Movie Review: ‘Supergirl’

Director: Craig Gillespie

Cast: Milly Alcock, Matthias Schoenaerts, Eve Ridley, David Krumholtz, Emily Beecham, David Corenswet, Jason Momoa

Plot: Kara Zor-El has rejected her role as a superhero alongside her cousin, Superman, and has been on a bender across the galaxy. When her dog, Krypto, is threatened, she sets out to get revenge and find a cure.

Review: We’re in an awkward time for superhero movies. For a moment, they were the biggest thing on the planet, culminating in the epic crossover events that dominated the box office. Since then, people have been losing interest in the genre, with attempts to maintain Marvel’s success faltering and James Gunn’s fresh take on the DC universe struggling to find new viewers. Superman was the biggest attempt to resurrect interest in the DCU and was well received, laying the groundwork for Supergirl to present a different personality imbued with Kryptonian powers.

In the same way we were dropped into the middle of Clark’s story when he was at his physical low point, Kara (Alcock) is at the nadir of a depressive episode, spending her birthday crawling from one dive bar to another. Needing to nullify her superpowers for the booze to work means she’s sticking to planets with a red sun. On the road, she encounters Ruthye (Ridley), a young girl who has just seen her family and home destroyed by the space pirate gang, The Brigands. Ruthye is looking for revenge, and after Krypto is poisoned by Brigand leader Krem (Schoenaerts), they team up to track their target.

While Superman is the comic-book equivalent of classic rock, Kara is grunge. He lives in a crystal palace; she’s crashed out on the floor of a trailer home (that happens to be a spaceship). As the story unfolds, we learn about her tragic history. Having seen her home destroyed and countless people killed, she struggles to see the good in anyone. Using alcohol to dull her emotions, she’s initially disinterested in helping Ruthye on her mission. It’s only when her pet is threatened that she gets involved. Initially intending to go it alone, her goal expands to protecting Ruthye from going down a dark path.

Milly Alcock is a great fit for this version of Supergirl. As a counterpart to Superman, she has to embody the same sense of goodness and strength that Corenswet conveyed so well in his outing. Off the back of House of the Dragon, she can carry herself with regal power, but Alcock also needs to portray Kara as a character carrying a great deal of trauma. It’s a line she walks with ease, well supported by the younger Ridley as Ruthye, and the two actors give each other a lot to work with. Schoenaerts, as the main villain Krem, is less successful. With a lot of odd bits stuck to him and a tendency to giggle and leer, he’s not much more than a generic villain. Given the range of fun and weird alien designs in this movie, he doesn’t stand out in any notable way.

The final piece of the puzzle is Jason Momoa leaving the Aquaman role behind to play intergalactic bounty hunter Lobo. He certainly looks the part, which is why the internet has been obsessed with this casting choice. That’s about it, though; it feels as though he’s just there for the fans.

As much as we enjoyed Kara’s journey from drunken burnout to the noble Supergirl, and Alcock’s performance in the role, it was very hard to enjoy the action. Director Gillespie doesn’t have a strong background in directing action, and these sequences feel consistently awkward. A great deal of darkness and shadow obscures the effects, and the camera seems afraid to take a few steps back and showcase the action. There’s also a strange number of close-ups during action sequences, making it difficult to follow or even see what is happening. The film would feel much stronger with more creative action scenes that didn’t largely come across as filler.

Superman didn’t quite land for us, but we were excited for Supergirl after the first teaser trailer. It looked like a fun romp with some great tunes. Sadly, it fell short of expectations. We hope to see these heroes return in the future for something that really wows us. Given that the box office is currently being trampled by a low-budget indie horror film from a YouTuber, who knows whether it will be enough of a draw for viewers?

Rating: SIX out of TEN