Time: 108 Minutes
Age Rating: M – Violence
Cast:
Milly Alcock as Kara Zor-El / Supergirl
Matthias Schoenaerts as Krem of the Yellow Hills
Eve Ridley as Ruthye Marye Knoll
David Krumholtz as Zor-El
Emily Beecham as Alura In-Ze
David Corenswet as Kal-El / Clark Kent / Superman
Jason Momoa as Lobo
Director: Craig Gillespie

Last year, the DCU was launched with James Gunn’s Superman, which I had some very mixed feelings about. I did have some hope for the next entry, Supergirl, despite being uncertain about the trailers. Unfortunately, I can’t say that Supergirl is that much better than the movie it followed, or that it’s good on its own.

The movie is based on a Supergirl comic book titled Woman of Tomorrow. Apparently, it’s not accurate to the source material, but I haven’t read it, so I won’t be judging the film as an adaptation. In itself, Supergirl’s writing and script were weak. It has such a generic, predictable and by the numbers plot that feels on autopilot all the way through. The dialogue plainly states the character beats and everything that happens in the plot,, without the depth to back them up. The character arcs of the two leads especially felt empty. Supergirl constantly feels like it’s in a rush to get to the next scene or location, like it was cut down to keep things moving. The attempts at humour don’t really hit, not to the degree that it’s obnoxious, but none of it really registered. The drama and emotion doesn’t really register either. Even the inclusion of the main villain running a trafficking ring exploiting women and girls felt hollow, almost like the movie was just wanting to include some evil background for him to make him hateable. Really, the closest emotion I felt was the flashbacks with Supergirl/Kara, specifically when she was in Argo city before she was sent out in a pod to Earth which were by far the best scenes of the movie. Supergirl is under 2 hours long, and it really needed more time to flesh some things out.

Milly Alcock is great as Supergirl, and she was the single thing carrying this movie, conveying the comedy, the action, and the emotion. Supergirl’s character arc about being so broken that she doesn’t want to be a hero and then along the way deciding to do so wasn’t convincing, but I think that Alcock did better at selling the character better than the writing did. By the end, I wanted to see more of her in future movies. Eve Ridley plays the secondary lead who is on a revenge quest against the main villain who killed her family. The performance felt stiff and didn’t quite convey what was necessary with the character and her arc. Jason Momoa is here as Lobo, an alien bounty hunter. Momoa is enjoyable enough in his screentime, but with his 10 minutes of screentime he didn’t do much and felt tact on. Matthias Schoenaerts plays the villain, Krem, and for what its worth he does commit to the performance. However, he’ s so generic and forgettable with not much depth given to him. David Corenswet’s Superman does have a few scenes. I enjoyed his charisma when he’s on screen, and I liked the chemistry and dynamic between him and Alcock.

Craig Gillespie is generally a solid director, but his work here is the worst I’ve seen from him so far. I wouldn’t say that Supergirl is one of the worst looking comic book movies, even from the past 6 years. However, the visuals are definitely dull and muddy with boring environments and some dodgy CGI. The set design and practical alien/creature work are pretty good, though the sci-fi aesthetics were definitely derivative from the likes of Guardians of the Galaxy and Star Wars. The action is somewhat entertaining, though quite repetitive and nothing special. None of the needle drops work at all, they don’t fit the tones of the scenes, and the last one during the climax is especially baffling.

Supergirl is yet another generic comic book movie with muddy visuals, average direction, and a middling story on autopilot, but is carried by a great performance from Milly Alcock. For what it’s worth, I did enjoy it more than Superman, but that might not be a widely held opinion. For me, the DCU wasn’t really off to a great start with Superman, and Supergirl didn’t really do anything to improve that feeling either, outside of introducing yet another character with a great performance who deserved a much better movie.