Movie Review: Brightburn (2019)
Brightburn is a superhero/horror film directed by director David Yarovesky and writers Brian Gunn and Mark Gunn. If the last name “Gunn” sounds familiar to you, it’s likely because of the success of their cousin James Gunn, who wrote and directed the Guardians of the Galaxy films. Unlike James, they don’t have a huge amount of previous experience in the writing department when it comes to Box Office films, but they managed to pull off success in Brightburn (or at least we think so).
The story is about a couple who can’t seem to have a child naturally due to fertility issues, and “adopts” one. That child turns out to be Brandon (Jackson A. Dunn), who is actually an alien with superhuman powers. Unlike Superman, he isn’t here to save the world.
The first thing to note that we thought makes this film special that we enjoyed was that it wasn’t another A-list superhero film. It’s refreshing to see a film like this hit the theater with some actors that aren’t bigger than their roles. The most famous actor you will see in this film was in the scenes that played during the credits. There are a couple of notable faces in there like David Denman (most well-known for his role as Roy in The Office) who plays one of the leads as Brandon’s father, and Elizabeth Banks who plays Brandon’s mother and has a wealth of experience. Also, Matt Jones who has been in several popular shows such as Breaking Bad. And, of course, Jackson A. Dunn himself who did a fantastic job as the antagonist, Brandon. It was great to see a talented team like this get some time in the spotlight after seeing 20 years of superhero films with A-list celebrities. Not to take anything away from them, of course, but this crew was great. Sometimes when you are watching a film, the actors themselves are more prominent than the role they are playing, and it takes away from the immersion of the film. I would much rather see something like this, where you can focus more on the characters. To put this into perspective, it’s like seeing Will Smith as Deadshot or the genie in Aladdin. At the end of the day, it’s Will Smith, and he’s a great actor, but it’s hard to see past that and immerse yourself in the role he’s playing and not the actor.
The story itself is also pretty good. It is kinda like what you would expect to see if Superman were to land on Earth and realize his power and superiority over humans and want to take full advantage early on in his youth. When it comes to the score and special effects, they did a great job. Obviously, it’s a large production that cost millions to make and it’s expected that they will have a good score, but they were able to nail the atmosphere where it needed to be building tension, and that is a great quality here. Some bigger-budget films will often miss the mark in this category. The special effects and scenes with gore were just great. There were some imaginative kill scenes peppered throughout this that really reminded you that this was actually partially a horror film, and some really good cinematography as well.
There were some moments throughout the film that detracted more from the horror side of things than we would have liked, but we also understand that it is just a kid, and he is just coming to terms with his powers. We think that there could have been more of the evil kid, and less of mom and dad. Aside from that, though, there was a pretty decent balance.
Overall, Brightburn is a very cool horror crossover that we really enjoyed. The few gripes we had about wanting more horror were only because the moments where the horror shined were done extremely well, and you can’t blame us for wanting to see more. Hopefully, we will in the future in the way of a sequel or prequel of some kind, and we would definitely recommend giving this a watch. For being a theater release from a crew that wasn’t A-list, they did an amazing job putting this together.
Brightburn is in theaters everywhere right now.
