Horror Brightburn aka Superman's origin as a horror film

[KaijuDude1992]

Homelander in The Boys is pretty much how you do the concept of an evil or corrupt version of Superman the right way. Just watch that instead if you actually want to see a good version of this movie.

 

[Schlosser85]

Homelander in The Boys is pretty much how you do the concept of an evil or corrupt version of Superman the right way. Just watch that instead if you actually want to see a good version of this movie.

Homelander in general is a great example of how you do a character who's a terrible person yet still with depth and nuance and not just a one-note villain.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Loved Brightburn personally, open we get a sequel at some point.

 

[metaphysician]

Homelander in general is a great example of how you do a character who's a terrible person yet still with depth and nuance and not just a one-note villain.

Indeed, his evil and villainy has many different notes.

I think the problem with Brightburn is, sure, you can do "What if Clark Kent were Michael Meyers", but it pretty much means the same thing as "What if a giant asteroid were heading to the Earth". Which is to say, the answer is "Well, that would be bad" ( hat tip: Moviebob ), but there's not much *beyond* that. Its a disaster, but there isn't really much room for drama beyond "How do these characters react to realizing the presence of unavoidable, unstoppable catastrophe?" Its not so much that idea if completely worthless, it just has a definite cap on its potential aspiration. Which doesn't seem to bother Gunn, as it looks like all he really wanted to do was "Superman origin story slasher movie", and play with the intermix of the symbols and tropes of both to creep the audience out. But hey, not every movie has to shoot for the stars, having a limited target that you aim to hit effectively should be more accepted.

 

[samsnee]

The opening credits made it seem like the kid had a pretty normal upbringing. Both mom and dad weren’t abusive or mean. So it didn’t click with me he wouldn’t open up to them about what he was experiencing. Basically this kid had the same upbringing as Clark Kent. But the ship was telling him to be evil. They didn’t really explore that part. He flicked a switch because the script needed him to.

 

[Kane52630]

I still liked it for what it is, but I agree that they could've easily explored the story more with way more depth... kinda like what The Boys are doing.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

I don't see what more depth they could have explored than they already did, without going further into the kids home planet. Yes he was brought up relatively normal, but he quite clearly had some programming inside him to eventually 'take the world.'

Brain washing/programming can't be nurtured away. I think the kid had doubts about what he was doing 'I wanna do good Mum' but couldn't fight it and embraced it.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

So apparently a sequel is in the works according to an article on the site that shall not be named.

 

[Primal Slayer]

Finally watched this last night.

It was decent. Wasnt amazing. Wasnt horrible. Would've liked to get to know more about where he came from.

I see that they set up their own versions of the JL in the end that obviously wont be going anywhere.

One of the downsides is that I feel like they didnt really explore Brandons "switch" or trying to fight against it. He is constantly going in and out of his "alien mode" if thats what you want to call it where he doesnt remember what happens and then he is just in full alien mode. Doesnt seem to care about much of anything.

 

[Lily Adler]

Finally watched this last night.

It was decent. Wasnt amazing. Wasnt horrible. Would've liked to get to know more about where he came from.

I see that they set up their own versions of the JL in the end that obviously wont be going anywhere.

One of the downsides is that I feel like they didnt really explore Brandons "switch" or trying to fight against it. He is constantly going in and out of his "alien mode" if thats what you want to call it where he doesnt remember what happens and then he is just in full alien mode. Doesnt seem to care about much of anything.

Only because Gunn was never touching the actual JL: