On 9 July 2022, I watched the anti-superhero movie Brightburn, which was directed by David Yarovesky, and released in 2019 by Sony Pictures.
I call Brightburn an anti-superhero movie, because what it does, and very effectively too, is take the basic Superman premise but give it a totally different spin, a seriously twisted twist, in fact, yet one that is not only truly horrific in parts but also mesmerisingly engrossing throughout.
Just as in Superman, a childless couple (named Tori and Kyle Breyer, played by Elizabeth Banks and David Denman) living in a small American town find a crashed spacecraft nearby containing an alien but wholly humanoid infant boy whom they adopt and rear as their own, naming him Brandon (played in scarily sinister mode by Jackson A. Dunn).
All goes well until Brandon hits puberty, and discovers that he possesses super powers. He also uncovers the spacecraft, which Tori and Kyle have been keeping hidden from him inside a locked underground chamber within their barn, because it starts sending out aural signals and messages that guide him to it.
From then on, the story deviates fundamentally from that of Superman, because whereas he sided with good, Brandon turns evil, hideously destroying anyone who angers him, including the mother of a girl, Caitlyn, from school who'd embarrassed him, his uncle Noah who'd lost his temper with him, etc.
Tori loves Brandon so much that she doesn't want to believe that he is responsible for these murders, but Kyle suspects the truth, and on a hunting trip he attempts to shoot Brandon dead, but the bullet merely ricochets off his head, leaving Brandon unharmed but extremely vengeful towards his father – uh-oh...
As I say, Brightburn is a largely original (albeit decidedly gory in parts) take on the tried and trusted superhero back story (though DC Comics' series of Ultraman supervillains pursue a somewhat similar course in terms of being anti-Superman figures), with striking special effects in parts. Moreover, it proved sufficiently successful at the box office for a sequel to be planned.
As for this movie's title, Brightburn is both the name of the Kansas town where Tori and Kyle lived with Brandon and the name applied to Brandon himself by news reports once he has begun his reign of terror as an adult, dressed in full superhero cape and hideous mask regalia.
So if you'd enjoy a sharp and decidedly savage twist upon the familiar Superman story, be sure to click here to watch a thrilling, chilling official trailer for Brightburn on YouTube.
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