Review of Brightburn (2019) by Ajzeg01 — 30 Nov 2019

This movie was entertaining but overall I don’t think it was as good as the premise should’ve allowed it to be. Before I get into the review, I just want to get a couple things out of the way. First of all, James Gunn did not direct this movie.

However, he did produce it and the film was written by two of his brothers. Second of all, this is a movie that asks the question, “What if Superman used his powers for evil instead of good?” This idea has been done many times before, like in Batman v Superman, Injustice, Megamind and more.

However, this is a horror movie starring a young superpowered child. Think something along the lines of The Omen or The Shining but with a superhero theme. That’s a great idea, but I don’t think it was fleshed out very well.

The movie is way too short. It’s only 90 minutes long and I feel like it rushed through a lot of important details that would’ve made the film stronger if they had been developed and established better.

It really needed to be 2 hours. As it is right now, the movie feels kind of empty and underwhelming. However, it does have some very creative and nasty kills, it has good effects, it is well-acted and it is well-shot.

All the pieces of a potentially great movie are there, they just didn’t quite fit together. I’d love to see a sequel that expands the world of the film and improves on the ideas of the story. This movie is worth a watch if you’re curious, but I didn’t think it was great.

That is kind of inexcusable for a movie with a premise this creative.