destroyerwod

If you watched this movie hoping for something super clever or original, you got the wrong door.

This is simply mean to be a by the book sequel of the first movie. The plot is simple, the action is brutal, the jokes are there, personally its everything i expected it to be. I wanted to see a brainless action movie with some comedy and i got exactly that.

The first movie surfed on the John Wick wave and its not a secret. But Hutch himself do not have the "slickness" of Wick. The fights are done more in a brutal "real life style" using a lot the environement and getting hit... a lot. He does share a similar "durability" and yes the movie is pretty much "high caliber hit-man kills everyone", but the tone and style is very different giving the movie his own identity. The familly dynamic had a little extra.

That said it remain kinda close in its nature to the first and while it does not bring much originality in story or character progression, it does bring a lot of originality in the kills and action. And personally thats all i wanted.

Its a 90 minutes action movie. Its made to have fun and just enjoy the ride, and that i did.

I watched the first half of the movie in theatres but due to circonstances that had nothing to do with it, i had to leave halfway. I told myself i would wait for the VOD to finally finish it as it was late in its theatre run.

What i can say right away is that if the movie theatres do make a difference its for a movie like that. Even tough the second half had the best stunts, the "grandness" was a lot more present in theatre. Now that i got that out of the way lets "review" the movie as a whole.

This franchise is famous for original stunts on grand scale and this one does not disappoint. You see a lot of them in various way and the originality is still there.

Its more in term of story that i felt this was a bit "unoriginal". AI, nuclear armageddon, where did i saw that before? Hummm. Thats not to say the story is bad, but it relied a lot on exposition dumps and followed familiar patterns you likely saw before in movies.

On the other hand some set pieces are so beautifully filmed that you kinda pass above it and just appreciate what you see on screen.

Now if this is really a goodbye for the franchise, i would say its well earned. Its not my favorite MI movie, but it was a good movie as a whole. Now i wish there would had been some aknowledgement of Jeremy Renner's character, but due to many different issues (scheduling conflicts in previous installements and then his terrible accident), it was not meant to be.

That said i wouldn't be surprise if this franchise does not stay dead long, even if it mean no Ethan. Spinoffs? I would bet they coming. So wouldn't be surprised that maybe Jeremy reappear one day.

I will pretty much echo a lot of other reviews on this. Ever since it came out, it intrigued me but i also came to watch it in 2025 for whatever reasons.

What if Superman didn't grew to be the hero we know, but an evil supervilain without any hero to stop him? Sadly this concept is barely scratched at the surface in a script that feel like 40 minutes was chopped out of it.

There is 2 main issues in my opinion. The first is that the writer and director wanted an horror movie, but there is no real reason behind it. Everytime the "child" is portray as Michael Myers stalking his preys, its only to make it feel like a horror movie. But there is no "in-movie reason" behind it really. Why would a "Superman-like" creature need to be stealthy or such? I don't know if its the lack of acting skills from the actor or the script was this way but i never read any "pleasure" from him doing it, wich could give an actual reason.

The other one is how badly executed the plot is. It seem like it was suppose to be a 2h+ movies but they chopped it to 90 minutes. Not only very few is explain but the characters "progression" is inexistant. They use a "mcguffin" to make the child becomes the killer they need and never really explore any psychology or reasoning behind it. The movie clearly tell you that the child was normal, caring, and he grew up with great parents who loved him, until that "mcguffin" incident happen.

There was a lot of possibility on how to actually turn the child into an evil killer, but the movie took the most lazy way.

Its funny in 2025 to think James Gunn finally got his own actual Superman (wich i enjoyed and gave a 7 out of 10). Technically James didn't write the script for Brightburn. Its other peoples with the same last name so i assume related to him and its directed by someone else, but as producer you can clearly see some trademarks of him like cameos and such. I wonder how much says he had in making it the way it is.

Ultimately it took me 6 years to finally get to it, after almost having watched it in the last 2 Halloween Marathons i had, and all i can say is "meh" ... I didn't "hated it", but i didn't liked it either. I think i just like the idea but the execution was off. That said i gotta give credit to the blood and gore wich was pretty gruesome.

If you never watched Chronicles, i would recommand it as a better movie exploring peoples getting Superman powers and not using them for good.

Brightburn get a 5 out of 10 for me. Its average... On one side i kinda wished the movie was 40 minutes longer to develop it more, but in its actual form i was happy it ended before i could get "tired" of it. This bluray is going into the "thriftstore pile" for my next visit. Yes its one of those i paid 1$ out of the final video store sale (i had it for a while in my backlog).