Supergirl
Milly Alcock returns to reprise her role of Kara Zor-El introduced at the end of Superman. Any conversation of director Craig Gillespie's film must start with Alcock whose journey as the lost daughter of Krypton (cursed to remember a planet Kal-El never knew) provides the backbone of the film. Part origin story, part coming-of-age film and growing into who you were meant to become, Supergirl works fairly well when Alcock is on-screen (and less so when she's not).
Although some might not appreciate the film's take on the comic character who has been around since 1959, this version of Kara feels lived-in, thought-out, and, equally important, not fully formed yet. Supergirl is as much about showing how different Supergirl is to Superman as it is about showing what ultimately both characters have in common in their mission to protect those who can't protect themselves. It just takes Kara, burdened by trauma she's still trying to outrun, a bit longer to get there.
The film's biggest weakness for a story about a hero who hasn't accepted that role yet is its choice of villain. Encountering a group of space pirates known as Brigands, one of whom (Matthias Schoenaerts) steals Kara's ship and poisons her dog, the setup gives the film a ticking clock for Cara to find the Brigand and retrieve the antidote before Krypto dies. Sadly, the Brigands don't offer the most satisfying hero/villain square off in the movie's climax.
Along the way Kara will befriend Ruthye Marye Knoll (Eve Ridley), recently orphaned by other members of the Brigands and seeking revenge, and the alien bounty hunter Lobo (Jason Momoa) also seeking out other members of the Brigands for money. While the situation with her dog provides a personal story for Kara, forcing her to relive the last time she lost all she loved, the Brigands are a bit oversold as theatric baddies.
Despite being quite entertaining at times providing a visual feast of alien worlds including one of the better realized versions of Argo City, Supergirl isn't without its problems. The script by Ana Nogueira can never really decide how much to use Lobo who feels more squeezed into the story than a natural part of it. It also struggles with how powerful and knowledgeable the Brigands are (automatically somehow aware of Kryptonian weaknesses and able to stand toe-to-toe with Kara even when super-charged with yellow sun energy until suddenly they aren't).
Supergirl isn't a perfect film but it's a quite interesting companion piece to James Gunn's Superman in further strengthening the foundation of the Superman Family and the new DCU. Yes, it lays on the girl power a bit thick in the final act and feels a bit too influenced by Guardians of the Galaxy at times, but at the end of the day it succeeds in its mission statement offering a fun reimaging of the character which is a fair bit better than the deeply-flawed 1984 film really only notable for Helen Slater's performance.
- Title: Supergirl (2026)
- IMDb: link
