<Review by: Sailesh Ghelani>

Directed by David Yarovesky. Starring Elizabeth Banks, David Denman, Jackson A. Dunn, Matt Jones, Meredith Hagner, Gregory Alan Williams

Running time: 1 hour 30 mins

From the trailer you can surmise that this is basically a story about a bad ‘superman’. And it is. It’s also a bad film. 

Stealing a storyline from one of the most popular and well-known origin stories in comic book and superhero history is probably the biggest fault of Brightburn. Because it has given away half of the film. The other half was given away in the trailer. So, there’s not much by way of surprises here. Oh wait, perhaps the dumb ass parents and clueless town of Brightburn is a surprise. But then rural America isn’t particularly known for being bright.

The Breyers (Elizabeth Banks and David Denman) can’t have a baby and one night when they’re trying to conceive one a mysterious object lands near their farm. A few years later we see them with a kid and pretty much know where he came from. All seems hunky-dory until little Brandon starts realising he has super powers. But does he use them for good? No, of course not. His parents don’t seem to care to know more about him and are in complete denial about mysterious occurrences and deaths in their small town. They don’t even think Brandon breaking the hand of one of his classmates just by holding it is something to be concerned about. You’re like, ‘Wait, are they not getting this?’. They just keep going to bed!

The boy in the meantime sets about killing off people he doesn’t like in very dramatic and ‘Final Destination’ fashion. Jackson A. Dunn (obviously related to the Dunn’s producing and writing this film) has the perfect face for this role that sees him use his victim’s blood to paint his logo as a calling card. There’s never any reasoning given as to why the boy who was raised by good parents would turn this bad just at the beckoning of his evil ship that’s been kept in the basement of their farmhouse (I’m surprised the guys at DC haven’t sued their asses for blatant plagiarism).

At some point your irritation with all these dumb characters makes you side with Brandon and you want him to rid the planet of these morons. There’s no motivation here, no hero or person you can empathise with. Brandon is like an evil child who lashes out when he doesn’t get a toy. There’s nothing you can get behind in this movie.