
Supergirl is directed by Craig Gillespie director of Lars and the Real Girl (2007), Fright Night (2011), I, Tonya (2017), Cruella (2021), Dumb Money (2022) and a few others. The film serves as the second film in the DC Universe.
Supergirl is a perfectly fine superhero movie and that’s really all there is to it and that’s not a bad thing at all. For the most part Supergirl gets the job done of what it’s sent out to do, it is incredibly flawed but I do think there is just enough here to push it over the finish line.
Milly Alcock is what is mainly carrying this movie, she gives such an excellent performance as Kara and gives some edge to the character which really works. She also captures Kara as a character incredibly well, which does make the movie all the more frustrating when it goes for very safe territory. Her interactions with the rest of the cast are entertaining and unlike a lot of the movie, she never holds back which brings plenty of great moments. The flashbacks that explore Kara’s past are some of the strongest moments especially when you mix it in with Alcock’s acting.
Jason Momoa as Lobo provides the movie with some extra firepower, Momoa brings chaos and a whole lot of fun to the table. Which is a breath of fresh air seeing how some of the action scenes can quickly become a bit of the same thing, the one-liners are even quite decent (which is interesting because the dialogue in this movie isn’t great, usually the one-liners are the negative while the dialogue is the positive in movies like these…that’s different!) Momoa captures Lobo as a character quite well, even though he pops up every now and then. You can still feel his presence and when he does show up it’s admittedly always exciting.
The main issue holding Supergirl back is the writing, while there are some very strong moments such as the previously mentioned flashback scenes that when combined with the movie’s score (the score had a lot of issues during the post-production stages with switching through many composers, but all things considered it turned out pretty alright. I cannot say the same for the needle drops though.) Plus Alcock and Momoa are able to somewhat elevate the material, however the writing falters when it comes to its own ideas. The trafficking part in particular left a lot more to be desired, I get what the movie was trying to go for here and yes it’s a very heavy topic, however the execution is very lackluster and almost feels like an afterthought in a lot of ways.
It really does not help when you have an incredibly forgettable villain, Krem of the Yellow Hills is a very one note villain who feels less like a leader and more like a Dragon Ball Z movie henchmen or a typical villain henchmen that is ranked more highly than others. Matthias Schoenaerts tries his best with what he is given but it’s ultimately not enough to make the character compelling.
Finally there is Craig Gillespie’s direction, which while he is an excellent director who has shown he can deliver. It shows here that Gillespie was the wrong person for the job, the script from Ana Nogueira and the direction from Craig Gillespie are showing two very different things and they are just not agreeing with each other at all. Nogueira’s script has the trafficking subject matter and the mixed dialogue, Gillespie’s direction seems to want to focus on this very traditional action movie (with not very good special effects), the two just do not mesh well at all unfortunately which leads into a bit of a mess.
Despite my issues with Supergirl, I do think it’s a fun enough movie that barely crosses the finish line. It really should be stressed on how much Milly Alcock and Jason Momoa really save this movie, because without them the movie would not be anywhere near as fun.
Supergirl releases July 28th on all VOD platforms.
6/10 C+











