The 100 Worst Movies of the '10s, #64: BRIGHTBURN (2019)

80. CABIN FEVER (2016)
79. THE AWAKENING (2011)
78. THE PYRAMID (2014)
77. LEFT BEHIND (2014)
76. PARANOIA (2013)
75. SAVING CHRISTMAS (2014)
74. A HAUNTED HOUSE (2013)
73. THE APPARITION (2012)
72. JONAH HEX (2010)
71. SCRE4M (2011)
70. THE DARKEST HOUR (2011)
69. SAW 3D (2010)
68. COP OUT (2010)
67. VACATION (2015)
66. THE DARK TOWER (2017)
65. THE GALLOWS (2015)
64. BRIGHTBURN (2019)



While we're on the topic of nasty supervillain movies, here's another that begins with an interesting premise but succumbs to its lowest-common-denominator instinct. Brightburn ought to have been a knockout of a twist on the comic book legend: a spacecraft lands in a Smallville-like town and births an alien child with superpowers, but instead of a Man of Steel, we get an adolescent maniac who inflicts his pubescent hormonal mood swings on the world. If the movie were more interested in exploring the complexities of that idea and less interested in shoving blood and guts into our faces, it might have been something.

Tori (Elizabeth Banks) and Kyle (David Denman) discover their new son Brandon (Jackson Dunn) in the same way Ma and Pa Kent discover Clark: a spacecraft lands in their backyard with a child inside, and they decide to raise him on their own.  Fast forward about 12 years and Brandon is hitting puberty, and coincidentally beginning to discover his powers.

The parallel between the body change of puberty and the discovery of a superpower is far from a novel one; the X-Men and Spider-Man, as well as Superman himself, have trod this ground many times. The new ground that Brightburn tries to go for is to make Brandon's transition as disgusting and toxic as possible. He torments the classmate he has a crush on, as well as her family; he brutally punishes a family friend who tries to rein him in; and finally he takes his aggression out on his parents.

There's a real movie here, but director David Yarovesky and writers Brian and Mark Gunn aren't equipped to explore it. The sub-plot about Brandon's "claiming" of a young classmate, which starts as an innocent crush and escalates into horrific incel revenge, might have been an honest depiction of toxic masculinity, if the movie weren't mostly concerned with portraying graphic torture for gory amusement. Eyes are pierced, heads are smashed, one poor fellow's jaw is ripped clean off for us all to enjoy.

The writers' brother, James Gunn, produced the film, and it feels like the work of someone who has seen his better work and not quite understood how to emulate it. Having come up making Troma films, Gunn of course has an appreciation for the disgusting, as is evidenced by his first mainstream film as director, Slither, which was slimy and icky and lots of fun. But no matter how icky, James Gunn's films have always been grounded in real humanity. Look at his own superhero satire Super, which supposed a vigilante played by Rainn Wilson who attacked petty criminals with a hammer. That movie had lots of skulls being split open, but never let us forget that it was about real people.