If you are like me, you’ve been eagerly awaiting James Gunn’s genre-crossing antihero movie Brightburn. I snagged my copy yesterday, and let me tell you, it lives up to the hype.
Holy hell, this movie was good, I mean, like make your jaw drop good. It’s dark, gritty and just f*cking fantastic all the way around. And the gore, Jesus, it was stomach-turning. That eye scene was so incredibly well shot! But don’t get me wrong, it’s not all about the blood and gore it’s about the family. And it will make your run a gambit of emotions from pity, sadness, shock, and heartbreak before it goes nuclear and turns disturbing and downright scary. By the end of the movie, you will be begging for more (hint, hint James Gunn, we want a sequel).
At the heart of this film is a family, played by David Denman and Elizabeth Banks. Banks, whose determination to love and support her son no matter what is so honorable. But in the end, we all let our mothers down don’t we?
The real star of this film is Jackson A. Dunn who absolutely killed it as the psychopathic, obsessive, otherworldly kid whose puberty turns him into a killing machine. He is so good at playing evil that it’s kind of scary. He’s so very talented. I expect that we will see this kid a lot in the future.
While this isn’t the first time (or the fifth) that we’ve seen a movie about a baby landing on earth being adopted by a nice family and growing up to be a super-powerful being, but it sure as hell is the best version we’ve seen.
Brightburn is exactly what the superhero genre has needed. Unlike with every other superhero/villain, there are no skin-tight costumes and bulging muscles, no sad origin stories or abuse, this villain is just a powerful kid in a mask, a freaky, disturbing one. It feels more real than what Marvel or DC has given us. Its combination of superhero and horror are perfectly blended, giving us a movie that I believe will be a new classic and hopefully is just the beginning of a franchise.
David Yarovesky did a fantastic job from the director’s chair and writers Brian Gunn and Mark Gunn deserve an award, and James Gunn produced the hell out of this movie.
So, if you are wondering what score I’m going to give Brightburn, it’s a 5 out of 5, no question. Stop what you are doing and go buy a copy now.
