After recently seeing the movie Brightburn — about how an alien child with incredible powers becomes a cold-blooded and sadistic murderer — I can stand by my review in calling it a generally good movie, especially in terms of how often bad horror movies get sent off to our movie theaters.

Walking out of the theater afterward, though, it was also an experience that was profoundly depressing, because it continues to show the disconnect between the general public and the character that clearly inspired Brightburn’s twisted focus character: the Man of Steel and the original superhero, Superman.

I’ve written and spoken ad nauseum about how and why Superman is one of my all-time favorite characters in fiction. He continuously speaks to me about the inherent greatness that we all have if we decide to nurture and encourage the best parts of ourselves. Still, as the movie makes very clear pretty early on, Brightburn is not Superman. Brandon Breyer and Clark Kent have — outside of the very broad strokes of both their origin stories — very little in common.

So...why do I feel so depressed after seeing it?