Supergirl Movie Review:
Can broken things be fixed easily? Can broken souls or bodies be fixed easily? As the herald of DC’s new age of films, Superman (2025) expressed the beauty in being human, with or without having superpowers, and became a flag bearer of ultimate good. With Superman, came the strong belief that no matter what comes in your way, no matter how big of a wrong a person has done, there is a small corner within each and every person where good remains. But Superman/Clark Kent/Kal-El’s (David Corenswet) cousin, Kara Zor-El/Supergirl (Milly Alcock), wasn’t brought up with the same hopefulness and optimism that the former’s human upbringing gave him. Instead, by the time she is 23, Kara has gone through multiple losses, all unimaginable. While this still makes Kara as human as Clark, her road to finding herself again is full of hurdles which makes her stumble, just as Craig Gillespie’s Supergirl does occasionally.
Director: Craig Gillespie
Cast: MIlly Alcock, Eve Ridley, Matthias Schoenaerts, David Corenswet, Jason Momoa
Like Kara, the audiences have to wait a while before realising what the story of Supergirl is about. While the film is on the whole a superhero flick, it is also a space western that follows the journey of our lead cowboy, Supergirl, to find the treasure, a medicine that can cure her poisoned dog Krypto. Hence, it slowly unravels the layers that make up who Kara is. She is a raging alcoholic because she does not want to relive her traumatic past. But to see the events of her past, we have to wait until the moment when Kara is allowed to confront it. The dulling of her senses, makes her ideologies clash, adding to her inner turmoil. But we are not privy to the cause of her inner turmoil, because it is concentrated to a two line dialogue. While moving away from a regular superhero story structure is commendable, leaving audiences with very less to care for, as the venture very much into the film, turns them away.
Beyond Kara, the characters of the film are written in an almost superficial manner, which leaves them in a limbo. Ruthye’s (Eve Ridley) quest to avenge her parents' death at the hands of Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts) and his band of Brigands, results in a chance encounter with Kara, who is dragged into the fight as Krem wounds Krypto. Now, Ruthye is resorted to being the emotional core, and Krem as the villain, but they are unfortunately pushed into a zone that does not provide them with enough conviction for the themes that they represent. While Ridley packs a punch with her performance, and Shoenaerts finds his footing as Krem, both struggle to land due to weak writing. Meanwhile, Jason Momoa’s Lobo is the film’s ‘cool quotient’. Lobo is only present to show up, crack some jokes, and look cool while fighting… until we find out his impact on the film’s larger narrative, very late into the film. But Momoa does not wait for that point to imprint his character on the viewer’s memory, instead he uses every tool in his charisma arsenal to make Lobo a stronger character, beyond his immortality and god complex.
But it is Alcock who shoulders the film with her magnetic performance. Whether it being clad in a spacesuit, carrying the effect of loss and hope of her parents, or a trenchcoat, which she uses to shield her pain, or the supersuit where she embraces her true purpose as a Kryptonian who can stand for good, Alcock shape shifts and portrays every part of Kara’s arc with supreme energy, while retaining the colours that make Kara’s fundamental characteristics. The world knows Superman, and hence he can give sweeping lectures on how good it is to be human. But the world has yet to discover what makes Supergirl, and Alcock lets the audience fly alongside her across planets, as we learn about Kara. While Wonder Woman has been the symbol of female superheroes, the solid nature of her ethics allows for very little flaws to be written for her, in this age of flawed women characters. But with Alcock’s iteration of Supergirl, the character stands apart from the more famous cousin, while approaching the beauty of being human from a different perspective.
But that being said, Supergirl is a testing film. It is tediously slow, sluggishly flat, and lacks a lot of charm. With decades of superhero films from the “other” studio, DC is trying to find a unique tone that defines its films. But like Kara, the film and the studio is yet to land on that tone, which results in Supergirl teetering dangerously towards becoming wasted. Yet one can be hopeful about further appearances of Supergirl, as a delightful performer is the one to don the suit.
