BEFORE: After this, just 8 more films until I roll out the horror films for October's programming. Mostly fantasy and time-travel films between here and there, but not all.
Steve Agee carries over from "The Suicide Squad", but he's just one of FIVE actors to do so. Normally I'd expect this sort of thing with two films from the same director, but the director of this film is named David Yarovesky - but the WRITERS both have the last name of Gunn, so possibly some connections here to James Gunn, director of "The Suicide Squad"? Yep, Sir James is listed as one of the producers.
THE PLOT: What if a child from another world crash-landed on Earth, but instead of becoming a hero to mankind, he proved to be something far more sinister?
AFTER: Back when they re-booted the Superman comics (after a VERY long volume 1?) in 1983, John Byrne started his "Man of Steel" origin story with a scene on Krypton, of course, much like the 1978 "Superman" movie, he depicted Jor-El and Lara putting their baby Kal-El into a rocket and sending him to Earth, away from their doomed planet. Well, sure, that's the obvious place to start the story, right? But a few years later, Byrne expressed some regret over not starting the story on Earth, with a young Clark Kent getting his powers, and not knowing at first where they came from, because for the new readers, that would have generated some form of suspense. Who is he really, why can he fly and shoot laser beams from his eyes, and what's that mysterious object buried under the barn? Starting the story at the obvious starting point gave away too many of the stories secrets on the first page, and there was an opportunity for the readers to discover his origin at the same time HE did.
It also would have created a few story beats, revelations like those laser beams, or the mysterious light coming from below the barn, or the ghost-like vision of Kal-El's father, that would have been cliff-hangers to end each issue on, and also could have generated suspense, similar to that seen in a typical horror story. "Superman" is just an alien invasion story, only it's years after the UFO landing that the alien becomes aware of his true nature. More modern adaptations of the Superman story, like "Smallville" and "Man of Steel", follow the practice of not starting the story on Krypton, and depict Clark investigating the mystery of himself when he learns he has powers and is not technically human.
The same story beats are seen in "Brightburn", after a rural couple, similar to the Kents, start to notice their son acting strangely, developing powers, and they're forced to come to terms with the events of years ago, when they also found an alien baby after a rocket-ship crash, and chose to raise him as a human. Perhaps the 1940's-era Kents were the perfect parents, and this modern couple just...isn't. I'm not sure if that's meant to say more about them specifically or modern parents in general - maybe Superman was a product of those times, and raising an alien child in the era of ADHD, participation trophies, social media and self-entitlement ends up producing an entirely different result. They're sort of doing a play on this too in the new CW show "Superman & Lois", in which an older Superman has two sons, one of whom is super-powered, and has to not only come to terms with his half-alien nature, but also moving to a new school, being bullied, competing with powers on a sports team, and his greatest weakness - talking to girls. (I feel you, Jordan.)
But in "Brightburn" they really ramp up the horror theme - what happens when a kid who already feels out of place in school, is starting to be curious about girls and their bodies, and is becoming more sullen and withdrawn by the day, suddenly starts being drawn to whatever's buried beneath the barn, and hears voices in an alien language that put him into a dream-like state, where he hovers in the air? And the voices seem to be telling him to take, take, whatever he wants from this world? There's that self-entitled nature of the kids today, in a nutshell. What's going to happen when he tries to get what he wants, and is told "NO!" by his parents, or his teachers, or any other authority. Umm, yeah, that's not going to go well. And many parents today refuse to discipline their kids, so that's not going to help. You reap what you sow...this is what you get when you let your kids run wild and act out in public, and then add the superpowers on top of that.
This is a perfect example of taking an existing story, putting one big twist on it, and then releasing it as a new thing, carrying the new story to a different illogical conclusion. The comic books do this themselves, over and over - how many characters are just riffs on Superman? Supergirl, obviously, but also Shazam!, then over at Marvel there's Hyperion, a member of the Squadron Supreme with a back-story very similar to Superman's (each member of the S.S. is based on a different member of DC's Justice League - Princess Power based on Wonder Woman, Nighthawk based on Batman, and so on.). Then Marvel made Sentry, also a riff on Superman - basically, every character's a riff on some other character, and many, many of them trace their roots back to Superman. The original Superman was influenced by other characters like John Carter, Dick Tracy, Popeye, Douglas Fairbanks, Johnny Weissmuller and wrestlers, all mixed together.
Anyway, Brandon Breyer's at that difficult age, when he can't seem to talk to girls (it's a common theme in comics, because nerds write comics), and he just wants to be alone in his room with pictures of what people look like under their clothes. Umm, and under their skin. And once Brandon realizes he can fly, is invulnerable AND has super-strength, why should he do what the adults tell him to do? Isn't it just easier to put on a mask and get rid of anybody who stands between him and the girl he loves? Except it turns out that once you kill ONE person, you might have to kill ANOTHER one to cover up the last murder, and then, before you know it, you just can't stop. Word to the wise, this is why you don't kill the first person in the first place.
NITPICK POINT: Brandon's adopted father gets very angry when his son is given a rifle as a birthday gift - yet, later in the film, Mr. Breyer and Brandon go hunting together, which means that he does approve of hunting and guns, to some degree, at least. This is a bit strange, most people are either very pro-gun or very anti-gun, it's a very polarizing issue, just like most issues in America these days. So, why did he get mad? Was he just mad that HE was robbed of the chance to give his son his first gun? That could be, but it doesn't really track, either. This is set in Kansas (like the Superman story) so pro-gun would probably make more sense. Then I can't tell why the birthday present causes such a scene.
For that matter, perhaps the point of the film is that Superman stands for "Truth, justice and the American way" - and those concepts seem very hard to find these days. Truth? How can people even tell what's true any more, between "fake news" and then false accusations of "fake news", which I guess would be "fake fake news", and then all the misinformation about vaccines and viruses and election fraud going around. Justice? For who? George Floyd? Breonna Taylor? Or is justice only reserved for white people and the well-to-do? OJ Simpson and Bill Cosby are out of prison, and lawsuits against Trump are still pending, so I don't know when we'll see justice circling back this way again. And the "American Way"? OK, but which one? Because for some reason there always seem to be two, with the most extreme views on every topic, from abortion to gun control to immigration and infrastructure. You have to be either all in on being for something or against it, and there's just no middle ground any more.
Or maybe this film just represents every parent's worst fear, deep down. If you do everything right when you're raising your child, then you've had a hand in creating the perfect adult - then you're the parent of some scientist who saves the world, or cures a disease, or wins the Nobel Peace Prize. But if you make ONE little mistake, then your kid grows up to be a serial killer, or a movie executive fined for sexual harassment, or a football coach who likes to touch little boys. Right? This is one reason I don't have any kids, it's too much pressure.
Also starring Elizabeth Banks (last seen in "Charlie's Angels" (2019)), David Denman (last seen in "Logan Lucky"), Jackson A. Dunn (last seen in "Avengers: Endgame"), Matt Jones (last seen in "The Layover"), Meredith Hagner (last seen in "Palm Springs"), Emmie Hunter, Becky Wahlstrom, Gregory Alan Williams (last seen in "Hidden Figures"), Annie Humphrey, Jennifer Holland (also carrying over from "The Suicide Squad"), Stephen Blackehart (ditto), Michael Rooker (ditto), Terence Rosemore (ditto), Abraham Clinkscales (last seen in "Black Panther"), Christian Finlayson (last seen in "Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween"), Mike Dunston (last seen in "Shaft" (2019)), Elizabeth Becka (last seen in "Just Mercy").
RATING: 5 out of 10 facts about wasps
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