Supergirl

 

This review may contain spoilers!

Supergirl marks the second film in the new DC universe, and it follows the titular character, Kara Zor-El. Kara is flying through space, celebrating her 23rd birthday, when she is drawn into a conflict with a marauding band of bandits.

There have been a couple of good takes on Supergirl over the years; this film really fails to be one of them. Kara is a pretty complex character; unlike Superman, she was old enough to know what she lost with the destruction of Krypton. She remembers a planet that she mourns, and she holds a lot of anger internally. This is a character who constantly tries and struggles to adjust to Earth; her story runs differently from Clark's. Supergirl paints that story a little differently. She becomes this hazed-out, drunken take on the character, often more indifferent than one might expect. Kara approaches issues with a cantankerous attitude and probably feels a bit more 'punk rock' than punkrocker Supes himself. With her 'too cool for you' attitude, sleazy coat and predisposition to playing rock music on an old iPod, there are better comparisons to Star-Lord from Guardians of the Galaxy than there are to Supergirl. It doesn't help that Milly Alcock is leading this, an actress who has been in a lead within a cast but who probably wasn't ready to spearhead a feature like this.

The story constantly leaves a lot to be desired and leaps and bounds forward with the pacing. It's a race from planet to planet, with Supergirl having a little brawl in a filthy environment at every setting. There are moments where the plot slows down, and we get glimpses into the past via flashbacks. We get to learn how Kryton exploded, and Kara's city survived for a time. But even this story is dour and adds little emotion to the plot. Having David Krumholtz and Emily Beecham as the blandest Krytonian parents doesn't help all that much. Krypto dying on an operating table somewhere keeps a bit of urgency going to the plot, but then that only serves if you like the CGI pup who's being played for destructive comedy across two films now. The writer for this film hasn't really done many prior projects, and it really shows, given Ana Nogueira has Wonder Woman and Teen Titans also currently under her pen, there's reasonable cause for concern.

There are glimpses where this works, quiet moments of dialogue where Supergirl externalises her feelings of solitude and hurt in the face of the death of her planet. Mostly, the things that work are the dark, gritty elements that feel made for this dark and gritty film. Jason Momoa finally gets to try his hand at Lobo, and his energy in that role is infectious. Momoa is clearly having the time of his life, and for that reason alone, I found Lobo the most enjoyable character of the feature. But Michael Schoenaerts as the film's antagonist is a solid bit of casting too. Schoenaerts is quite depraved as this brigand leader, Krem. He has a perverse edge to him and a wicked sense of glee whilst committing slaughter. There were some clear Mad Max inspirations in the film that rarely worked, but the characterisation of Krem was a strength. Even little pieces of window dressing, like Seth Rogan voicing an alien bus driver, worked better than you might expect.

I found the frustrating aspect of Supergirl to be that the characters never really grew that much. Kara learns to get a little more sober and give Earth another go. While Kara's co-lead, Ruthye (played by Eve Ridley), was persistently one of the more annoying characters in the film. Ruthye's character journey was choosing not to kill a character that she did not seem capable of killing anyway. Throw David Corenswet in the mix, an actor who is still bumbling his way through a poorly realised portrayal of Superman, and this film winds up having a shaky cast.

Supergirl is a persistently ugly film. This might not be Craig Gillespie's first foray into a blockbuster; he has made a splash with features like Cruella before. However, this is certainly his first time in the world of sci-fi, and it shows. The moments where the shots are captured via sound stage or volume are quite apparent. The wire work fails to be concealed, making the flight scenes a major eyesore. The special effects stand when the shot is purely CGI. The moment something real also has to exist within the frame, the effects take on a real sense of artifice that treads the value of this thing down. For a film like Supergirl to stake a bold idea of being in space, but to struggle to make its own budget work is disastrous. At least the score and the soundtrack managed to keep Supergirl feeling like a rocker. It laid down a tone, and the sound of the film was right there to pick it up.

I don't think I ever really found something that felt like the character of Supergirl in this. I would give Supergirl a 4/10.