Out of all the upcoming DC movies and television shows onJames Gunn’s phase one slate titled Gods and Monsters,Superman: Legacyseems to be the one feature people are the most excited about. While the speculative release date is at least three years from now and no story details have been released to the public yet, the confirmed heroes for this comic book blockbuster – Guy Gardener, Mister Terrific, Hawkgirl, and Metamorpho – already have fans from all over the comic book world buzzing with excitement over all the possibilities.
On the other hand, some doubters say James Gunn only knows one cinematic recipe, which is his creative grip on team-up movies. With his most well-known movies being the Marvel-basedGuardians of the Galaxytrilogy,The Suicide Squad,which is on the DC side of things, as well as the live-action renditions ofScooby-Doofrom the mid-2000s that were distributed by Warner Brothers, these people may very well be on the cusp of a very strong theory. That is, until these same skeptics take a chance on 2019’sBrightburn, which many consider to be an unrivaled take on a young and evil Superman.
Yep, you heard that right. Under the guise of an unfamiliar movie name and a plot that centered around a small family’s struggle in dealing with their young son who has grown into a very malicious super-powered entity, Mr. Gunn went ahead and produced an ultra-violent, child-sized version of a DC character years before he was ever called in to rescue the fledgling DCU.
Thankful for a Mysterious Alien Baby
When it was first announced,Brightburndidn’t even have a title and was mysteriously labeled as just a James Gunn horror project. Releasing two years later by Sony Pictures on June 05, 2025, thisgenre mash-upstars Jackson A. Dunn(Avengers: EndgameandGLOW) as Brandon Breyer, a preteen boy who was initially found in the woods by his parents when he was just a baby.
Seemingly brought to earth by a meteor-sized smoking pod that radiates menacing red lights, this warning is ignored by the couple, who thinks this is the answer for all the time they asked for a baby.
Things begin to radically change for Brandon when he reaches adolescence.In stark contrastto the kindness and love for humanity that DC’s Superman shows, the young boy exhibits growing and sadistic acts of strength that coincide with rising levels of anger and eerie stillness. Similar to The Last Son of Krypton, though, one of his innate abilities includes flying through the sky at superfast speeds, which adds to his alarming sudden presence.
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What’s surprising aboutBrightburnis that while the movie gives time to show intense drama with Brandon’s parents (played by Elizabeth Banks and David Denman) through their conflicting reactions to their son’s disconcerting behavior, this unique film also offers moments of extreme violence that come out of left field which do leave viewers paralyzed when you think about James Gunn’s most recent features.
Yes,The Suicide Squadwas violent, but not on the level found inBrightburn. While body horror is a subgenrethat has its placein extreme cinematic experiences, a twelve-year-old boy being the one who acts out these acts of violence is an extreme like no other.
Granted, one could say that this is not the actual youngling but instead just a vessel that is currently being possessed by the same extraterrestrial ship that brought him here (which is now hidden under his parent’s barn), but seeing shards of glass grotesquely pierce a woman’s eye and a man’s jaw being horrifically displaced after his car gets thrown by Brandon are scenes you would have never thought possible in a retelling of Superman,no matter the moral leaning.
An Unstoppable Child With Sinister Intentions
Against a maximum twelve million dollar budget, this spine-chilling spring release is not considered a failure by any means.Brightburnmade thirty-two million dollars at the box office, andspeculative talks on a sequelstill linger in the air after all these years. While these numbers obviously do not compare with the bigger superhero off-shoots out there, like 2012’sChronicleor 2019’sGlass,made by M. Night Shyamalan, there is definitely a unique story inBrightburnthat deserves to be explored further.
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Audiences still have no idea where the alien presence comes from, what the symbols Brandon was drawing all over the place mean, and most importantly, what the evil being is doing now. Also, the tease that there are other living cryptids in the movie’s world helps to create many other avenues to go down, story-wise.
But within all its praises, James Gunn’s sinister Superman tale did suffer from some pacing and tone transitions, which need to be fixed if the time does arise. Scenes jump from a grisly death to a warm, albeit tense, family atmosphere in the blink of an eye. Even thoughBrightburnmay not be the greatest gritty take on a classic superhero, this film can definitely be shown to those who wonder if the head of the new DCU can create solo hero (or villain) flicks.
