You know what is worse than a bad film? It is a beautiful-looking film that ends up being a hollow, frustrating disappointment. Directed by Craig Gillespie (“I, Tonya,” “Cruella”), “Supergirl” has all the visual trim of an interstellar masterpiece, but it falls completely flat under the weight of an unearned, emotionally detached script.
The film tries to walk a fine line between the cynical, rough-and-tumble cosmic aesthetic of “Guardians of the Galaxy” and a gritty fantasy epic. However, it ultimately loses its own identity. While it stays away from actively ruining Kara Zor-El’s characterization, it completely strips away the emotional weight of its source material. We are left with a film that feels gorgeous on the surface but feels incredibly hollow on a narrative level.
During the destruction of Krypton, scientist Zor-El and his wife, Alura, evacuated alongside many Kryptonians to Argo City, using a force field to preserve a fragment of the planet. Years later, Alura gives birth to Kara, but it is soon discovered that the city’s separation exposed a mineral known as “Kryptonite,” which slowly poisons the citizens. Following her mother’s death, Zor-El sends Kara and her dog, Krypto, on a ship to Earth, where she is greeted by her cousin, Kal-El (Superman).
In the present day, a cynical Kara travels the galaxy to celebrate her 23rd birthday, frequently ignoring Superman’s phone calls expressing concern that she cannot settle on Earth. During a stop, she encounters Ruthye Marye Knoll, a young girl seeking a warrior to help her avenge her family, who were brutally murdered by the brigand leader, Krem of the Yellow Hills. Kara initially refuses, but Krem and his space pirates hijack her spaceship and shoot Krypto with a fatal poison dart.
Learning that Krypto has only three days to live, Kara reluctantly takes Ruthye with her to pursue Krem and secure an antidote. Their journey takes them across the galaxy, crossing paths with the chaotic bounty hunter Lobo. After a series of captures, narrow escapes, and a final showdown under a shifting sun, Supergirl defeats the brigands and frees their captive victims. She successfully begs a vengeful Ruthye not to execute a defeated Krem, convincing her it will not ease her grief. However, as Ruthye walks away, Supergirl picks up the sword and executes Krem herself before returning to cure Krypto.
As a comic reader, the biggest disappointment is how the film completely mishandles the emotional core of Tom King’s work. In the book, this entire journey is told strictly through Ruthye’s eyes. That perspective is vital because it lets us understand her grief and forces us to look at the larger-than-life Supergirl with a sense of mythic awe.
The choice of Kara’s alcoholic state having more importance while Ruthye is narrating her story for the first time instantly creates a jarring disconnect with the character. By stripping away Ruthye’s point of view and rushing through her family’s murder, the movie robs the audience of an emotional anchor. We simply aren’t given the time to care about her. Trying to fix this by throwing in quick, sentimental snapshots of her family right at the climax feels like an afterthought.
As a fan of the source material, I feel the only thing that the film adapted from the comics was Kara’s desire to travel to planets with a red sun simply so she could enjoy alcohol.
Furthermore, the film tries entirely too hard to transform Supergirl into DC’s version of “Guardians of the Galaxy”. While that cosmic scavenger aesthetic, complete with watercolor-looking aliens eating space food and regular earth food and jamming to music, worked as a fresh pivot for Marvel years ago, copying it here feels repetitive and uninteresting. Krem is reduced to a flat, boring-looking, two-dimensional villain who is impossible to take seriously.
Where the film absolutely commands attention is its craftsmanship. Experiencing this on an IMAX screen is a necessity, as the visual scale is massive and gorgeously executed. Craig Gillespie and his crew deserve massive credit for the Krypton sequences. Unlike the familiar, hyper-colorful palettes James Gunn usually defaults to, the design of Krypton here feels like a fresh breath of air. It isn’t at all like the source material that it’s trying to adapt, but it borrows heavily from the minimalistic, grand architecture of Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune” universe.
But despite how spectacular Krypton looks, the script stumbles even here. In past DC lore, Kal-El was sent away as the ultimate living testament of his people. Here, Kara’s father tells her she needs to be saved simply because she is “his and her mother’s life”. It’s flat, uninspiring writing that fails to provide a strong foundation for her character’s internal trauma. Kara spends the movie running from a past that is never clearly articulated, leaving her character feeling confusingly wise one moment and totally irresponsible the next. There simply wasn’t enough reasoning for being strongly against wanting revenge.
The film moves at a breakneck, hyper-fast pace. While it keeps things from dragging, the rapid-fire cuts sacrifice critical character development. Nothing is allowed to breathe, meaning the emotional beats never fully land, and the movie leaves you completely starved of a true goosebumps adrenaline shot. There isn’t even a definitive, heroic power shot of Milly Alcock in the suit to solidify her presence as Supergirl. She isn’t a bad casting choice, but the material written by Ana Nogueira gives her very little room to shine.
Remarkably, Lobo feels like the character least infected by cheap, over-the-top comedy. Jason Momoa transitions into this side role beautifully. Ranking his DC appearances, Zack Snyder’s “Aquaman” remains the peak, but his turn as Lobo easily clears his standalone “Aquaman” movies and his DCEU cameos.
David Corenswet is an absolute revelation. Even though he only appears in two or three scenes, his screen presence radiates pure, unadulterated innocence. If Henry Cavill embodied the heavy, masculine weight of a god trying to find his place on Earth, Corenswet is the ultimate, smiling Boy Scout. He is a ray of positivity that makes you smile the second he is on screen. The studio majorly blundered by spoiling his cameos early due to panic over poor reception, but his casting is the one thing James Gunn got undeniably right.
Ultimately, “Supergirl” lands somewhere just below neutral. It’s hard to hate because it is so beautiful to look at and features great CGI and a serviceable score, but its broken script keeps it from being good.
If DC Studios wants the DCU to survive long-term, they need to stop using “faithful to the comics” as a hollow marketing ploy. They need to either commit to authentic adaptations or step back and let distinct artistic voices truly steer the ship. If you do go out to support the universe and see this film, do yourself a favor and see it on the biggest IMAX screen possible – the scale is the one thing that will genuinely impress you.
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