super girl
Director: Craig Gillespie
Mould: Millie Alcock, Matthias Schoenaerts, Eve Ridley, David Krumholtz, Emily Beacham, Jason Momoa and David Corenswet
Rating: ★★.5
If there is any doubt Millie Alcock’s ability to hold her own on screen after House of the Dragon was completely upstaged by Supergirl. Film is their medium, their launch and their playground. The young actor does everything in his power to pull off this superhero adventure, but is ultimately let down by a very thin plot, a villain who inspires neither awe nor fear, and a total lack of soul. Still, in keeping with James Gunn’s DCU, Supergirl is fun, even if that fun is hollow for the most part.
What is the story of Supergirl?
Kara Zor-El, Superman’s cousin, waiting for her 23rd birthday. While Clark finds roots in Metropolis and protects Earth, Kara travels to planets with red suns with her dog Krypto to get drunk. His pub crawl introduces him to Ruthye Marie Knoll, a young girl whose family has been killed by robbers, who is looking for a bounty hunter to get her revenge. Reluctant Kara joins the expedition after the robbers’ leader, Kram, leaves her dog Krypto paralyzed and dying. Since then, the stars have been in a race to get revenge on Cream, Antidote and Ruthye.
What works for Supergirl
Kryptonian movies face a problem. Since Superman and Supergirl are almost always so strong, it’s a struggle to show them as underdogs. The combination of enemies like Kryptonite and Doomsday (and a determined Batman) has solved this puzzle in previous films. Supergirl does this in the most innovative way, using alcohol as a clever counterweight to the red sun in the galaxy and Kara’s powers. This makes it almost a young-adult coming-of-age drama, where this superpowered being can be transformed into an underdog without defying logic.
The USP of the film is Milly Alcock. The young actor showed promise in House of the Dragon, and here she shows it was no fluke. She balances vulnerability, pain, panic and confidence in a blend that is so natural that it instantly draws you into the story. Her bond with Krypto is so pure that it makes you feel attracted to her despite her ‘bad teenage’ ways. The fact that crypto is adorable also helps. Eve Ridley as Ruth, a good role for Milly. The 14-year-old serves as the film’s moral compass and the audience’s eyes on this wonderful world. Full marks to Rob Hardy’s cinematography for playing perfectly with light and shadow in a world of red, yellow and green sun, at least giving us a beautiful looking film.
Where Supergirl falls flat
But despite this promise, Supergirl never really took off. This is an action film where very few of the action set pieces really land. The action, which purports to show off Supergirl’s awe-inspiring powers, is largely confusing and shot without giving that awe a chance to emerge. Barring a few scenes in the climax and one scene in the first half hour, this action film fails to deliver its action properly. Another aspect where Supergirl fails is its bad guy. Matthias Schoenaerts as brigade leader Creem is given little work. This clichéd, one-note villain is neither memorable nor new. Every beat, every style seems copied from many things we’ve seen before. Only the sarcastic quality brought by Matthias seems to redeem him to some extent (as an entity, not as a character). The situation is weakened by the absence of a powerful villain. That Supergirl has a very thin plot where everything is so predictable that you can see the plot changes from a mile away doesn’t help either.
However, does Supergirl fly high?
Millie Alcock deserves a better movie and she shows it here. The audience, especially DC fans, also deserve a better Lobo. Jason Momoa, a man who radiates charisma, is forgotten here in the role he was born to play. This just shows how badly it was packaged during the affair. And yet, despite all these flaws, Supergirl delivers on one front: It’s fun. Yes, that fun is selfless, sometimes even hollow. But for casuals, it may just be worth the price of admission.