Supergirl fan screening provided by Universal Pictures
When James Gunn and Peter Safran were tasked with reinvigorating the DC Universe, it was clear that a shakeup involving culling star faces like Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot and Jason Momoa (to name a few) heralded a no nonsense approach to this task. Of course, actors out-age the characters they play, and Gunn’s first film in this new phase of the DC Universe, Superman (2025), replaced one of the staple names of that universe in Cavill.
The second DC film to be released in this new phase, Supergirl (2026) never had to face that Cavil-ier sized backlash given this was the first mainline Supergirl movie. While Gunn isn’t at the helm this time around, his fingerprints are all over Craig Gillespe’s film, a director known for more measured character studies rather than big budget blockbusters. It’s easy to see why Gillespe was viewed as the right man for this job though: films like I, Tonya (2017) and Cruella (2021) follow the origin story of strong female characters and see them manifest into something larger than life that they never saw in themselves to begin with. Naturally, that makes Supergirl a super candidate for a director like Gillespe.
While that is the case to an extent this time around, Gunn’s said fingerprints have left smudges on Kara Zor-El / Supergirl (Milly Alcock), keeping her feeling like she’s being held back by kryptonite —poor writing, drab subplots and a one dimensional villain — rather than allowed to charge up and shine in a similar way to David Corenswet’s Superman.
Opening with a scene involving a family being slaughtered by chief movie villain Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts), lone survivor Ruthye (Eve Ridley) is left wanting revenge for their murder. She soon finds Kara drinking away in one of her pub crawls, with the duo eventually teaming up after Kara’s dog Krypto, is poisoned by Krem as he steals her ship and flys off. If this sounds like a sort of pseudo-revenge John Wick dog movie, you’re bang on the money. But revenge isn’t what Ruthye should be seeking, or so Kara tries to hammer into her. There’s more to life than revenge, Kara goes on, so let me handle this…oh wait you didn’t listen to me and now we’re on a buddy up adventure involving Marvel like one-liners and less than flashy CGI.
It’s telling that in reinvigorating DC, Gunn has done a ctrl c, ctrl v approach to these first two films. While I can’t blame him for utlising a tried and true formula that (really) he put in motion with Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) —for better and worse— it reduces the film to a predictable, beat-by-beat exercise where Supergirl could be replaced by Wonder Woman and you wouldn’t bat an eyelid.
Milly Alcock does as much as she can with a script that washes over any stakes with a shrug of the shoulder and cheeky wink. Krem is about as one-dimensional a superhero villain as they come, right up there with Christian Bale’s Gorr. His motives are unclear, as he steals swords and young women who he wants to wed off in some sense like he’s Immortan Joe from Mad Max: Fury Road (2015).
The plot is as much tied to Ruthye’s character as it is to Kara, and it leaves a lot to be desired in the way of character development and a reason to care about what is happening to these people. There’s flashbacks to Kara’s home planet, giving us a different perspective to the fall of Krypton that we’ve always gotten in a Superman film. It’s welcome and makes sense for a character we haven’t seen much of on the big screen, but it leaves the moments in the present feeling short lived.
Jason Momoa jets around as Lobo on a motorcycle, having as much fun as he can while scoffing down bears and revving the engine (not far from what he does in real life), and some of the action is serviceable, but beyond that this feels like a set up to an inevitable Superman and Supergirl movie at some point. Ultimately, Gillespe’s film chooses to look forward and remind audiences that Supergirl will be a part of a wider Justice League at some point rather than giving her an origin story worth its weight.
Supergirl opens nationally from today.
Rating Frames 