Supergirl review – Good not nice

Supergirl (AKA Kara Zor-El) has never had it easy. She’s perpetually in the shadow of her cousin, Superman. She experienced the destruction of the planet Krypton, and the gradual death of all her loved ones, with her own, adolescent eyes. And not only does she have to fight for a people and world that’s not her own, in a skirt nogal, she (traditionally) has to do so as the embodiment of blue-eyed, blonde beauty and bubbly “niceness.” That’s got to weigh a woman down.

Just such a realisation sits at the heart of DC comic miniseries Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, by writer Tom King and artist Bilquis Evely. It underpins arguably the definitive tale of the Girl of Steel, exploring her character and motivations over the course of a grand cosmic adventure that’s as much science fiction as high fantasy; as visually dazzling as it is deeply contemplative.

With that status in modern comics, Woman of Tomorrow serves as the foundation for the new movie Supergirl, the second big screen entry in James Gunn and Peter Safran’s new DC Universe, following last year’s Superman. So we see Kara (House of the Dragon’s Milly Alcock), who is busy bar-crawling in the far reaches of the galaxy in celebration of her 23^rd birthday, forced to align with an earnest, sword-wielding girl by the name of Ruthye Marye Knoll (Eve Ridley). Together, the pair embarks on a universe-spanning quest to find Krem of the Yellow Hills (The Old Guard’s Matthias Schoenaerts), a brutal space Brigand who murdered Ruthye’s family and poisoned Kara’s beloved dog Krypto.

Rather unsurprisingly, 2026’s Supergirl sidesteps the more trippy moments of its source material, where Silver Age weirdness seeped through. It’s generally not afraid to go to dark, if different, places though, helping the film to avoid initial concerns that it’s simply going to be a DC-branded clone of Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy. Without being Snyderverse gritty, Supergirl has a sense of relatable gravitas – a sense of consequence – that has been missing from the superhero film genre from some time, especially on the Marvel front, and that alone makes it worth a watch.

Supergirl the movie doesn’t go as hard as Woman of Tomorrow, where Kara and Ruthye follow Krem’s relentless genocidal trail across multiple worlds. However, given the film introduces the ick idea that the Brigands are abducting young women for breeding purposes, ala Mad Max: Fury Road, and the surprising amount of bodily function shown onscreen, it’s apparent that Supergirl, unlike its 1984 predecessor, is absolutely not a fun, rousing cinema outing for little girls with makeshift capes tied around their necks.

Older women viewers should find a hit of inspiration, though, as Kara acts on her commitment to doing good, cognisant that “good” doesn’t mean being nice or eschewing toughness. It’s the film’s most powerful, and memorable, message, considering everything the title character has been through, and given how much convincing emotional complexity Alcock brings to the role. She, and the likeable Ridley, carry the film, while Schoenaerts provides a suitably odious, want-to-punch-his face-in villain.

This isn’t to say that Supergirl doesn’t fumble, and fumble often. Excellent performances aside, the film fails to deliver on its “filmed for IMAX” declaration. Only a couple of shots, typically tied to Kara’s traumatic backstory, capture the spectacle of this off-Earth tale, and action scenes feel too muddied and frenetic with their overload of CGI carnage lacking in visual flair. Director Craig Gillespie, who’s helmed the likes of Fright Night (2011), I, Tonya and Cruella, definitely comes across as more comfortable in the quieter, character-driven moments.

Then there’s the film’s inclusion of Jason Momoa as alien bounty hunter Lobo. As established in last year’s Superman, the new DCU is an already fully populated world, with multiple heroes (and anti-heroes) carrying out their responsibilities. So Kara and Ruthye continually cross paths with the hulking agent of anarchy during their mission. That’s fine and well, but Lobo could be entirely cut from the film without affecting the narrative at all. It’s no fault of Momoa, whose casting is uncannily accurate, but Lobo feels present only to up the movie’s machismo content, like someone decided Supergirl needed a male screen presence outside of the charmingly dorky Superman (David Corenswet), lest guys in the audience complain they don’t have someone to latch onto.

It’s an unfair assumption, because Supergirl already has a distinct individual identity, like its title character. Supergirl’s story is not Superman’s. This is a movie that is messy, but raw; grim but warm-hearted; vulnerable but tenacious – centred on a hero who treads a much harder path to principled goodness given how the unfairness of life, and the resulting emotional baggage, has worn them down. It may not make for fun, breezy viewing, but it’s something more real than anything we’ve seen from onscreen superheroes in years.

Supergirl is in cinemas, including IMAX, from 26 June.