Brightburn Review

Brightburn was directed by David Yaroveskey and stars Elizabeth Banks, David Denman, Matt Jones, Meredith Hagner, Gregory Alan Williams, Becky Wahlstorm and Jackson A. Dunn.

The plot concerns a couple who have spent years raising an alien child, who looks exactly like any other human being, as their own. But they then have to deal with the consequences of their actions when in adolescence, the boy starts to develop powers that he uses to cause mass destruction around his hometown.

For performances, Elizabeth Banks does moderately well throughout, including the film's climax where she has to portray genuine fear and desperation at a believable but not over-the-top level, and I thought she did that quite well. And in the matter of Dunn as the titular antagonist he was especially good at portraying the cold, psychopathic and inhuman side of his character. And he remained credible throughout the film.

The film was written by Brian and Mark Gunn. What impressed me most about the script was how well the horrific scenes and the more character- and plot-driven scenes were balanced out. It demonstrated to me that the film could have its ambitions without having to sacrifice things that are arguably more important. Speaking of the film's more horrific moments, they are handled quite well, most of them being built up with just the right amount of tension, and when it pays off it feels worth it.

The film was shot by Michael Dallatorre and I feel that he has done a fine job, in fact it's in this particular area that I feel the film maybe got carried away with its lack of restrictions. There are a few shots of extreme graphic violence that I felt was the film's way of saying oh, look what we can do, isn't  this terrifying. I found it unsettling for about a second, but when the shot chose to linger on some of these disturbing images, it just felt like an unnecessary way of provoking the audience.

The score was composed by Timothy Williams, and what I found with his score is that much like another film I reviewed recently, due to all the things going on around it, the score became difficult to appreciate. The only time it manged to grab my attention was when it got inescapably loud and employed the use of musical stings; which to me just feels like a cheap way to get the viewer to jump out of their seat.

The most significant flaw I feel the film has is in its climax. To its credit, it did manage to keep me invested in what was happening, but it did so with methods that had already been used in the film several times already. Therefore any shock value was gone and the audience was by the end immune to any jump-scares the film can produce. I will also give it credit for making some bold choices in the final few minutes.

The conclusions I draw from this are that: Brightburn has two good performances, especially from a newcomer; a script that balances horror, character, and plot without sacrificing anything; some shots in the cinematography that go from unsettling to uninteresting; and a score that is effectively drowned out by everything happening around it and resorts to cheap tactics just to get some attention. And there is a flawed, but bold, climax.

Having taken all my pros and cons into account, I'm going to give Brightburn…
C
Thank you for reading.