Brightburn’s Critics Missed the Point: Evil Superman Wouldn’t Be Complex

Brightburn received criticism for not having a complex backdrop to its evil Superman, but that’s exactly the point. A dark satire on Clark Kent, specifically the portrayal of the character in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, the film focuses on the ultimate hypothetical scenario of the superhero genre: What if Superman became evil?

The answer to that question is, naturally, a grim one, as Brightburn sees Kal-El’s evil counterpart develop a massive superiority complex, and horrifically murder anyone who stands in his way. As much as it canonized Snyder’s vision, it highlighted how spiritually accurate his deconstruction really was.

Upon its release in May 2019, Brightburn received a decidedly mixed critical reception. While its subversion of the Superman origin story through the prism of a horror film received praise, many critics felt that it didn’t dive deep enough into the complexities of its premise. However, this analysis of the film both misunderstands and undersells what Brightburn does with its darker rendition of the Last Son of Krypton.

What Brightburn’s Critics Say About The Film’s Handling Of Superman

A wide swath of the critical community, while praising Brightburn‘s reinterpretation of the Superman origin into a horror movie, have raised issues with the film’s perceived failure to take that premise beyond that of the Man of Steel becoming an emotionless killing machine. The film currently holds a 57% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus reading “Although Brightburn doesn’t fully deliver on the pitch-black promise of its setup, it’s still enough to offer a diverting subversion of the superhero genre.” Screen Rant‘s own Sandy Schaefer, while giving the film a relatively positive review, described Brightburn as “A creepy, bloody genre mashup that fails to fully explore the fascinating questions it raises about the dark side of being a superhero.” That sentiment is indicative of much of the rest of the critical community’s feelings towards Brightburn, as well.

The Observer‘s Oliver Jones criticized the film as squandering the potential of a superhero horror film in his review, while Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times stated “The premise is intriguing, but this gruesome origin story plays like just another slasher film with idiots for victims” in his review. Even many of the more explicitly positive reviews tend to take Brightburn to task for shortchanging its satirical angle on Superman. In a review for Time Out, Helen O’Hara praised the film for offering “effective scares“, despite feeling the execution was “muddled at times“, while James Luxford of Metro felt the film had an “exquisite setup” while calling the execution “a little disappointing” and the ending “slightly underwhelming“.

Clearly, the ostensible failure of Brightburn to realize that story to its full potential is the element of the film that has seen the most criticism, even within positive reviews. However, it appears that much of that criticism also stems from a misinterpretation of what Brightburn is aiming for in its evil Superman story, and the fact that the film is one that, by the very nature of its premise, neither strives to be terribly complex, nor does it need to be.

Related: Brightburn Exists In The Same Universe As Another James Gunn Movie

Brightburn Isn’t Man Of Steel

A key point that the criticisms directed at Brightburn are missing is that the film has a fundamentally different set of goals than Man of Steel. While both films take the approach of grounding Superman in a reality resembling our own, the thesis of Man of Steel was that of Kal-El as an alien finding his place in a world that is alien to him. Warned by his adoptive father Johnathan Kent of the perils of revealing himself to humanity too swiftly, Zack Snyder’s Superman went to great lengths to fly under the radar. With every rescue he made, the Clark Kent seen in Man of Steel would immediately disappear, knowing that the discovery of his existence alone would mark a radical turning point in human history. It’s only with the arrival of General Zod that Clark finally chooses to reveal himself to the world, because the situation demands for him to finally become Superman, whether he or the world is ready or not. Considering the world’s polarizing response to a near-invulnerable alien living among them seen in Batman v Superman, it’s hard to argue that Johnathan’s trepidation was unfounded.

All of that is the inverse of how Superman is deconstructed in Brightburn. The film is concerned specifically with the idea of an evil Superman living among us, and therefore requires a much simpler set up to get there than Man of Steel. For Brightburn, Brandon’s descent into evil comes from being left to his own devices at the discovery of his abilities and his alien origins. By stripping away Johnathan’s warning that his adoptive son be mature enough to stand before a world that will inevitably fear his godlike power, Brightburn takes the position that Superman would almost certainly have become a monster without being properly steered as a child. Furthermore, Brightburn makes the point that the path for Superman to become a hero would always have a straight descent into evil awaiting him if he lacked the perfect guidance.

Brightburn’s Superman Handling Makes A Better Point

Bearing in mind the importance of Kents to Clark’s upbringing (and the mentoring he later receives from his Kryptonian father, Jor-El), the thesis of Brightburn is that Kal-El’s ability to feel empathy is the deciding factor in what makes him a hero. Brandon, the young, twisted satire of Superman in Brightburn, while being raised by clearly loving adoptive parents, discovers his abilities without their guidance, and falls under the influence of a voice from his alien ship admonishing him to conquer the Earth. As the people around Brandon slowly begin to grasp that there’s something different about him, he grows more distant from humanity as he senses their lingering fear of him. Brandon soon comes to view himself as superior to the very humans he’s seen as his family and friends, and by the midpoint of the film, he’s become a complete sociopath.

The Superman story Brightburn tells is a simple one because the entire point of the film is that the removal of Kal-El’s connection to humanity would leave him to see mankind as less than nothing. This Superman allows himself to burn people alive with his heat vision like a kid with a magnifying glass because there’s nothing left to tether him to the human race. As far as Brandon is concerned, he’s a God among insects, and the loss of his ability to care about the people of Earth makes him unstoppable.

While Brightburn tells a much simpler story of an evil, Elseworlds version of Superman, that’s clearly by design. In contrast to the deconstruction of the hero’s journey Superman takes in Man of Steel, the entire concept of Brightburn is that the Last Son of Krypton would be a plague upon mankind if his ability to see himself as an adoptive member of the human race were removed. The criticism that the film fails to fully explore its premise misses the point about what the premise of Brightburn actually is – that without the capacity to feel empathy with humanity, a being with the powers of Superman would have no reason to become anything but a villain.

About The Author

Brad Curran
(714 Articles Published)

Growing up, Brad developed an innate love of movies and storytelling, and was instantly enamored with the world of adventure while following the exploits of Indiana Jones, Japanese kaiju, and superheroes. Today, Brad channels his thoughts on all manner of movies, from comic book films, sci-fi thrillers, comedies, and everything in between through his writings on Screen Rant. Brad also offers philosophical musings on martial arts and the filmographies of everyone from Jackie Chan to Donnie Yen on Kung Fu Kingdom, where he’s also had the privilege of interviewing many of the world’s great stunt professionals, and hearing plenty of gripping stories on injuries incurred in their line of work and the intricacies of designing the acts of death defiance he first thrilled to as a youngster. When he’s not writing, Brad enjoys going on a ride with the latest action hit or Netflix original, though he’s also known to just pop in “The Room” from time to time. Follow Brad on Twitter @BradCurran.

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