Directed by Craig Gillespie, Supergirl follows Kara Zor-El (Milly Alcock), aka Supergirl, who reluctantly joins forces with an unlikely companion on an interstellar journey of vengeance and justice when an unexpected adversary strikes too close to home.
Supergirl is a character that has had quite a wild journey when it comes to comics and adaptations, having multiple versions created by different individuals, which included some great versions, some mixed versions, and some terrible versions, like the 1984 film that absurdly sexist studio executives used as an excuse not to create anymore female-led superhero films for decades. This new adaptation adapts one of the best Supergirl comic storylines created by Tom King and Bilquis Evely called Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, which reinvented the character into a more jaded, traumatized, and complex character compared to earlier iterations of her. I was really excited to see what director Craig Gillespie and his team were going to do with this adaptation, regardless of the changes this would make from the original story or the extreme toxicity that the film was going to face due to an unfortunately repetitive cycle of misogynistic hate that every female-led superhero project has been facing in the past 10 years.
I was fortunate enough to see the film in a packed early screening, and I will honestly say that I liked this adaptation of Supergirl, but I didn’t love it as much as I thought I would. The second theatrical installment of the new DCU is an enjoyable and energetic film that has a good emotional story involving themes of grief, trauma, and vengeance that are pulled straight from the source material. Unfortunately, it does have a number of issues that I feel prevented it from being much better than it is, even when it has a lot of positive things going for it. It’s not even close to being the catastrophe some brain-dead idiots on the internet will claim it to be without having seen the film, but there are fair criticisms to be made about it as someone who has actually watched the film. It has things I loved and some things I didn’t love, so let us get right into it.
The biggest positive this film has going for it are the performances by a majority of the cast members who each bring their awesome characters to life, minus one individual. The biggest star amongst them is the titular Supergirl herself, played by Milly Alcock. Milly delivers a truly phenomenal performance for Kara, perfectly giving us the tragically complex and jaded version of the character from the original story. She brings numbness and survivor’s guilt to Kara, which creates emotional depth for us to feel attached to her. She is shown to be a far different character compared to Superman, as a result of their vastly different upbringings, which have given each of them unique perspectives on the universe and other people.
Superman believes everyone to have good inside them, while she believes that is not the case at all, making them end up on opposite sides of the moral spectrum. Kara is a good person underneath her messy exterior and just needs to find a way to let it out on this journey across the stars she is forced to go on in order to help Krypto, who is considered the last remaining piece of her past on Krypton that she loves dearly.
Joining her on her journey is Ruthye Marye Knoll, played by Eve Ridley, who recruits Supergirl on her journey to avenge her father’s death at the hands of a vicious leader of space pirates and human traffickers. Eve Ridley gives a magnificent performance as Ruthye as she completely embodies the character’s cosmic coming-of-age story that is defined by themes of trauma, vengeance versus justice, maturation, and unlikely mentorship she receives from Supergirl. She shares excellent chemistry with Milly’s Kara that evolves over the course of the film, and they both serve as the true heart of the film, just like how they are the true heart of the original story.
Having small but powerful supporting roles in the film are two important figures in Kara’s life, and they are her father, Zor-El, played by David Krumholtz, and her cousin Superman, reprised by David Corenswet. I was honestly surprised by how much David Krumholtz was able to make me feel so many emotions in this film with his performance and the quiet, tender moments he shares with Kara that end up defining her life forever. Even in the small amount of time we get with this character you feel every ounce of pain with him as he deals with Krypton’s destruction and sending Kara away to save her life.
Superman surprisingly has a much larger role in the film than just a cameo but it is very much welcomed because the moments we get with him further prove why David Corenswet is the perfect choice to portray him, as he oozes with unfiltered charm and kindness in his performance and interactions with Kara. While the two are cousins there is clearly an older sibling dynamic established between both of them where Superman is trying to be the brotherly mentor to Kara, seeing that she is lost and needs guidance, given everything she has gone through. I really loved the way this relationship was established and I can’t wait to see it be further explored in the upcoming Superman sequel, which is set to have Supergirl return for a more integral role in the story.
Stealing the spotlight several times in the film is the “Main Man” Lobo, played by Jason Momoa, who trades his role as DCEU’s Aquaman for the role he has always wanted to play for his entire career. As cliché as it sounds, Jason Momoa was clearly born for the role of Lobo, an alien mercenary and bounty hunter who is characterized by his extreme violence, foul mouth, and love for his motorcycle. Originally introduced in comics as a villain, he was later reimagined as a parody of the “grim and gritty” anti-hero trend of the 1990s, becoming a fan favorite for his over-the-top brutality, superhuman strength, immortality, and unhinged humor, which is exactly what Jason Momoa delivers in his performance in this film, bringing entertaining chaos in small doses. He’s a character that may not be for everyone but I absolutely loved him in this film, as did my audience who cheered every time he came in to cause mayhem. He was used just enough to make me feel satisfied about his inclusion, but I also want to see much more of him going forward, whether it be in his own solo project or another DCU project.
All these great performances and characters unfortunately lead us to the one character who ended up being the worst part of the film as a whole, and that was the main villain, Krem of the Yellow Hills, the vicious leader of the Brigands (a group of space pirates and human traffickers), played by Matthias Schoenaerts. In the comic, I felt Krem was easily the weakest part of the original story, being a serviceable but overly simplistic villain that barely felt memorable compared to other DC villains, so I was really hoping for this adaptation to upgrade him and make him better. Despite being given a creepy new look and a more sadistic nature that would make him a love-to-hate villain, he unfortunately ended up being extremely underdeveloped and underwhelming in the entire film. He is given a decent performance by Matthias Schoenaerts but it means very little when he’s portrayed as an extremely generic bad guy that offers very little in terms of menace or memorability compared to much better previous villains in the DCU so far, like Lex Luthor in Superman, Rick Flag Sr. in Peacemaker Season 2, and even Princess Ilana Rostovic in Creature Commandos. He honestly reminded me a lot of Ronan the Accuser from Guardians of the Galaxy, who is another villain that had the potential to be great but ended up falling short.
The film’s narrative is by no means a completely faithful adaptation of the Woman of Tomorrow story due to the various changes and additions that are made, but it does stay true to most of the core elements and themes that made the original story so beloved while also adding in a sprinkle of summer blockbuster elements to make it energetically fun in the appropriate places. The film starts off seemingly like it is going to be some light-hearted space adventure with humor and cosmic hijinks, but quickly establishes its dark and mature tone right after, which drastically sets it apart from Superman. This isn’t an uplifting fantastical story about hope or humanity, but a grounded cosmic story that revolves around the consummation of grief, trauma, and vengeance shown through the two leading characters that I felt was mostly executed extremely well.
While I do feel it stays true to some of the most important parts of the original Woman of Tomorrow storyline, I do wish this film had better pacing by focusing more on the slower emotional moments and leaning more into other elements of the original story, such as the cosmic fantasy elements. The more grounded approach is not necessarily a bad change, but given how Superman was able to really lose on the weird, wild and magical side of DC comics lore, there was a part of me that was hoping this film would do the same given some of the big moments in the comic involving crazy fantastical events. There is also a very bold change made for Kara near the end of the film involving a choice she makes that may potentially be divisive for comic fans, but I personally think it was a great change that sets up an important arc for Kara in the DCU that is to be explored in next year’s Man of Tomorrow. A conflict of morality between Clark and Kara is definitely being set up between them and I can’t wait to see how it plays out.
Craig Gillespie’s vibrant directing style is very present in this film through the technical elements that have both pros and cons to it. The action is hyper fast and frantic but looks absolutely spectacular when shown in its full glory, especially when we get to see Supergirl be a full-on dirty, reckless brawler compared to Superman, who fights with precision and care. There are some amazing one-shot action sequences in this film that are absolutely amazing, including the ones involving Supergirl and Lobo working together, and the wild Mad Max-inspired final fight that looked really awesome for me personally. However, not all of the action is this incredible throughout the whole film, as I noticed moments of extremely jarring editing scattered throughout the film that I felt ruined the impact of some of the sequences. There are moments of rapid-fire cuts that were extremely hard to follow and felt a bit much like Taken 3. Thankfully, not all of the action sequences were like this, but the editing should have been at its best for the entire film.
The practical effects and sets look absolutely fantastic and bring a lot of unique alien worlds and species to life that visually set it apart from most other sci-fi franchises and feel pulled straight from the original comic. Practical work is used as much as possible throughout, but when CGI is needed for certain sequences, visuals, and characters, I think it all looks fantastic for most of the film, except for a few minor areas where it looks a bit off. The most visually appealing set piece of the film for me was definitely Krypton and the surviving fragment of it that is shown in Kara’s past. The cinematography is outstanding when it isn’t botched by the frantic editing, and the sound design is really excellent, especially for the space sequences.
The score by composer Claudia Sarne is decent but is vastly overshadowed by stylish needledrops that Craig Gillespie is known for in his other films. The song choices are fun, but I would have preferred the score to be more present.
Supergirl has its faults, but it is by no means a bad film, as some will claim it to be, since I feel it has a lot more positives going for it than negatives, as well as the fact it does deliver the best portrayal of Supergirl in live action that the DCU is blessed to have. This film should not be immune to fair criticisms, but it doesn’t deserve the flack it has received from individuals and groups with a hateful mindset that want nothing more than to see women-led comic book projects fail. This film definitely needed to be better but it also deserves better treatment by the public and to be given a fair chance, as this does have something of value to offer audiences. I’m going to give Supergirl a B+ = 89.
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