Brightburn movie analysis

Brightburn (2019) film analysis

Comments: did a poor job in the middle of it, but its whatever




The Hero Nobody Wanted
	Brightburn was a film made in 2019 by David Yarovesky. Brightburn is based around an evil superhero who strongly takes after a very specific superhero. Tori (Elizabeth Banks) and Kyle Breyer (David Denman) have been wanting a baby, but after months of trying with no hope, there is a loud thump, and the couple go outside to see an unidentified object that landed in the woods behind their house. The unidentified object opens up to a baby inside of the object. The screen goes black and we jump years into the future where the baby is now Brandon Breyer (Jackson A. Dunn) at 12 years old and he is just starting middle school. He is very smart for his age and gets picked on by typical school bullies for being a ‘know-it-all’. Around this time is also whenever we start to see his superpowers manifest. The way we can tell this is that the barn on the Breyer property starts to glow and Brandon then has voices that are whispering things in his sleep. In one of the following shots, he is shown falling out of his second story window and his mother Tori hears and goes to check out the barn. She finds Brandon throwing himself viciously against the barns closed and locked doors on the floor. Tori then tries to calm him down and he wakes up not being able to recollect what happened. The first known instance of his powers manifesting was whenever Brandon got mad and threw the lawnmower after an argument with his father. The lawnmower is flung into the air and whenever Brandon goes over to where the lawnmower is and the blades are still spinning. You cannot tell what Brandon is thinking and all of a sudden he puts his hand into the lawnmower blade and you can hear the metal start to creak and the blades stop moving around his hands.
	We are then jumped to a fun-filled birthday celebration for Brandon where he is joined by Tori’s sister Merilee (Meredith Hanger) and her husband Noah (Matt Jones). When it comes time to give out gifts, Noah gifts Brandon a gun and Kyle quickly snatches the gun from Brandon and a verbal argument ensues. Tori and Kyle take Brandon home embarrassed and later that night when Brandon is asleep, they talk to each other about how they worry for their son. More strange things happen with Brandon showcasing his decent into madness and then we eventually get to the first kill. Then the second, and third, etc. until the movie comes to a close.
The movie itself is such a good movie. I can tell why some people may not like it, but at the same time it is all about the way you look and go into the movie. If you are looking for an in depth superhero goes rogue movie, then you are not watching the right movie. On the contrary, if you are looking for a gory superhero horror movie, then you will enjoy the movie. Irish Times author Donald Clarke notes that the movie has a great concept, but does not know where to go with that concept. I believe that the movie does know where it was going, but it did not do it in the best way it could have done it. The movie is such an enjoyable movie and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The ending sets us up for a sequel and even a potential evil Justice League by showcasing a different superhero gone rogue in a news-style broadcast, but since the movie did not do as well as anticipated in the box office, we unfortunately did not get to see where this story could have lead.
Movie reviewer Simon Abrams on the site Roger Ebert, states that the movie is very disappointing. He says that Brightburn is only there for the kills and not for the plot. I have to agree to an extent. The movie does primarily focus on gore and kills, but there are quite a few enjoyable moments in Brightburn. It is not only just ‘for kills’ it focuses on a what-if. It is supposed to be quirky in nature since it is a different take on a famous genre of movies. Mr. Abrams’s review just feels like a mean review rather than a fleshed out unbiased review. Mr. Abrams also states in the conclusion of his review that “ if you’re going to try to provoke viewers by turning Superman—a famously cheery and un-cynical character—into a symbol of modern-day depravity: you have to at least make me care about the people he’s slaughtering in creative ways.” This just feels biased. Honestly, it feels heartbreaking the way that he talks about the Gunn family. Since most of the Gunn family did work on this movie. You could clearly tell he already did not like and appreciate their movies, and it became more apparent in this movie review after watching Brightburn. If you compare these two reviews, you can clearly see a bias in one and a more on-topic review.
Movies are all about the way you look at them. It’s all about perspective. If you have the right perspective about a movie, then you will enjoy it. Take a comedy movie for example. If you go into a comedy movie looking for a different genre, then you would not enjoy it. So, in order to get the most out of a movie; I would recommend looking at Brightburn (2019) in the way it is supposed to be looked at, a rogue horror/superhero movie.





Works cited
Abrams, Simon. "Brightburn Movie Review & Film Summary (2019)." RogerEbert.com, 24 May 2019, https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/brightburn-2019.(Roger Ebert)
Clarke, Donald. "Brightburn: Superhero Horror Makes for Interesting Yet Frustrating Viewing." The Irish Times, 21 June 2019, https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/film/brightburn-superhero-horror-makes-for-interesting-yet-frustrating-viewing-1.3929656.