Green kryptonite at the box office, Supergirl is standard superhero fare juiced with Deadpool-style wit and smarts. Well, that’s the intention. In fact, the wit is a bit strained and the smarts are a touch familiar. Everyone is trying just a bit too hard.
Put it down to nerves. DC realised their DC Extended Universe (2013’s Man of Steel to 2023’s Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom) had lost whatever mojo it had ever had and so decided to reboot it as the more streamlined DC Universe – “Extended” was possibly a hostage to fortune. As part of all that, out went Sasha Calle, a perfectly fine Supergirl in The Flash, and in came Milly Alcock. All part of the new broom, the reboot, and an attempt by DC to distance itself from The Flash‘s poor box office and allegations circling its star, Ezra Miller. Nothing at all to do with Calle being an androgynous Latina, we’re assured, in a pearl-clutching Trump America.
Alcock is nervous too. She overacts in early scenes but eventually wriggles her way into character. Kara Zor-El – aka Supergirl – is a teenager who wants to kick back and enjoy getting drunk (which a Kryptonian can do on a planet with a red sun, it seems). Until responsibility – aka The Plot – forces its way into her life in the shape of the villainous Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts), who poisons Kara’s dog, Krypto. Sending our caped wonder off on a Universe-wandering quest to find an antidote, accompanied by a tag-along in the shape of Ruthye (Eve Ridley), a determined waif who’s been orphaned by Krem and wants revenge.
Somewhere on a junk world of Mad Max familiarity, Kara/Supergirl and Ruthye run into Lobo, a demigod with poor social skills. Lobo is superfluous to the plot, and Jason Momoa’s casting as him is another sign of the general nervousness surrounding this project. Clearly drafted in to add star power, Momoa, to his credit, doesn’t try to upstage either Alcock or Ridley. He is a genial if pointless presence.
Alcock and Ridley are fine on their own, with Ridley’s Ruthye a bright button and a fine foil for the sullen Kara, who flops about in grungy clothes and uncombed hair (Helen Slater-era Supergirl she isn’t). She’s reluctant to work the difficult end of the great power/great responsibility equation, you could say, and this is all down to her traumatised childhood on a disintegrating planet. We know this because Ruthye likes to ask questions. Questions like how come Superman is called Superman but Supergirl isn’t called Superwoman? Because the patriarchy, Alcock’s fingers semaphore.
It is a female-forward superhero movie in a way that’s quite unusual, even if it doesn’t ultimately deliver. The dynamic of the two sisters in Black Widow might be behind the Supergirl/Ruthye partnership. A plot including the trafficking of young women, Krem’s supervillain plan to create an “all-male race” (having clearly not thought through what that might mean) and the almost complete absence of Superman (David Corenswet) also up the female ante.
All that said, for all the feminist blah, the arc for Supergirl is towards sweetness, sobriety and domesticity. Kara learns to become ladylike. This would all be a bit disappointing if the earlier focus on our heroine’s personal issues – booze and cynicism – hadn’t become quite so wearing.
There’s nothing particularly wrong with this film that a bit less of everything wouldn’t cure. There are too many Star Wars Bar characters, for instance – there’s no need for any more flap-faced aliens in the world. And Alcock getting into the Supergirl costume a bit earlier wouldn’t have gone amiss either.
Pluses are the Alcock/Ridley dynamic, with Ridley in particular marking herself out for great things with her performance. There are some good fights too, well choreographed by Trayan Milenov-Troy and we get to see Supergirl’s knickers. Oh, come on, a clickbait gif is a clickbait gif and every little helps.
Supergirl – Watch it/buy it at Amazon
I am an Amazon affiliate
© Steve Morrissey 2026
