Looking for something a little different for our night’s entertainment, I selected “Brightburn” from my stack of unwatched movies. I remember that when I bought this film I was intrigued with the concept. The Director/Writers took the original story of Superman’s origins and added a twist, at least that is what the tag lines were promoting (not in so many words), and what I had understood from a trailer that I had seen a bit before purchasing the film. Well, while there is some similarity, it was not quite what I was expecting.
“Brightburn” has a reasonably unknown cast except for Elizabeth Banks, with that in mind, you know that you are not destined to get a blockbuster film or something with amazing special effects. While Elizabeth Banks is a pretty good actress, she is not an A lister in Hollywood. I would classify her as more of a B+ in the Hollywood scale. Additionally, besides a few comments I had heard from friends who had watched this film, and the one trailer I saw, I was not sure if I would like the film. I am a fan of the “superhero” genre and have pretty much enjoyed every one of the films from Marvel or DC to one extent or another. So, I was a little unsure about this supposed dark side of Superman’s origins.
With that in mind, we started the film and hunkered down to watch this anti-hero film. Well, the film starts out in a small farm in the town of Brightburn Kansas. A nice middle-aged couple, the Breyers (Banks and Denman) are struggling to start a family. Obviously, their fertility is in question by the actions of the characters, but they try desperately to conceive. Then one night, while they are “trying” there is a flashing light and a boom in the distance. (Sound familiar so far?). So they rush off, and then the next scene they are showing little baby Brandon, then a few other scenes of him growing up. So far, nothing really different from the original Superman storyline.
The timeline jumps about 10 or so years, and now young Brandon is starting to hear voices, walk in his sleep and starting to have strange urges. These urges are not like most adolescents and young teenagers, no matter what his father thinks. Additionally, he is now speaking a strange language that is not recognizable. His father, thinking that he is only experiencing the standard angst of adolescence has a painful “Talk” with him…even though it was painful to see, it was actually funny, as I am sure fathers the world over has felt the same unease over the “Talk” with their son’s for thousands of years. Taking the advice of his father, which was basically embrace the changes in his body, and demonstrate his feelings to his young crush, Brandon’s (Dunn) powers start to take form.
It is at this point the story goes from a superhero origin plot line if you will, to basically a rip-em up/off horror flick. Brandon (Dunn) dealing with his new found powers becomes basically a terror to his family and community and more specifically his school crush. This becomes amplified when he discovers the truth of his origins from his mother, Tori (Banks). Discovering that he is not from this world, he starts a reign of havoc on the local community, and wreaks revenge on all that have crossed him. While this is no longer a superhero flick (or anti superhero), it now transforms into a somewhat cheezy, very bloody horror film. This is especially evident in the last act, as the final confrontation is somewhat reminiscent of other horror films (i.e. Carrie, and The Omen), and almost blatantly ripping off the actual themes. I guess a good formula will always work eh?
What did I like about this film, well at first, the premise. Making an origin story of a superhero that is not really a hero, or becomes a bizarre superman was actually kind of refreshing. However, as mentioned above, it is not really the case. The first 20 minutes or so when they were setting up the story, I thought it would be interesting to see how he would turn evil, but for all intents and purposes, this just became a good excuse to rip people apart and cause copious amount of destruction and bloodshed. Once I got used to the new idea, it was not too bad. The cast was solid in this b film, and Elizabeth Banks did a pretty good job playing the tortured mother (emotionally and figuratively). The rest of the cast also gave an admirable performance, including the main character, Brandon. Additionally, I found the special effects to be ok (considering the caliber of the film) and the script and storyline flowed reasonable well. A few scenes made us jump, and even made my wife hide her face, so for respect to a horror film, I guess it filled the mark. We also enjoyed the Micheal Rooker cameo at the end, as the crazy conspiracy theorist who was spouting out that aliens were amongst us, showing clips of Brandon wreaking havoc. Rooker is a talented actor, maybe a bit typecast, but he always delivers. His last little cameo actually made me laugh out loud.
What didn’t I like? Well, this was advertised as a “Anti-Superman” origins story, but basically it was a horror film that ripped off (or should I say inspired by) several other films. I would have liked to see a real “anti-Superman” origin story, somewhat like the Amazon series ‘The Boys” delivers. So it was a bit misleading. But, having said all that, once I got used to the new take, it was ok.
As this film did not have a huge main cast, lets take a quick look at them:
Elizabeth Banks as Tori Breyer: As I have mentioned before, I find Banks a solid B+ actor. She is great in an ensemble piece, but I don’t think that she has the clout to carry a major film on her own. In many aspects, it is good that this was not a major film production, but one that is considered a lower budget production (according to IMDB, the film cost 6 million to make and only garnered 30+ million world wide). As the only real “star” in the film, her performance as Tory was well done. She emoted the love and anguish of a mother in a rather believable fashion and ensured that the story moved along. Pretty much the finale of the movie is almost a copy (or maybe homage) to Carrie, and she completed the scene well. There may be various opinions on how her performance was in this film, but we found it to be OK, we enjoyed her in Hunger Games far more, but also it was a bigger budget and a smaller role.
David Denman as Kyle Breyer: He was ok here, the funniest part of his role was the “Talk” that he had with his son. His acting was so-so, I thought he was much better in Logan Lucky or 13 Hours, but then again, as mentioned, this is a low budget flick with not much to help it out. His suspicion of his adopted son was believable, but at times it his fatherly emotions seemed forced.
Jackson A. Dunn as Brandon Breyer: As the principal actor in the film, Dunn did a pretty good job in our opinion. He conveyed the confusion and teenage angst quite well, and also the uncertainty of what he was meant to do. However, when he was talking “alien” and some of his subsequent actions as Brightburn, well, they came out almost comical when it was not supposed to be. He is a young actor who will no doubt have many more roles in the future to sharpen and enhance his skills. Overall, I would find his performance to be fair, though a bit uneven.
Matt Jones as Noah McNichol: Jones was the bumbling uncle in Brightburn. We found him amusing in his scenes, even if a bit cartoonish. However, if I recall correctly, whenever I saw him in other films or TV, he seems to play that same persona. On the plus side, he did have a great death scene, (sorry for the spoiler, but this is horror flick, everyone dies!), that was not only well done, but, I hate to say almost funny. (It reminded me a bit of the special effects used in American Werewolf in London, maybe that is why I thought it was little funny, instead of being gross). In short, his performance was ok, and his character did help the storyline progress to reach the end
Meredith Hagner as Merilee McNichol: Hagner played Merilee, Tori’s (Banks) sister and the aunt and school councillor to Brandon (Dunn). Not a huge role, but a supporting one nonetheless. Her performance was OK during the intense sequences with Brandon (Dunn) as she tried to council him at school and send him home after a late night visit to her place. Nothing extraordinary in it, just ok. However, this could have been due to limited budget, script or direction. I perused her IMDB resume and could not find anything that I had seen in her in, so I have nothing to compare this role to in her case.
Overall, how did we find the film? And, most importantly, were we entertained? Well, I will say yes, we were. The film, while actually a bit misleading in the concept, but did prove to be entertaining enough to follow through to the end. As the movie transitioned from an Anti-superhero film to a horror movie, it provided enough intensity and special effects to keep us watching. While there was nothing earth-shattering great about this film, it was good enough to sit through a few weeks before Halloween. I could even take the predictability and thefts/homage to other horror films of the past. The Micheal Rooker cameo at the end was well done and made me laugh out loud. One interesting point that I found out, was that during the Rooker’s monologue, it showed Brandon flying through and destroying a building. While this building looked extremely familiar, it was not until I was researching the film that I found out it was a building from my city that was destroyed a few years ago to make room for newer developments. So we found that part kind of neat. Anyways, I have digressed; would I recommend this film. Yes, if you are a fan of horror films and want to see something a little different then give it a try. If you want to see superheroes gone bad, then, pick Amazon’s “The Boys” as your go to film. But it is an ok little timewaster on a winters night.
Our rating: 5/10
If you are looking for other films from the main cast, consider the following recommendations:
Elizabeth Banks Hunger Games (franchise), Our Idiot Brother, W., Definitely Maybe
David Denman Logan Lucky, 13 Hours, The Gift
Matt Jones Breaking Bad
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