Brightburn (2019)    Screen Gems/Sci-Fi-Horror    RT: 91 minutes    Rated R (horror violence, bloody images, language)    Director: David Yarovesky    Screenplay: Mark Gunn and Brian Gunn    Music: Timothy Williams    Cinematography: Michael Dallatorre    Release date: May 24, 2019 (US)    Cast: Elizabeth Banks, David Denham, Jackson A. Dunn, Matt Jones, Meredith Hagner, Emmie Hunter, Becky Wahlstrom, Gregory Alan Williams, Annie Humphrey, Abraham Clinkscales, Christian Finlayson, Jennifer Holland, Terence Rosemore, Elizabeth Becka, Steve Agee, Steven Blackehart.    Box Office: $17.3M (US)/$33.2M (World)

Rating: ***

 Is it possible for a movie to be both dumb and brilliant at the same time? That appears to be the case with Brightburn, a bloody sci-fi-horror yarn that could have easily been titled Evil Superboy. See if this premise sounds familiar. A childless Midwestern couple finds a crashed spaceship containing a baby boy that they raise as their own. Are you thinking the Kents and their kid of steel? Well, the similarities end right there. The boy, Brandon (Dunn, Shameless), has super powers and uses them but not for good. No, this kid is bad. That’s the brilliant part of Brightburn, an interesting premise that subverts the superhero genre. I stop short of calling the movie clever because it’s populated almost entirely by idiots. I can’t believe all of the adults in the small town of Brightburn, KS, including the sheriff (Williams, Remember the Titans), are this stupid. Something is clearly wrong with them although it’s never said exactly what. My money is on the local water supply.

 The Breyers, Tori (Banks, Pitch Perfect 1-3) and Kyle (Denham, Logan Lucky), have been trying for years without success to conceive. Their prayers are answered, or so they think, the night a mysterious object crash lands on their farm. Tori finds a healthy baby boy in the wreckage and they decide to keep it. Flash forward about twelve years to preteen Brandon making his parents proud with his academic achievements. He’s an unusually intelligent boy whose classmates give him a hard time. Take note of his age. He’s 12. That means puberty. In Brandon’s case, hitting puberty involves coming into his powers. It begins the night he’s awakened and drawn to a locked trap door in the family barn. That’s where his parents hid his spaceship. It’s after this close encounter that Brandon’s behavior changes for the worse.

 If you’ve seen the trailer, then you know Brandon goes on a violent rampage. First, he crushes the hand of a female classmate (Hunter, Forever My Girl) who insults him. Then he attacks and kills her mother (Wahlstrom, Joan of Arcadia) after she demands his arrest. Next, he goes after the school counselor (Hagner, The Oath) who also happens to be his aunt. Now here’s a prime example of how dumb the people are in Brightburn and Brightburn. Brandon shows up at her house really late one night and threatens her if she tells the sheriff anything about their session that day. She sends him away. Instead of calling his parents or the police, she texts her husband to say good night (he’s out drinking with the guys). She says nothing about what just happened with Brandon. She goes to bed despite the motion-activated lights continuously going on and off.

 Naturally, Brandon’s parents are clueless about what’s going on with their son until it’s too late. Even then, it’s Kyle, the more dimwitted of the two, who figures it out first. Tori, firmly in protective mother mode, refuses to believe Brandon is capable of such violence and evil. OMG! What does she need, a big flashing neon sign that reads “KILLER”? His non-reaction when they break the news of somebody’s death to him is a major tell. Is she really that blinded by maternal love or just a moron? As for the sheriff, he is absolutely useless. He takes his own sweet time with his investigation into the strange goings-on in his town. In the time it takes him to figure out Brandon is behind it all, the boy (sporting glowing red eyes and a freaky mask) could have decimated the town’s entire population. I’m beginning to think Brandon landing in Brightburn wasn’t an accident; it was chosen because of the collectively low IQ. That’s my theory anyway.

 It would easy for me to sit here and pick Brightburn apart. I’m sure that’s what all the haters are doing right now. I’m not going to do that. For all its shortcomings, I like it. Yes, the characters make one stupid blunder after another like not calling for help when they know they’re in mortal danger. They’re one-dimensional idiots, we’ve already established that. As such, there’s really not a whole hell of a lot to say about the actors’ performances expect for Dunn’s blank-faced, vacant-eyed depiction of a preteen from hell. Aren’t they all, you say? Well, this preteen makes the worst of them look better by comparison. HE’S A KILLER ALIEN! He keeps repeating “take the world”. That alone sets him apart from every middle schooler EVER! In any event, Dunn does a good job.

 So what is it I like about Brightburn? Easy! I like how cheerfully nihilistic it is. Director David Yarovesky (The Hive) has a very cynical world view. This isn’t the Marvel Cinematic Universe here. This is a world where people with powers do terrible things. Yarovesky, working from a screenplay by Brian and Mark Gunn (Journey 2: The Mysterious Island), gives us a true anti-hero. It bears mentioning that one of the producers is James Gunn (brother to Brian, cousin to Mark), the writer-director of the two Guardians of the Galaxy films (he’s currently in pre-production for Vol. 3).

 ANYWAY, Brightburn has some cool, gory kill scenes which is what the audience has really come to see. I admit that’s what made me want to see it. Once I heard it was rated R, I was psyched. My only complaint is that Brandon didn’t go after the boys who bullied him at school. That seems like a natural plot development in a movie like this. Yarovesky let that one slip through his fingers but whatever. He makes up for it in the end with a cool cameo by a familiar actor during the end credits. He plays a conspiracy-spouting pundit warning the public of superhero dangers via webcast. I say it’s good to end with a joke. Brightburn may not be perfect but it’s fun. It’s brilliant in its own unique way.