Film Reviews

June 26, 2026

The signs that "Supergirl" might be a small mess arrive fairly early on in its run, but with such a plucky and strong-willed heroine at its center, it's a movie we nevertheless want to like. In fact, even with a questionable start, we're compelled to give "Supergirl" the benefit of the doubt and hope that it's simply biding its time before amounting to something worthwhile. Surely the movie wasn't going to be as trivial and goofy as its first few scenes suggest, in which a drunk, powerless, and isolated Supergirl (wearing plain clothes) stumbles around, vomits, nurses a hangover or two, eats cereal, and watches "Casablanca" alongside her trusted dog Krypto. Certainly, the movie would give her something more interesting to do, right? Kind of, but not really.

To be sure, Ana Nogueira's screenplay adds some substance to the mix, but not enough, and it comes too late to make any serious impact. Overall, the finished product gives us the impression the studio didn't have that much faith in this offshoot of James Gunn's "Superman" from last year, and that the powers that be were willing to settle for less when it came to Supe's female cousin. It's as if they didn't think she was worth a valuable story, which is a shame, because Milly Alcock, as the titular protagonist, is quite likable and charming. She deserved better.

Alcock is, of course, Supergirl, a.k.a. Kara, a.k.a. Kal-El/Clark Kent/Superman's (David Corenswet) cousin. However, she's not nearly as honorable or self-respecting as the Man of Steel, who's constantly calling his seemingly ne'er-do-well relative from Earth while she's off on a remote planet drinking herself into a stupor. Kara is a partier, incessantly celebrating her 23rd birthday alone in bars and unafraid to pick fights, even if she finds herself in places where Earth's yellow sun isn't there to enable her family superpowers: super strength, heat vision, the ability to fly, etc. Despite having Superman in her life, who could really use her help, Kara feels alone. She's depressed and directionless for reasons we'll learn about later, and her only means of relief are through alcohol, and her only companion is Krypto.

Not that Kara is without compassion, because when young Ruthye (Eve Ridley) is made an orphan teenager by an evil Brigand (space pirate) named Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts), she eventually takes Ruthye under her wing, although her motivations are mostly self-interested. During a run-in with Krem and his pirate cronies, Krypto ends up in a poison-induced coma, and Kara not only seeks revenge, but she needs Krem's antidote to save her little dog's life. On top of that, Kara and Ruthye discover Krem and the Brigands are abducting and trafficking women and forcing them into marriage. Perhaps this injustice will light a fire under Kara, who's arguably also a feminist, and prompt her to rise up out of her funk and address the anger and resentment she's been holding ever since her father, Zor-El (David Krumholtz), and mother, Alura (Emily Beecham), sent her away from their collapsing home planet of Krypton. Clearly, Kara's origin story is not too far removed from Superman's, and interestingly, she's technically older than Kal-El.

To be fair, "Supergirl" is not without heart and good intentions, and director Craig Gillespie, who has a knack for balancing humor with solemnity ("Lars and the Real Girl," "I, Tonya," "Dumb Money"), does a decent job of keeping things light and airy, which is a welcome change for a superhero movie, a genre that often takes itself too seriously. Plus, despite a mostly silly premise, the two heroines have ample chemistry and manage to keep the movie's head above water, as does a heavily made up Jason Momoa, who gives a droll performance as Lobo, a bounty hunter with an unhealthy obsession with his trusted motorcycle.

But "Supergirl" simply lacks an engaging and consequential story to hold our interest. There are brief moments here and there, but few, if any, really stick, and ultimately the whole presentation plays like a run-of-the-mill, uninspired episode of a Saturday morning cartoon show instead of a full-fledged movie with memorable characters. This limitation may not faze younger viewers, but it left me with little to care about.

One of the main problems with Nogueira's screenplay, based on the characters created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, is that it makes the villain so one-dimensional. Krem is grotesque, chauvinistic, and disgusting to a practically laughable degree, and with that, we feel compelled to write off the rest of the movie. If it wasn't willing to flush out its characters beyond simple terms of good and evil, why should we give it our full attention?

Production-wise, the movie also leaves much to be desired. It is essentially all green screen backgrounds with little depth, and we never get a true sense of the places in which the mostly routine action sequences take place. Even when Supergirl, eventually donning her blue, red, and yellow costume, finally makes an appearance (and I give the filmmakers credit for waiting as long as they do), there's a lack of genuine excitement because everything around her looks so dark, meshy, dreary, and artificial. "Superman," by comparison, showed its hero flying around during the day and what appeared to be real cityscapes. "Supergirl," despite having an enormous budget of its own, feels like it was made with "Superman"'s leftover scraps. And the movie's would-be emotional climax feels particularly muted. On paper, there should have been tension, energy, and a reason to cheer at what happens on-screen, but it's so standard and expected that it renders flat.

This is all too bad, not least because Supergirl now seems destined to become yet another female superhero not given the same weight, attention, and nuance as her male counterpart. If the ending of this movie is any indication, perhaps she'll be given a second chance to flex her powers and establish a real presence in the "Superman" sequel, a movie in which the storytelling and production values will hopefully be more worthy of the Supergirl character and the actress behind her.