Brightburn: A Concept That Didn’t Take

Between Marvel’s rapidly growing universe and DC’s scrambling to catch up, it’s not unreasonable to suspect that the superhero genre, while being one of the biggest continuous moneymakers in Hollywood, might also be starting to grate on people. After all, an origin story is still an origin story, no matter what kind of powers you throw into the mix or which relative you choose to kill. To make a superhero movie now, you have to have something special, something that will set your movie apart and make it feel different than what can feel a little formulaic coming from the larger companies. Into the Spider-Verse had an animation style reminiscent of comic books; Venom capitalized on an anti-hero (however the movie turned out); the current show The Boys focuses on superheroes who’ve been corrupted and must be kept under control. In a little bit of that thread, Brightburn asks a simple question: what if Superman was a bad person? What if, instead of being a hero for mankind, he was a danger to us all? As a premise, it’s not a bad one – the idea of Superman going dark isn’t exactly new, there is an excellent game series based around it – but this film seemed to get stuck at a bit of a crossroads on how to actually make the premise work. The concept is a horror superhero, but there was almost too much Superman, and not enough of an attempt to flesh out the concept to make it something new.

Deadpool: Snarky, Slur-Filled, and Sinfully Delightful

*Warning: Potential Spoilers*

It is one thing for a superhero film to be enjoyable and funny. It is quite another thing for a superhero film to not be about a superhero, but rather a filthy-mouthed and vengeful mercenary, as well as being so explicitly funny that all children under the age of sixteen should be barred at the door. It doesn’t matter that this is a Marvel film (though there will be no Avenging in this universe, Deadpool is more closely tied with the X-Men, which you’ll realize when they toss out the forbidden “M word”), Deadpool is a superhero for adults, one that is not about good versus evil or right versus wrong (basically everyone is wrong in this movie). Deadpool is an enjoyable, sarcastic and crass man in a black and red suit with katanas and for the hour and forty-eight minutes that he has to charm you, he never pulls a punch or tries to convince you he’s the one to root for. He’s just there to amuse you. And for those of you, like me, who are not particularly familiar with the X-Men universe, don’t worry too much- all you really need to know is that the X-Men live/train at Charles Xavier’s school for gifted kids and that Hugh Jackman is Wolverine.

The Green Inferno: Not For the Faint of Heart

*Warning: This movie is graphic. In order to review it, there may be some graphic content mentioned.*

There is gore, and then there is just plain bloodbath. With movies like The Green Inferno (technically released in 2013 but is just now getting big screen time in 2015) it’s hard to tell if they were trying for something more than the gore, and just ended up with a lot of gore as a side effect, or if they just decided to go all out on the blood and guts and to hell with the story.