Brightburn
2/4
Starring: Elizabeth Banks, David Denman, Jackson A. Dunn
Rated R for Horror Violence/Bloody Images, and Language
Stop me if you've heard this before. A childless couple in the middle of Kansas finds a humanoid baby in a crashed spaceship on their farm. They take him in and love him as their own. He grows up to have amazing superpowers: he is super fast, super strong, can shoot energy out of his eyes and he can fly. If you read that and said, "Hey! That sounds like Superman!" you win the prize! Only this time Clark Kent doesn't grow up to be Superman. His actions are far more sinister.
The problem isn't the central gimmick. It's that it's poorly executed. The film takes a good twist on a very old idea and treats it with a b-list script and a director-for-hire. "Brightburn" could have been a lot better, and it should have been. But the powers that be decided to walk through production instead of investing real effort in creating something special.
Casting leaves a bit to be desired. The film's only "name" actor is Elizabeth Banks, who has never been an especially good actress. She's adequate mainly because the part doesn't tax her limited range. Her co-stars aren't much better. David Denman is fine in the character role of the father, who is by turns loving and suspicious (but never smart). As the teenage Clark Kent from hell, Jackson A. Dunn fails. He's neither innocent nor creepy enough to pull the role off. As a result, Brandon, as he is known here, isn't someone we care about one way or another.
A movie like "Brightburn" is what happens when a good premise is handled with pedestrian direction. Granted, the screenplay by Mark and Brian Gunn (brothers of James Gunn, who produced this movie) isn't the best, but it's perfectly adequate for the film's purposes. But a movie like this depends almost exclusively on the execution, and that's where it fails. Shot selection is stale, there's very little atmosphere, and no sense of growing dread. This is a direct-to-DVD movie that got a theatrical release solely because it has James Gunn's name on the poster and because Hollywood is in the grip of an unending superhero obsession.
Maybe the problem is that the filmmakers are too reverential of the inspiration. By sticking so close to the Superman mythos, it robs the film of a lot of its tension. For example. We know what Brandon is capable of, and what he will inevitably do. We know that he can fly, throw people across the room and is almost invincible, blah blah blah. The rules of the game demand that he do all of these things, and while using his powers for wanton murder and mayhem is shocking, it's a twist that quickly loses its ability to shock.
"Brightburn" isn't a terrible movie by any means, and it certainly won't come anywhere near my Bottom 10 list. There's a decent amount of gore (including an injury that provoked winces and gasps from the audience I was with), some cool shots, and some dramatic moments that right true. And for all the talent that director David Yarovesky apparently lacks, he manages to make a Superman clone occasionally spooky. Which is something of an accomplishment. And while the inspiration for the film is obvious, Yarovesky at least has the common sense not to highlight every single Easter egg and reference. No one was pointing at the screen and calling out, "Oh! There's so and so from issue #627!" every five minutes. For which I am eternally grateful.
Still, I can't shake the feeling that it could have been so much more...
Starring: Elizabeth Banks, David Denman, Jackson A. Dunn
Rated R for Horror Violence/Bloody Images, and Language
Stop me if you've heard this before. A childless couple in the middle of Kansas finds a humanoid baby in a crashed spaceship on their farm. They take him in and love him as their own. He grows up to have amazing superpowers: he is super fast, super strong, can shoot energy out of his eyes and he can fly. If you read that and said, "Hey! That sounds like Superman!" you win the prize! Only this time Clark Kent doesn't grow up to be Superman. His actions are far more sinister.
The problem isn't the central gimmick. It's that it's poorly executed. The film takes a good twist on a very old idea and treats it with a b-list script and a director-for-hire. "Brightburn" could have been a lot better, and it should have been. But the powers that be decided to walk through production instead of investing real effort in creating something special.
Casting leaves a bit to be desired. The film's only "name" actor is Elizabeth Banks, who has never been an especially good actress. She's adequate mainly because the part doesn't tax her limited range. Her co-stars aren't much better. David Denman is fine in the character role of the father, who is by turns loving and suspicious (but never smart). As the teenage Clark Kent from hell, Jackson A. Dunn fails. He's neither innocent nor creepy enough to pull the role off. As a result, Brandon, as he is known here, isn't someone we care about one way or another.
A movie like "Brightburn" is what happens when a good premise is handled with pedestrian direction. Granted, the screenplay by Mark and Brian Gunn (brothers of James Gunn, who produced this movie) isn't the best, but it's perfectly adequate for the film's purposes. But a movie like this depends almost exclusively on the execution, and that's where it fails. Shot selection is stale, there's very little atmosphere, and no sense of growing dread. This is a direct-to-DVD movie that got a theatrical release solely because it has James Gunn's name on the poster and because Hollywood is in the grip of an unending superhero obsession.
Maybe the problem is that the filmmakers are too reverential of the inspiration. By sticking so close to the Superman mythos, it robs the film of a lot of its tension. For example. We know what Brandon is capable of, and what he will inevitably do. We know that he can fly, throw people across the room and is almost invincible, blah blah blah. The rules of the game demand that he do all of these things, and while using his powers for wanton murder and mayhem is shocking, it's a twist that quickly loses its ability to shock.
"Brightburn" isn't a terrible movie by any means, and it certainly won't come anywhere near my Bottom 10 list. There's a decent amount of gore (including an injury that provoked winces and gasps from the audience I was with), some cool shots, and some dramatic moments that right true. And for all the talent that director David Yarovesky apparently lacks, he manages to make a Superman clone occasionally spooky. Which is something of an accomplishment. And while the inspiration for the film is obvious, Yarovesky at least has the common sense not to highlight every single Easter egg and reference. No one was pointing at the screen and calling out, "Oh! There's so and so from issue #627!" every five minutes. For which I am eternally grateful.
Still, I can't shake the feeling that it could have been so much more...
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