Brightburn — A Review

8th August, 2019.

Yes …



And I’m almost ashamed to have to admit this … 

I was at my new place of work, today.



Not for a full on shift, mind: just to fill in the initial bits of paperwork … !

Which took a while, I know that: there’s more to do, I know that … !

At any rate: I start, formally, on the 16th.

Keeps your fingers crossed for me, I’m going to need a stupidly early night.

At any rate?

I had time, tonight, to actually catch a movie.

And, yes, so you know: it was the David Yarovesky directed, Brightburn.

~≈§≈~

Set in the fictional town of the same name, and written by Brian and Mark Gunn, Brightburn opens by showing us Tori (Elizabeth Banks) and Kyle (David Denman) Breyer: rural farmers desperate for a child.   

Only to be — ahem — interrupted, one night.

When what they think is a meteor hits their farm.

That meteor?   Turns out to be a crashed alien space ship … complete with a child.

A child the pair adopt, and christen Brandon (Jackson A. Dunn.)



You’d think a child like that would have a wonderful future, wouldn’t you … ?

Until, that is, Brandon turns twelve.



And starts hearing messages from the crashed spaceship hidden in the Breyer family barn … 

~≈§≈~

Now … 


Good, bad, indifferent?

Covered in chutney?

Let’s go last first, shall we?



Covered in chutney?



In other words, is this a fluffy, cheesy piece demanding a mango chutney accompaniment?

No.

Brightburn isn’t cheesy.



Far from it.



Whilst not a story driven by emotion, Brightburn is a horrific variation on the Superman story.

Showing us what happens if the central character starts abusing his powers.



Showing us — much as Boy Wonder does for Batman — exactly what happens when things go wrong.

OK: I don’t know that Brightburn is quite on a par with Boy Wonder.



But?



It is another film on the same riveting lines: there’s a gripping pair of central performances from Elizabeth Banks and Jackson A. Dunn, an unnerving look for the latter, plenty of realistic gore for the splatter fans 

and a seriously nasty edge all the way through.



There’s something else, too.

The last scenes — buried in the credits — imply there’s other nastiness in the proverbial woodwork.



If Brightburn is the first in a franchise?

I’d like to see that: in the hope that — unlike what I’ve of some of the Conjuring franchise — any other entries in the Brightburn series are improvements …

Brightburn?   Isn’t a great film.

But IS thoroughly entertaining, a good start for a franchise … 


And very watchable …

Brightburn.

★★★☆