I’m not sure I can say that I was hugely looking forward to seeing DC Entertainment’s Supergirl, because I didn’t love James Gunn’s Superman last year. Even so, there were aspects of this spin-off that got me semi-excited, because I do like the character and the source material that inspired this movie, based on the “Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow” comic book mini-series by Tom King and Bilquis Evely (the latter whom gets an entire planet named after him in the movie). I also have liked some of director Craig Gillespie’s previous work, although this seems like a bit of a swing for him.
I had not watched enough House of the Dragon to be familiar with Milly Alcock, but we meet her Kara Jor-El as she’s celebrating her 23rd birthday by getting drunk on a red planet where she’s powerless. Her revelry is interrupted by Eve Ridley’s Ruthye, a young girl whose entire family has been slaughtered by Matthias Schoenarts’ Klem, whose Brigands are kidnapping young girls from across the universe. Ruthye wants Kara’s help in finding Klem, but she only agrees once Klem poisons her beloved dog, Krypto, during their first encounter, with Klem having the only antidote. Along the way, the young women encounter Jason Moma’s interstellar bounty hunter Lobo, who is even more reticent about helping Ruthye.
As you can learn from my video review above, Supergirl is not a movie without its problems, but it’s not a complete disaster either. Working from a screenplay by Ana Nogueira – who previously only wrote a short according to IMDB – Cruella and I, Tonya director Craig Gillespie does a decent job shifting into a movie with more action and more strange aliens than you can shake a Mos Eisley Cantina at.
Comparisons will inevitably be made to James Gunn’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies. Although Gunn is only credited as a producer (and obviously, he’s also a studio exec), there are elements that seem taken right from Gunn’s own superhero movies. This makes the film somewhat formulaic and by-the-books for this sort of space opera, and some elements work better than others. For instance, I thought the flashbacks showing Kara’s origin were some of the best depictions of that aspect of Superman lore in any movie to date. (David Corenswet’s scenes as Kal-El are a big nothing-burger, feeling like his part of those scenes may have been filmed on a green screen apart from Alcock.)
Ultimately, it comes down to Alcock, Ridley and Momoa’s characters being so fun to watch whenever they interact, rather than the menagerie of strange alien creatures or planets, and the movie does eventually lead to a final act that pays off. In other words, Supergirl is a flawed superhero movie that doesn’t always work, but also, one that is aptly in tune with the nature of the character, as depicted by Milly Alcock.
Rating: 7/10
Supergirl hits theaters nationwide on Friday, June 26.
