Moviewatchin' Psychopath!

SUPERGIRL:

A SUPER…FINE SUPERMAN SPIN-OFF!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

DC STUDIOS (WARNER BROS. PICTURES)

Milly Alcock as Supergirl

Before anyone asks, yes, this is better than the previous Supergirl movie from 1984. Anyway, Superman’s cousin returns to the big screen in Supergirl, the second installment of James Gunn’s rebooted DC Universe and spin-off of his Superman movie from last year. I’ll be honest, I’m no expert on Supergirl. I never read any of the comics featuring her, but I knew about her and had a basic understanding of the character.

That’s not to say I wasn’t completely devoid of Supergirl fare, I really enjoyed the CW Supergirl TV series from 2015 that starred Melissa Benoist and was part of the ArrowVerse and…I subjected myself to the terrible 1984 Supergirl movie starring Helen Slater and Faye Dunaway before watching this one, which is like Superman IV: The Quest for Peace if it had an actual budget, but still just as awful. Needless to say, Supergirl has had a pretty shaky history when it comes to adaptations, but I was curious when this new film version of the character was announced, with Superman (2025) director James Gunn (Slither, Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, The Suicide Squad (2021)) producing, while Chris Gillespie (I, Tonya, Cruella, Dumb Money) directs.

I thought the movie looked fine from the advertisements, and I thoroughly enjoyed Gunn’s Superman film last year. I was hoping the cast and crew would be able to recapture some of that magic with this, and…Supergirl is alright. This is a perfectly serviceable interpretation of Supergirl with good performances and decent action, but if you’re looking for something on par with the 2025 Superman…no!

The film follows Kara Kent/Supergirl (Milly Alcock-Upright, House of the Dragon, Sirens) partying hard on several planets with her super-dog, Krypto in celebration of her 23^rd birthday. But when Krypto is suddenly attacked by a group of space pirates known as the Brigands, Supergirl reluctantly joins forces with a young girl named Ruthye (Eve Ridley-Casualty, The Witcher, Emerald) who vows revenge on the Brigands' leader, Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts-Rust and Bone, The Danish Girl, The Old Guard 1 and 2) for murdering her father.

The film also stars David Krumholtz-Harold & Kumar trilogy, Oppenheimer, Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere) as Zor-El, Emily Beecham (1899, Hail, Caesar!, Daphne) as Alura In-Ze, Jason Momoa (Game of Thrones, Fast X, A Minecraft Movie; who previously portrayed Aquaman in the DC Extended Universe) as Lobo, and David Corenswet (The Politician, Pearl, Twisters) reprising his role as Clark Kent/Superman.

Overall, Supergirl is a huge step down from the 2025 Superman, but it’s a fine enough superhero movie and I don’t regret seeing it on the big screen. It’s a very standard comic book movie that doesn’t aim to break new grounds and is like a mix between True Grit, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Mad Max except nowhere near as good as those and even recycles plot elements from the last Superman movie with Krypto being captured or injured and now the hero has to rescue him, didn’t we just see that in the last movie?

I’m not kidding about the True Grit comparison because the plot is literally about a young girl avenging the death of her father, teaming up with a washed-up character (In this film’s case, it’s Supergirl), and embarking on a quest to bring the killer to justice. I’m not saying this is bad, but I don’t think this is what people wanted with a Supergirl movie.

Despite its recycled narrative, I will give this movie credit that the acting is pretty solid with Milly Alcock portraying a radically different version of Supergirl compared to ones we’ve seen before and adds a lot of snarky energy and wit to her performance, she’s not trying to be like Helen Slater, Melissa Benoist, or even Sasha Calle from The Flash movie, it’s her own Supergirl and she plays it well. Jason Momoa as Lobo is f*cking great and easily the best part of the film. He is funny and completely mad every time he’s onscreen. Watching him was a blast, and I hope to see him in future DC projects because out of all the characters in the film, he left the biggest impression.

Everyone else is fine. I can’t say anyone is bad in this, but outside of Alcock and Momoa, I didn’t find any of the other characters to be all that memorable, not even Matthias Schoenaerts’ Krem, who is sometimes fun and hammy, but most of the time he’s just a stock villain and a significant downgrade from Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor in Superman. Had he channeled more of that devilish charisma or the film made him more diabolical, he could have been a great DC villain, but as is, he’s about as memorable as Ronan the Accuser from the first Guardians movie.

Despite an overabundance of CGI and much of it not looking especially good, I was impressed by the practical effects and makeup on a lot of the alien creatures in this. In an age where motion-capture and computer animation are the norm with comic book movies, it’s refreshing to see aliens and monsters that are actually in front of the camera, and some of the designs were giving me Guardians of the Galaxy and Star Wars vibes.

The action is decent and can be pretty fun, but there is one fatal problem with the action sequences: the editing. The editing is terrible in this movie, with random cuts and unnecessary camera movements that ruin a potentially epic scene. They even go Zack Snyder slow-mo during a fight scene, and it just made me think of Man of Steel or Batman v. Superman.

Supergirl is a very passable comic book movie that doesn’t do anything that new or spectacular, but those looking for a decent amount of superhero fun should get what they’re looking for. It’s certainly not “Super”, but it thankfully isn’t Nuclear Man or “Save Martha!” either.