Brightburn, the story of a married couple who cannot conceive a child of their own, decide to keep the one that lands in their back forty. Superman is always portrayed as pure good the ultimate example of truth and justice, will sacrifice himself for the greater good, maybe even Christlike. That’s not this story. This one will sacrifice you, open your insides and use your intestines to draw his name. If you’re into that, this is your movie.

Director David Yarovesky (The Hive) makes his sophomore attempt, one that has some weight behind it, produced by James Gunn and written by Gunn’s brother Brian and cousin Mark. The Gunn aesthetic is in full force here with plenty of gory kills and spurts of blood. The gore comes across as gratuitous most times but I guess that’s the point.

The bright (heh) spots are the mother and father, Elizabeth Banks and David Denman play the titular barren couple who take it upon themselves to adopt young Brandon (Jackson A. Dunn). Seeing the love only a mother and father can muster coming to terms that their perfect child is a chaotic evil demon is pretty fun to watch. The upside down approach works, what if the hero we think we know decides what truth is and brings his own inhumane justice. In 2019 it seems appropriate, this ain’t 1950 anymore.

Overall it held my attention, but the emptiness of most of the characters takes away from what I think could have been a really cool story. I do like the idea of evil superheroes, just not this one.

2.5/5