the Gunn family (James Gunn produced while his brother and cousin, respectively, Brian and Mark wrote the screenplay) vehicle Brightburn, the superhero/horror mashup we've always wanted. Or at least me? I dunno. Unfortunately, Brian and Mark prove to not have nearly the deft skill of James. More on that in a second. 

Brightburn is a dark Superman tale: what if Superman didn't come from noble Krypton and became humanity's savior and instead deciding to use his powers for... evil? 

Now if that idea sounds kinda awesome, that's because the idea is awesome. Brightburn takes every detail of the Superman origin story and grafts it into this story, right down to young, creepy Brandon Briars falling to earth and getting found by a loving family. Problem is he has every angry kid trope thrown at him (made fun of in school, socially awkward, wants a girlfriend, etc) and he turns... evil.

Now as awesome as that idea may be Brightburn is just too lazily made to be truly awesome. I wanted a kick ass horror/superhero crossover that lived up to how cool that idea could be and what we got instead was a color-by-the-numbers creepy kid horror movie with superhero trappings. From the dialogue down to the story beats, everything seems almost engineered to underwhelm in face of the concept. 

There's a great opportunity here for commentary on the current incel culture but instead Brightburn seems to be almost glorifying it. There are no ramifications for Brandon's actions and the onus is taken off of him for his choosing to do evil despite a good upbringing; instead the movie seems to be telling us that his alien nature is what made him break bad, not his situation, thus taking his responsibility away. The movie almost seems to be saying that circumstances are what causes and even justifies young men in thinking they are owed something by society, the opposite sex, etc, rather than the far more obvious fact: they have chosen to do these things. In Brandon's case, rather than choosing to do these things despite the good upbringing he's been afforded, it seems he is being made to them by his alien nature. That's a pretty slippery slope of a message to send. 

Social commentary aside though, Brightburn just feels like a missed opportunity. It's a great concept that is sloppily and lazily told, never giving something original that lives up to the originality of that concept. It's really a shame because the ingredients are there, just left on the table and out of the final product. 

Bummer, man.

6/10