As another filmgoing summer draws to a close (looking at my summer preview post, it looks like Hobbs & Shaw – an absolutely ridiculous over-the-top action flick that I reviewed last week – was where I drew the line between summer and fall, at least cinematically speaking) I’m trying to raise my tally of dog-day blockbusters that I can claim to have seen, and Brightburn – a movie that I actually rented on Google Play, given that it came out in theaters way back in May – is my latest effort on that front. My viewing of the suspense-horror film designed to put an interesting and antagonistic twist on a thinly veiled Superman character puts me at 9/19 on the summer – just a hair under fifty percent, and looking back at my list, it looks like a lot of the films on that list that I neglected to see (Aladdin, Lion King, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Dark Phoenix, and Men in Black: International, to name a few) are ones that I’m glad to have missed. As for the films on the list that I have seen, I’d rank Brightburn, which I’ll be discussing for the remainder of this post, fairly low among them, if not dead last. They can’t all be winners.
Me when I see that the machine that I want to use at the gym is taken.
The premise of Brightburn holds a lot of promise, and in the age of billion-dollar superhero bonanzas asks the possibly much more subdued question “what if Superman turned out to be a bad guy, or even just not that good a guy?” What I think Brightburn does right – both in the sense of answering this question and in the sense of differing itself from, and perhaps even subverting, the comic-book genre – is keep the sets small and the stakes low. Looking at its overall execution from this angle, I think what the film yearns to be more than a blockbuster is a more thoughtful study on the characters involved in answering such a question – the boy himself and his parents, mostly – with the horror-suspense elements coming from things taking a turn opposite that of the conventional “this extremely powerful being is here to help us” take. The problem – well, the main problem; I’d say there are quite a few problems with Brightburn – is that the film then inexplicably favors turning on the blood faucets over addressing its own dramatic question with any subtlety, especially in the last twenty or so minutes. I know that in a genre like this, subtlety is rare – and in fact, a lack of subtlety in the violence shown in the trailer is probably what drew people to Brightburn in the first place – but it’s something I certainly would have liked more than the final result, which at times employs a grade of CGI to achieve its body count that I feel is subpar.
A tip for Mr. Breyer in the future – maybe don’t leave such a recognizable calling card at the scenes of your heinous crimes.
Throughout the course of Brandon Breyer’s possibly puberty-driven descent into evil, we find both moments that are genuine fun and moments that are funny when they aren’t supposed to be, eliciting guffaws out of me during sequences that were probably supposed to be quite serious, though this isn’t altogether uncommon of the horror genre in general in my case. For lack of a better term, it’s the definition of a mixed bag, and that bag sadly also isn’t devoid of holes (plot holes, to be specific – this is especially true of the end, which I’ve already mentioned isn’t great). I don’t think the problem is necessarily the writing – while it’s painfully light on characterization and occasionally features clunky exposition crammed into a few lines that’s probably more deserving of an entire scene, the dialogue is for the most part good, and the bones of the story are in the right places. For that reason, it’s a bit challenging for me to diagnose what my exact issues with Brightburn are, but a quick look at Rotten Tomatoes shows that I’m not remotely alone in the feeling that the film’s promise winds up squandered – even the positive reviews that the film have gotten claim as much. With that said, I know that in my case the quality of the performances was a contributing factor in nearly any lack of enjoyment that I experienced.
This dream sequence near the middle of the movie was maybe the high point in terms of non-jump-scare horror.
As the cast of Brightburn goes, there are a few recognizable names – namely David “Roy From The Office” Denman, who by the way is a brick house of a man in this movie, and Elizabeth Banks, who both play the parents of the film’s central child-alien figure – but their performances could most aptly be described as unimpressive, and the obviously pivotal role of said child-alien Brandon Breyer is played by Jackson A. Dunn in a way that I wish was forgettable but is instead memorable for all the wrong reasons. But Michael Rooker has a fun Alex Jones-y cameo at the end that’s probably borne entirely by his relationship with producer James Gunn, and also appearing briefly is Matt Jones, who some of you may (like me) know him as Badger from Breaking Bad, and who is featured in arguably the film’s most fun sequence, so it’s not all bad. I’d say that Jones is one of the only actors in Brightburn who actually seems care about what he’s doing/making, and he makes the most of minimal screentime, right down to his final scene, which ends in an overly grisly demise. Which, by the way, to any movie producers/writers/directors out there who for some reason read this digital rag: I think there are some situations in which the use of gore for dramatic effect and maybe even shock value is completely appropriate, but with that said, I don’t think there are any prospective Brightburn audience members who wanted to see a grown man’s jaw get essentially ripped off, and for that matter, I doubt they wanted to spend any time watching said man try frantically to keep the lower half of his face attached. To that end, I also don’t think anyone wants to see a woman pull a piece of broken glass out of her own eyeball, but hey, it’s not like this is supposed to be a family film, and at the end of the day this is just one moderately squeamish guy’s opinion.
David Denman preparing for his amazing performance in the incredible “sex talk” scene. It might be worth watching Brightburn just to experience the weapons-grade awkwardness on display here.
When I look back on my viewing of Brightburn, I think what I feel most strongly is a sense of missed opportunity, given that it’s a well-intentioned film with a strong premise that has a reasonable amount of powerful names attached to it. Due to the strong inkling of a sequel (or maybe even more than one, unless there’s grappling with DC for the rights to turn what are very obviously pastiches of their noble heroes into evildoers), I’m curious to see if future films in this vein won’t be largely undone by poor acting and occasional CGI choices that I’m willing to deem unforgivable. In the meantime, what I have to report about this potential franchise-starter – and every studio is after franchise-starting IP these days instead of higher-quality standalones, sadly – is that it’s still a reasonable amount of horror-driven fun in spite of its clear execution flaws. A similar, albeit now-aging film that’s created with a similar intent is pre-Fantastic Four Josh Trank‘s Chronicle (2012), and I’d certainly recommend that over this, provided you can stomach a found-footage format.
Tuesdays with Cory 