Review: Supergirl – The last daughter of Krypton
Directed by Craig Gillespie
Starring Milly Alcock, Eve Ridley, Matthias Schoenaerts, Jason Mamoa, David Corenswet
6.5/10
Birthdays give Kara Zor-El (Milly Alcock) a reason to party. Well, one more reason, as she uses the alcohol to escape from the loneliness and devastation of being almost the last of her kind. While her cousin, Superman (David Corenswet), throws himself into heroic deeds to deal with the loss, she instead embraces nihilism. Still being Kryptonian does present some challenges, so she depowers herself on red sun worlds to allow herself to become intoxicated. On one such world, her ship is stolen and her dog, Krypto, is poisoned trying to defend it. As such, Kara finds herself teaming up with a young girl seeking revenge as they chase after the brigand Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts) in an attempt to acquire the antidote.
Drawing inspiration from the Eisner Award-winning miniseries Supergirl: Women of Tomorrow (with a hint of True Grit baked into its comic book DNA), Supergirl sees the titular character set off to deal with revenge, bandits, and the PTSD of watching her entire civilisation die around her. It delineates Kara Zor-El as more than just a gender-swapped version of her cousin and demonstrates the reason for the alcoholic, self-destructive mess she’s become. Its arc introduces, explains, and redeems the character – all while giving us a good dose of sci-fi western action.
In short, it allows Milly Alcock to bring an amazing, sloppy girl, boss energy to the role.
There’s something genuinely satisfying in seeing the actor convey the character as she continually picks herself out of the mud (both literally and metaphorically) and struggles to do the right thing. The script finds the right balance for her moral quandary and the constant limits to her almost godlike abilities. As such, the fights feel like they have genuine stakes, only losing that when she regains her Kryptonian might. However, even this is further sweetened by the misogynistic alpha dog behaviour of Krem’s brigands, even as it borders on cartoonishly evil.
Then there’s Lobo, in the fan favourite’s big screen debut. Mamo manages to personify the bad-bastich bounty hunter well, as he’s squeezed into the story, bringing a healthy dose of chaos and violence (along with a ridiculously latex six-pack).
The second film in James Gunn’s reboot of the DCU manages to bring something different to the table. It doesn’t have the optimism or baked-in nostalgia of Superman, instead going to damaged and somewhat morally grey characters. Its willingness to get to the action truncates the first half of the film, leaving us no time to sit with the characters. Fortunately this settles down in the later part, especially with the extended recount of the fate of Kara’s home city of Argo. That small space for the characters to breathe gives us more emotional impact, rather than the frenetic setup of the first act.
Director Craig Gillespe (I, Tonya) gives us a solid outing for the Maid of Might. One that conveys a relatively classic version of the character, with a grunge edge. They also thankfully give us something that’s not a traditional superhero origin story but rather shows the character rediscovering and rebuilding herself. It’s certainly not perfect, washing itself out in sepia-tone colour correction and leaning too hard into a Guardians of the Galaxy otherworldly aesthetic, but it’s got some charm.
DAVID O’CONNELL