supergirl

★★★

starring: milly alcock, eve ridley, matthias schoenaerts, and jason momoa

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REVIEWER: lyall carter

Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl, joins forces with an unlikely companion on an interstellar journey of vengeance and justice when an unexpected adversary strikes too close to home.

The DC universe started afresh with the arrival of James Gunn’s David Corenset’s helmed Superman soaring into cinemas last year. With plenty of projects slated for theatre and streaming releases, there seems to be a lot more riding on Supergirl than your typical comic book superhero flick. While Milly Alcock is electric and empathetic as Supergirl, the film doesn’t soar as high as it could, weighed down by a script that doesn’t quite craft out a story worthy of its hero. 

Kara Zor-El (played by Milly Alcock) is an aimless Kryptonian surviving in the galaxy after watching her homeworld and loved ones perish. When a ruthless space pirate poisons her super-dog Krypto, and an angry young girl named Ruthye seeks revenge on the same villain, Kara reluctantly teams up for an epic cosmic journey.

Hollywood doesn’t really seem to know what to do with female superheroes. From Black Widow to Captain Marvel, there’s something about this subgenre that doesn’t quite land for these stand alone, female led films (Wonder Woman being the wonderful exception to this). And again I really think it comes down to the story.

Kara Zor-El aka Supergirl is given a heck of a lot of humanization - moving her pub crawl from planet to planet as she battles inner demons, having her powers drained from her - but isn’t given a real motivation or drive. It’s almost as if she is Quill - lite, taking the outline of the Guardians of the Galaxy protagonist - charismatic, reckless, and lost - but doesn’t give her a solid enough character arc or development for us to deeply, DEEPLY, care for her as we did for Quill. 

This sense of Guardian’s extends to the world building which is rich, varied, and frightening in the creatures and planets that it throws at the audience. While there isn’t much of a back story to these alien races or places, it feels like you have just been thrown into a completely alien world which really makes this work. 

Milly Alcock is by far the highlight alongside relatively unknown Eve Ridley’s performance as Ruthye, the orphan seeking vengeance on her family’s killers. Alcock manages to walk the tightrope perfectly between lovable rogue and broken, battered hero. She lights up the screen with her charisma and when given time to fight with fury and power she really shines. 

While Milly Alcock is electric and empathetic as Supergirl, the film doesn’t soar as high as it could, weighed down by a script that doesn’t quite craft out a story worthy of its hero.