I enjoyed Superman (2025), even though there were some definite flaws with the film. Still, I thought it was good start to the new soft-rebooted DC cinematic universe. Now, we have the next entry with Supergirl which was based on the phenomenal comic ‘Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow" by Tom King which I adore. Is this another step forward for the DCU or a sad step back?
Let’s talk about the new actress to play Supergirl, Milly Alcock. I think she does a great job as she is incredibly fun and charismatic as Supergirl. She also really delivers on the more jaded, pained and the slightly quirky nature to the character. There are some emotional moments concerning her past and Milly gives a strong performance that really sells it. The surprise stand-out though is Jason Momoa as Lobo. People have been fan casting Momoa as Lobo for years, including the actor himself. I can safely say that he is absolutely terrific! He is perfect casting and steals every scene he is in by embodying the absolutely chaotic energy that is Lobo!
In terms of action scenes, they are all mostly pretty enjoyable. There is a fun fight scene with space pirates, an entertaining team up with Lobo to fight Brigands and a cool full-powered Supergirl fight. There are also some excellent flashback sequences to Krypton that do a great job in separating what makes Supergirl different from Superman while also delivering some of the more emotional core of the film. The costume design are also magnificent, especially the alien designs which do a great job in showing the varied cosmic side the DC universe. Visually there are some good-looking shots when Supergirl is in space and the flashback sequence on Krypton look wonderful.
Unfortunately, the rest of the film looks dull and ugly. It baffles me that despite the film having Supergirl go to multiple different planets, a lot of them look similar and bland. They all either look brown or grey or look like any place on Earth. Where are the colours!? The writing is also what brings this movie down a lot! Supergirl is weirdly written to be quite unlikeable. She is mostly this party-type drunk and self-pitying character who is cold and distant to everyone. This is understandable due to her past and to make it so she develops a character arc by the end of the film. However, she remains like this for a majority of the film and her coldness to Ruthye (her young companion in the film) is kind of mean at times. It doesn’t help that her character arc feels random and undeserved with no proper build-up of it. Supergirl also makes a mind-boggling stupid decision midway that makes it hard to take any lecture of her past this point seriously. She is also comedically always written to be under-powered in a lot of her fights which is so jarring.
The film is just a terrible adaptation of the comic book it is based on. Ruthye is just an annoying escort character in this film who doesn’t do anything meaningful. This is in contrast to her comic counterpart who has genuine heroic moments and a wonderful character development that affects Supergirl. You actually buy that Supergirl and Ruth are friends while in this film, it doesn’t make any sense for them to be friends.
Likewise, the villain Krem is just incredibly awful. He has no depth, no cool abilities or does anything remotely interesting. They changed his design to be more “menacing” looking and the actor gives him a more eccentric personality but it just makes him look silly and goofy. He is just a generic forgettable goon in the comics to be fair but that was kind of the point. He was the embodiment of pettiness and thoughtless evil. He rarely appeared in the comics and was more of macguffin. In the film, he appears a fair amount but just doesn’t do anything that makes you interested in the villain. There are also some weird changes made in the story, including the ending, which are all for the worst. I don’t get why they didn’t keep the story beats from the comic it was based on?
It is sad to say but Supergirl is a big step back for the DCU. The film feels like it was made by a guy who wants to be like James Gunn and a writer who doesn’t understand the character or the comic it is inspired by. This resulted in a film that lacks its own identity and instead feels like another generic superhero slop. Milly Alcock and Jason Momoa do a great job but they can’t elevate this mediocrity. It is a shame to see Supergirl’s return to the big screen to be so underwhelming. I want to believe in James Gunns DCU but this make me ironically lose a bit of hope.
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