Bryce Durham

“Brightburn” is b-roll of continuous sequences that leaves audiences out of the inherent story. This is a movie only DC fans and those who like slasher/gory movies to enjoy. The movie leaves out context and character progression to present an edit that will jump scare the audience. It awkwardly places elements of cinematic tension and suspension in scenes to enhance the horror in the story that isn’t present. DC fans, like me, will love the James Gunn’s perspective of a “Zod-like” villain character from the Superman narratives in place of Cal-El, Superman himself, with a psychotic twist to him within the Brandon Breyer character. Also, fans have the pleasure of piecing together the story from the information presented on the movie screen. I give this movie a dislike for not showing elements of the story that mainstream audiences who watch R-rated films would enjoy. By the way, this movie is not starting a new genre called “superhero horror.” If it’s starting any new kind of genre, it would be starting more of a “super-villain horror” genre. This film features the rise of a villain. Not a hero. The depiction of Brandon Breyer is a psychotic twist to the character of Zod placed in the scenario Cal-El was lived through as a child. This is basically an origin story of a psychotic Zod maintaining the continuation of the “Kryptonian-like” species after being raised on Earth rather than a dying “Kryptonian-Like” planet. We get to see the dirty deeds Brandon Breyer reeks upon the “Smallville-Like” town in Kansas and his adopted parents. James Gunn maintains the slasher/gory feel to each scenes to keep the pleasing look of death and destruction for the niche audiences he reaches out to. Gunn stems the camera away from the story to give more screen-time to the action scenes and their individual buildups. This is done to preserve the cliche that the story lacks to fulfill a category he wants to succeed in within the entertainment side of the movie industry. That is the purpose of the movie, and he is successfully fulfilling that role.

Enjoyable cliche movie. Would’ve been fantastic without the cliches.