There’s a lot to like about Supergirl, the second entry in the burgeoning DC universe, which kicked off with James Gunn’s excellent Superman just last year. Or is it the third entry? Does The Suicide Squad count? Blue Beetle? I CAN’T KEEP IT STRAIGHT. Also, I don’t really care. It’s all pretend. Anywho, when Milly Alcock walked into frame in the final moments of Superman as the big blue boy scout’s Kryptonian cousin, a star was instantly born. Kara Zor-El is not just the real owner of Krypto, she’s the reason he’s so poorly behaved. And she’s not the wide eyed optimist her cousin is. Nope, she’s the type of Kryptonian who will travel to planets with red suns so that her superpowers are limited and she can finally catch a solid buzz. She’s a bit rough and tumble, and that’s precisely why everyone who still cares about superhero movies was immediately excited to see her carrying a film.
Of the things to like about this film, Alcock is top of the list. She’s an immediately compelling presence, stripping Supergirl of the “aww shucks” energy of previous iterations, and imbuing her with a rawness that feels human. Everyone remembers what it’s like to be in your early twenties, struggling to find your identity, while the weight of every decision you make is measured against the rest of your life. Now add to that a lost civilization, a destroyed planet, a dead family, and a sole relative whose shadow looms large, and who could blame Kara for wanting to pop around the galaxy and get drunk with her dog for a while? It’s the cosmic version of backpacking around Europe and finding oneself. Through this framing, the young actress makes a superpowered character universally relatable. It’s a stellar (ha!) performance, and it carries the film.
…because…
There’s also a lot not to like about Supergirl. First and foremost is the direction, specifically in the action department. The high-powered fisticuffs are shot by a claustrophobic camera that refuses to let the choreography or production design breathe. And why use two cuts when you can use twelve? Instead of letting the images on screen speak for themselves, the sense of geography is consistently undercut by an impatient camera. With such cool world design (and a roster of excellent creatures), it’s a shame for the action — ostensibly the reason why comic book movies at their core even exist — to be such an afterthought. The blockbuster sequences should be exciting, but instead I’m left with the same “been there, done that” feeling of super-cinema in general.
The script is a mixed bag. The core tale, in which Kara, tugged into action by a young girl seeking her own type of vengeance, starts strong. The setup for a dual character arc that meets in the thematic middle is right there, and it chugs along quite nicely at the outset. Midway through, however, it’s abandoned for a much flatter “retrieve the macguffin” narrative that isn’t helped by an empty (although well-performed) villain. And then Lobo (Jason Momoa) shows up to let us know that there will be a Lobo movie at some point. That’s not to say that Momoa isn’t the right guy for the job. In fact, he’s the only guy for the job. He looks more like Lobo than any human being in all of history, but he’s wasted here. The comic relief he brings is nice, but he’s sloppily shoehorned in otherwise (the character is not featured in the source comic). In a film that is kinda sorta about women sticking together (to save a bunch of women in captivity, no less), it’s weird for there to be so many instances of Deus Ex Lobo.
Said source comic Woman of Tomorrow (which is excellent — give it a read) smartly places Kara second fiddle to Ruthye, making her the Rooster Cogburn of it all. She’s a bit of a cypher, and Ruthye attempts to decode her as she regales us with her adventurous tale in flashback. Conversely, in the film, Kara must be the lead, and it’s in the narrative alterations made to support this change that the script loses its way. A bolder film would’ve been smart to preserve some mystery around the iconic character, but Hollywood rules dictate that we need to set the table for a few more cinematic outings, so we can’t just meet Supergirl secondhand. As such, we get a gorgeously shot, but extraneous origin story (Gillespie can’t do action, but he’s no slouch), a bunch of pointless interaction with Superman for brand management’s sake, and the aforementioned Lobo to rob this story of a fair amount of its unique identity.
Now that we exist in a world where comic book movies have stepped back from mainstream over-saturation and, much like their paperback predecessors, found themselves re-relegated to the world of nerds (like, actual nerds), it was up to the DC Universe to try and plow a new frontier and differentiate itself from the homogeneity of the superhero subgenre. Supergirl fails miserably on this front, delivering a movie that, despite being mostly entertaining, is exactly like everything we’ve seen countless times before.
And much like everything we’ve seen countless times before, I feel like the next one will be really good.
I’m not just saying that. Now that the origin is out of the way, this awesome iteration of the character can be given some room to grow.
Directed by Craig Gillespie
Written by Ana Nogueira, Jeremy Slater
Starring Milly Alcock, Eve Ridley, Matthias Schoenaerts, Jason Momoa
Rated PG-13, 108 minutes
