Brightburn (2019)

Director: David Yarovesky


Notable Cast: Jackson A. Dunn, Elizabeth Banks, David Denman, Matt Jones, Meredith Hagner, Steve Agee, Becky Wahlstrom, Emmie Hunter, Stephen Blackehart, Gregory Alan Williams, Michael Rooker


Deconstructing superhero films is not necessarily a new thing, even in this day and age where the big-budget superhero flick dominates the box office with relative ease. Films like Super and Chronicle were easily breaking down the tropes into strange – and very effective – films for a while now. It was only a matter of time where someone decided they needed to make a superhero slasher film. This is where we get Brightburn, spurred on by producer James Gunn through his brother and cousin who wrote the film, which features some decent talent to attempt at tackling this premise. It’s one hell of a premise too. The high concept is readily on display in the film, where a young boy discovers he has the powers of Superman and then decides he needs to use them to destroy/take over the world. It’s almost too good of a premise, really. Thus explaining why the film has some issues taking full advantage of it as both deconstruction and a mainstream release.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

Director: James Gunn

Notable Cast: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Michael Rooker, Kurt Russell, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Elizabeth Debicki, Chris Sullivan, Sean Gunn, Sylvester Stallone

After the disappointing leap into the mystic and psychedelic realms of Marvel with last year’s uninspired (but still fun) run at Doctor Strange, it is a much needed boost for my moral for this shared cinematic universe to be returning to James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy for Vol. 2. Initial reviews and reports seemed generally favorable, but with my sheer delight in the Ice Pirates-esque humor, heart, and spectacle of the film first film I was ready for whatever this film was going to throw at me. Truthfully, it throws A LOT at the audience too. Not only does this film attempt to rekindle the kind of action, drama, and silliness that made the first one a sleeper hit for Marvel, but it also goes by it in the classic blockbuster sequel approach: more is more. More jokes, more drama, more plots, and more characters. It even adds in more than that. It runs with the psychedelic nature that Doctor Strange used and gives it grounding, being bombastic in its designs and color schemes all the while delivering the fun movie that people want to see. The execution is not quite as efficient as the original Guardians was, but for a sequel that was attempting to find the same balance and figure out why the original one worked so well, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is still a major Marvel success and one that pushes the franchise within the franchise into new territory while still retaining its core.