"Celebrating" her 23rd birthday, but in reality, hiding from the universe by staying on a planet with a red sun and getting drunk, Kara, aka Supergirl, ends up having to travel across the universe to find the antidote to the poison that was injected into Krypto by a band of brigands. The brigands were in the process of stealing Kara's spaceship when Krypto tried to stop them. Traveling with Ruthye, the daughter of a sword maker killed by the brigands, she has three days to save her dog.
SUPERGIRL is not the mess that many internet pundits and supposed gate keepers have declared it. I am not going to lie and say its a perfect film, it is not, but I think the issue here is not so much the script as the fact that this feels like it was trimmed down from a longer better film. I say this because repeatedly there were times where I got the sense that something was left out. It's the sort of left out you get when you trim bits that add context not because the script was broken at the start. I believe this more because the sequences that feel whole and the construction of the story, especially in the inclusion of Lobo, feels right.
I want to say at the top that this not going to be a film that disappears, despite what the gatekeepers and misogynistic film bros may want to happen. I think that this film is going to grow in stature over time. Having had the film live rent free in my head since I saw it Saturday, I am of the opinion that it is much better than we all think. I think we will see this once we all step away from what we thought the film was going to be and take it for what it is- something greater and more important than the disposable reel of celluloid that the pundits and hateful film bros have labeled it.
But I'm getting a head of myself.
The day after SUPERGIRL opened I bought a ticket and took a ride. The theater was largely empty- owing to the fact that the film at 1030 am was in three or four other theaters at the multiplex. The audience was largely girls and their families. That was not what I expected but it made me smile. I honesdtly I expected an audience of male comics geeks, but they apparently all skipped my screening.
The opening sequence where the brigands come and kill Ruthye's family is really clunky. It's borderline bad and I feared that the script was as bad as everyone seemed to be saying. Fortunately it was not.
From there the film shifts to Kara and the film picks up.
Okay Milly Alcock-IS Supergirl. She kicks ass. Its a performance for the ages. It's one of the truly great superhero performances that just gets better and better as we get more shading as the film goes. Seriously she is one of the truly great broken but functioning characters I've seen in cinema, never mind superhero cinema. By the time we get her final encounter with Krem and the final scene you get this glorious (and Oscar worthy) emotional journey. There is no way Oscar will not notice it, but audiences will. The little kids who don't feel they belong and feel utterly crushed by life will notice it and they will embrace it and they will absolutely take it to heart and carry it with them as proof that they can go on. Cinema should not just reflect what is, or entertain, but it should give hope as much as possible. Alcock gives hope and I'm guessing millions of kids and adults will connect to that.
The misogynistic fan boys and those delighting in crushing the film should be wary since this film is very much an attack on them. The film is about an all-male society who kidnap and use women only for breeding being crushed by two women. It's a film about women standing up for themselves and making their world a better place. This is ultimately a film that was made for girls and outsiders who feel put down and put upon. This wasn't made for the self-important male film community. This film is a ultimately a female empowerment film that is closer to real than a film like Barbie- because Kara is closer to every person sitting in the theater and not a self-assured young woman who can't fail. Kara can and does and yet goes on. The failing and then getting up is what gives the film its resonance and power.
And before you yell at me about Lobo, yea Lobo is there. Yes, Jason Mamoa is great as Lobo, but he never outshines the ladies. Yes, Lobo is there. Yes, Lobo helps Kara and Ruthye, but he is never the focus, nor the only reason the ladies succeed. In the film Lobo is referred to as a god. He's really not that, but within the context of the film he is. Lobo is essential a deus ex machina- a machine of god. He comes in and nudges things. He helps when it suits him, he makes a suggestion to Ruthye about how to escape and then he leaves -and even then, she exceeds what he thought she would do. All of the work is done by the women. Lobo is little more than a necessary plot device.
I should say something about the violence- it's brutal and ugly- and while it isn't bloody it is graphic. People are impaled and broken apart. People die, badly. It is very much a PG-13 film. In its way it's disturbing. Actually, the violence and the evilness of the brigands are light years beyond almost any other superhero film, particularly a DC superhero film.
I have heard a number of writers complain it's a bad shift from the world of last year's SUPERMAN. Well, the truth is it isn't that film, nor is it set on earth but on a meaner nastier and uglier place. It's not a reinvention of that world, or of the superhero genre, but simply a look at that world from a different perspective, perhaps from the shadows. This is not SUPERMAN and it is not trying to copy that film. You can't kick the film for not repeating what went before, especially since many who said that would have kicked it for repeating. (Think of it as Urasawa's Pluto compared to Tezuka's Astroboy)
Critics and audiences have to remember the films we see are not our films- but the work of artists and even when we critique them, we have to remember that we didn't make the films and they were never made to match our sensibility unless by happy accident.
That said the film does have problems....
The problem with the script is largely that there is a sense that something is missing. Yes, we have enough to carry the plot forward, however at the same time shading seems to be missing. I kept thinking I should know more, particularly about the brigands who are little more than standard, but incredibly evil, bad guys. And it's not that I need long exposition, rather I would have liked just some sort of odd line that added color rather than their entire being being summed up by their name- brigands. I mean we know more about the tech pirates who attack the space bus for one brief sequences than the brigands who are the big bads for a two hour film.
On the other hand, mostly the script nails it where it has to. Lobo is largely in the background. The plot moves and is cathartic. Most importantly the script is written so that all of the emotion shades almost all of the characters. Kara is a wholly formed woman. You feel her pain. When Ruthye finally unloads on Kara you feel the weight in her words. You especially feel the weight when Ruthye tries to rally Kara with words that echo those of Kara's mother. Most amazingly the film radically shifts our understanding of Clark/Superman, explaining why he is so good. Its something that explains a great deal and ultimately gives Kara a much bigger emotional standing when you realize what it takes for her to be good considering how she sees the world.
I should also point out that despite the jokes the film is very heavy. There is a weight to what happens. As I said above, people die and die badly. There is a cost, if not physically then psychically, for everything. This is not a Marvel movie where anything can happen, no one is ever really dead, and the world is shiny happy bunny farts. The world of SUPERGIRL is dark and ugly and painful. There is poverty everywhere. The worlds all look the same because most of what we see is shit holes. Almost all of the people in this film are barely surviving, and they are being abused by bottom feeders. It is not what people want from superhero films (think all the big spectacle of Marvel's output) and I think that is why people have not warmed to it... then again, the film actually isn't a superhero film, it's a coming-of-age film. This isn't an action film but a character centric drama about two women fighting to find a way out of the darkness.
When this film clicks and is firing on all cylinders, it is one of the best superhero films ever made...
The trouble is it feels like a half an hour was chopped from this. What was the original cut of this film like? I would love to find out.
If there is anything really wrong with the film it's that the needle drops, pretty much every damned one of them is awful. I honestly cannot defend any of them. Needle drops should set the mood from the first notes; we shouldn't have to wait to hear several lines of lyrics to know what the song is saying and why they are using it to score a big scene. Nor should you use a cover version of a perfect song with the wrong tempo. Only that final cover is remotely right - but it's the absolute wrong version. And no, I am not saying this because I don't know the songs used as needle drops, it is because the songs chosen are just sonically emotionally wrong. I know if we swapped out every needle drop for something else everyone's opinion of the film would go up.
Should you see SUPERGIRL?
Yes. It's a solid action film. I don't think you need to run out to see it in IMAX theaters but do see it, just see it when you can.
What makes me happy is that ultimately, despite the shouting about the box office it won't matter. Kids, and I do mean kids, are going to find the film and it will be a hit, a cult hit but still a hit. It will save lives and give hope to the kids who discover it and need to hear its message that despite the pain that they too can be heroes, that they can be snarky and funny and not stand down so long as they are doing good. This film will, in the long run, change lives.
How do I know?
Because I saw young girls delighted by what they were seeing on screen. I saw them smiling at watching a girl kicking the ass of all the guys. I saw one little girl running though the theater dressed as Supergirl with a look of complete and utter joy on her face because she saw that she could do that...girls could be the hero.
I know that people go to films dressed as the characters be it Star Wars, Marvel, or Michael Jackson or something else, but this was the first time that I saw the world change as a bunch of kids saw a future open up. It wasn't so much they will be Supergirl (or Luke or Spidey), but it was kids realizing life hurts but they can fight through it and be something wonderful- hell Kara only wears the suit in the final minutes of the film - it is only put on when she chooses to be more than just Kara and become Supergirl. Looking in the eyes of the little girls, I saw them realize that they could be that. SUPERGIRL is vital and important and one of the great films of 2026 because it will give girls, and anyone else who find it, the ability to go on and be good despite the pain.
As I write this I have no idea how the film did at the box office, but I do know how it will do long term. Short term it maybe a bust(or not) but in terms of the long term this film is going to rattle the pillars of heaven.
