Review by C.J. Bunce
One of the funnier bits from last year’s Superman, James Gunn’s first swing at DC Comics at the movies, was the ending, which featured a brief appearance introducing Milly Alcock as the new Kara Zor-El aka Supergirl. That character got her own movie this summer with Cruella director Craig Gillespie’s Supergirl and the movie has finally arrived on streaming platform HBO Max. If you watched the trailers, you already know Supergirl’s dog Krypto gets shot with an injected poison and she must chase the bad guy across the galaxy to get the anecdote, along the way running into Jason Momoa as the grimy, shiny-eyed hunter Lobo. Aside from adding Lobo, the movie adapts the Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow six-issue story arc from DC Comics five years ago. So whether you like it or not depends on whether you like the the story it’s based on.
At its core, Supergirl the movie and the story it is based on follow a pretty common plan for writing stories: pick a successful classic that came before and update it for your sci-fi character or superhero. The Magnificent Seven is an Old West twist on Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. The framework of the first Star Wars movie tracks Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress only in outer space with fantasy elements. The relationship at the heart of the space Western The Mandalorian is inspired by a manga based in old Japan, Kazuo Koike’s Lone Wolf and Cub. At the heart of Supergirl: The Woman of Tomorrow is the John Wayne Western movie True Grit, remade later starring Jeff Bridges.
Since many in the audience will at least be familiar with the Bridges movie, comparisons will jump out in Supergirl. The core of the story is a girl named Ruthye, played by Eve Ridley, who watches as her family is murdered by ugly bad guy alien Krem, played by Matthias Schoenaerts. Krem and his band of baddies called the Brigands continue on terrorizing the galaxy, but not before a quick encounter with Alcock’s Kara Zor-El, already known on Earth as Supergirl (but that backstory is missing from the movie).
The adaptation of True Grit works well enough, except that even in her twenties Kara is still grieving her origin story–like Superman, she lost her parents on Krypton and was shuttled to Earth similarly. Viewers get to see that re-creation, a remake of sorts of Superman’s origin best seen in the original 1978 Superman movie with Christopher Reeve, Marlon Brando, and Susannah York. As in True Grit, the angry girl seeking vengeance seeks a powerful person capable of tracking down the baddie target. You can see the writing exercise of swapping Supergirl for a grumpy Old West killer. It’s no surprise the girl gets in the way, and the drama comes from these two characters comparing the dark past they both share as they inch forward. Again, not really any new ground to cover.
You’ll be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn’t already know Supergirl from the 1984 movie starring Helen Slater, or from the Arrowverse, starring Melissa Benoist. Anything new invites comparisons, but you can hardly compare these three adaptations. This Kara is more like Peter Quill, Chris Pratt’s angry hero from James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Since that movie was made, Gunn has of course flipped over from director at Marvel/Disney to being the man behind all DC movies at Warner Bros. The similarities are so apparent between these two movies that it’s difficult not to think about how close these characters merge into one. Kara is more of a drunk, but her excuse is similar to Quill’s reason to be angry–they are both adults who didn’t get past the deaths of their family early in their lives. Kara actually goes to stranger ends to get drunk, finding a place in the galaxy where she as Kryptonian can get drunk, an echo back to Reeve’s Superman getting drunk when his powers were taken away in Superman III, not a high point for the franchise.
So again, nothing new here.
It sounds like a broken record in discussions of modern superhero movies and TV shows, but why does everyone making a superhero adaptation seem to hate their character in their trademark outfit? You’ll wait two-thirds of this story to see Kara start the ass-kickery in the supersuit.
As for Krypto, who looks nothing like Krypto from 70 years of comics, his story comes straight out of the Supergirl: World of Tomorrow, only the movie milks it more. Krypto is shot and poisoned and recovers in both stories, but it’s played out more on the screen. Watching a CGI dog in action is a struggle to watch for anyone who has a dog. The uncanny valley effects are even more pronounced than for humans (although the CGI fight scenes among humans are also quite clunky). At one level the silly CGI dog is cute–just go with it. But Krypto mainly acts like a dog in this movie, so why not use one of Hollywood’s awesome, trained dog actors? Another thing to remember is Krypto in the comics is a stalwart hero–think of those versions created by Alex Ross, Frank Quitely, and that helpful superdog of Darwyn Cooke.
All in, Supergirl the movie is fine if underwhelming. Which was the reaction of most to the 1984 movie. The galaxy presented isn’t as visually impactful as that of previous space odysseys–think of the variety of planetary worlds Guardians of the Galaxy revealed, or all of those alien races and locations in Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (also a comic book adaptation), or even the spectacle of the microverse of the third Ant Man movie. It doesn’t offer anything new to the superhero genre. The bad guys–Krem and the Brigands–are boring (and they’re ringers for the Remans in Star Trek: Nemesis in prosthetics and pleather uniforms), not remotely as interesting as the similarly conceived bad guys Yondu and the Ravagers–to take us back to the Guardians of the Galaxy comparison. But they seem like they could be swapped, even down to their weapons of choice. Yondu’s dart is cooler, however.
Supergirl has been around more than 65 years, about five less than Krypto. With decades of Supergirl tales to adapt, where this superhero movies stands in the genre falls on the choices. The Supergirl from Krypton story by Jeph Loeb and Michael Turner has been around more than twenty years now. It’s a classic, complete with some great supernatural elements–and would have made an excellent introduction of the character to this new Gunniverse. But that’s just one story that could have been adapted.
The audience gets to see the choices made by Gunn’s team. Here that means dark and bleak, which is where DC Entertainment tends to steer. Get ready for lots of peeing and puking. What is it with DC superhero movies and bodily fluids? Alcock does a fine job making the best of the script. The rather lackluster David Corenswet Superman even offers a few bright scenes. Even better, and adding much needed levity to the movie, is Momoa simply bringing his personality to the Lobo character. You can tell someone really wanted to make a True Grit version of Lobo when Momoa and Ridley finally get to work together in the movie (although Hailee Steinfeld’s take on the “Ruthye” role in the True Grit remake is probably as good as it gets for a young actor). You’ll probably walk away from the movie most looking forward to more Lobo in whatever comes from DC and Warner down the road.
Watch it now to see if you think it was worth the wait. Supergirl is now streaming on HBO Max.
