This Supergirl Review Is Late And So Is The Movie

Let me state up front that I liked Supergirl for the most part. It is an above average superhero action-adventure movie — not as good as the most recent DCU movie Superman, but way better than The Flash.

But it really looks and often feels like a movie that was made in the early 2000s or even the 1980s. From a production standpoint, with its murky color pallet and overly dark scenes, Supergirl looks like what would happen if Zack Snyder made a movie about 1970s or ’80s Doctor Who.

So, in this spoiler-free review (even though most of you that want to see it already have) I will first cover what is good in the first DCU movie not written and directed by James Gunn.

The performances are the best thing about Supergirl. They range from good (David Krumholz as Kara’s father Zor-El, and Jason Momoa as Lobo) to great (Milly Alcock as Kara is outstanding, as is once again David Corenswet as Superman) to OK (Eve Ridley does the best she can with the one emotion Ruthye is allowed to have) to absolutely baffling. That last one is for Matthias Schoenaerts as the villain, Krem of the Yellow Hills. Not only does he play Krem as a knock-off Gorr the God-Butcher from Thor: Love & Thunder, the production designers and makeup artists make him look like Gorr, if he was in a Mad Max movie.

When the actors are allowed to interact in anything other than a punch-em-up, both Corenswet and Momoa show real chemistry with Alcock. And her performance as the emotionally broken Kara is wonderful to watch. She brings a subtlety to what might otherwise be an overly emo angst fest.

The writing swings from confusing to very good, although I suspect much of the good parts are lifted pretty whole from the comic book short series the movie is based on, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, by Tom King and artist Bilquis Evely et. al. Alas, the look of Supergirl owes absolutely nothing to Evely’s gorgeous comic art.

If anything inspired the look of the movie, I would say it was Molly Ringwald’s 1983 space opera schlock classic Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone. except when it is blatantly ripping off Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy movies. The gang of villains in Supergirl, the creatively named Brigands, are knockoff versions of the Ravagers from the Guardians movies, without the individuality they were given in those Marvel films (there is no Brigand as remotely interesting as the Ravager Taserface).

The writer Ana Nogueira did a decent job with her first feature script and only second script of any kind. Director Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya, The Finest Hours) handles the quieter character moments well and makes the action exciting, but there isn’t anything he does in Supergirl that is remotely as interesting as his Lars and the Real Girl.

The best things about Supergirl are the performances by Alcock, Corenswet and Momoa, and how it advances the lore of Krypton and Superman in the (hopefully) growing DCU. If that, and a slightly confusing if otherwise positive story about dealing with grief in an action-adventure sci-fi setting is your jam, definitely go see the movie. But there really isn’t anything that would make you not want to wait for it to hit streaming.

I give Supergirl (Warner Bros.; PG-13; 1 hr 48 mins) a 7 out of 10.

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