Review: Brightburn

An alien craft lands in rural America, and hippy-ish childless couple Elizabeth Banks and David Denman adopt the human-looking ‘child’ found inside. It takes about 12 years for them to realise they’re no Ma and Pa Kent, and this ‘kid’ they’ve been raising at gonna be no Superman. Played by Jackson A. Dunn, he’s got superpowers alright, but he’s dark, creepy, violent, and has no intention of saving the world. In fact, he might just end up doing the opposite.

A lot of people got strangely “Kick-Ass” morally offended on this one for reasons I can’t quite figure out now I’ve seen this 2019 anti-superhero flick. Directed by David Yarovesky (who mostly comes from a short background) and scripted by cousins Brian and Mark Gunn (The fabulous sounding “Bring it On: Again”), it all seems much ado about nothing. I didn’t outright reject the idea of an anti-superhero film, nor one with a youngster in that role, though I did worry the film would end up more “Omen” clone than anti-superhero film. Turns out, the big problem here is that it’s just really sloppily made. Needing to be far longer in order to flesh out its origin story and worldview, the film ends up massively underdone, rushed, and full of stupid behaviour. Elizabeth Banks’ terrific, committed performance is the only thing here that really works, even if her character at times proves idiotic.

The biggest issue here is that the central character, his nature, and the basic situation are never properly fleshed-out. I mean, his adopted parents played very well by Banks and David Denman keep going on about how he’s just a pre-teen kid. The basic idea here being that of a pre-teen being given superpowers, which could prove very, very dangerous. Thing is, he wasn’t given the powers and we don’t even know if he’s legitimately a ‘pre-teen’. That’s because he’s a bloody alien, so he was born with the damn powers and could be at any stage in development for all anyone knows here. The idea just doesn’t work. It’s like the filmmakers came up with the basic concept and had absolutely no idea what to do with it. If the film were longer, I feel like the filmmakers might’ve been able to make a go of it, but at this length, they’ve completely botched it.

Banks (playing unconditional motherly love effortlessly) and Denman are clearly game, playing the best adoptive parents you could ever possibly ask for. They’re almost as wonderful as Peter Gallagher and Kelly Rowan in the first season of “The O.C.” before their flaws started to show a bit. However, when Banks is shown consulting Dr. Google on how to deal with her ALIEN ‘son (!), even these two perfectly nice people are just too stupid to ultimately give two shits about. So I never bought into any of this, though your mileage may differ a bit. I didn’t hate the film like some seem to have, but it’s a sloppy, silly mess that I definitely can’t defend. I did like that it sorta starts like “Superman”, playing into the whole flipside of the coin thing, and that this kid uses the nerdy, Clark Kent-y side of him to disguise the evil intent within. That was clever, and I like the dark cinematography by Michael Dallatorre (mostly from a short background, like the director) as well. There’s also some nice gore here and there too. It’s not nearly enough to save the film though, especially when you’ve got dumb arse characters trying to shoot a knowingly alien creature with standard-issue bullets and being surprised that they don’t prove fatal. For. Fuck’s. Sake. He’s. An. Alien. Get. It?

Although it would be tricky, I think this basic idea could’ve worked. The filmmakers haven’t found the way to make it work. Gory, but undernourished and very, very clunky. Banks and Denman are excellent, as is the cinematography, but otherwise it’s a pretty firm no from me. How did anyone involved expect this thing to work properly at just under 90 minutes?

Rating: C-