Supergirl (2026) Movie Review

Supergirl is a 2026 superhero sci-fi movie directed by Craig Gillespie and written by Ana Nogueira. It's based on the DC comic book Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow by Tom King and stars Milly Alcock, Matthias Schoenaerts, Eve Ridley, David Krumholtz, Emily Beecham, David Corenswet, and Jason Momoa as Lobo. It's the second film in the second attempt by DC at creating an extended universe, this time held by James Gunn, who is also a producer for the film.

Kara Zor-El is a dead beat kryptonian, she celebrates her birthday by getting drunk on a planet with a red sun and has very little going on in her life. A teen named Ruthye enters the bar she is in, the young girl is looking for revenge as her parents were murdered by a group of evil ravagers led by a man named Krem. Supergirl takes the girl under her mantle and helps her defeat the attackers when Krem injects her dog, Krypto, with a poisonous dart.

Without anything particularly new to offer, this latest Supergirl movie seems to be an amalgamation of the typical pop culture hodgepodge with their borrowed arcs, stereotypes and ways of creating stories based on recurring themes like redemption, vengeance and learning how to overcome your trauma that you usually see in these movies. The result is a derivative version of the template already established by most of the comedic comic book movies that were released around the 2010's and 2020's. The script itself is cobbled together from scenes from other movies put in the right place for maximum impact or at least to fit accordingly. The scene that introduces the villain, from example, has echoes from both The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) and Inglourious Basterds (2009) but without any of the suspense due to the lack of time and skill to create tension, instead opting for the most hurried tricks to gain a cheap sense of intensity.

The villain himself seems to be a tired attempt at making a Mad Max goon mixed with a dull MCU bad guy that's meant to be disposable. His actions are horrid but never in any effective way and his puny personality can't even be glimpsed when the actor tries to give him some sort of quirk or attitude. The world this film creates fares better as the variety of exotic creatures and factions is slightly interesting. And finally, Lobo is fun when he is on the screen but he seems superfluous. As some have mentioned the needle drops are gratuitous and empty, no energy or any sense of relevance to the scene but it only happens once or twice, so it's not any worse or any better than any other blockbuster with music of this kind. I also have trouble with how modern movies use lighting, a lot of scenes are dark and devoid of strong colors in favor of a murky CGI lighting and post-production modification that makes everything look fake.

Getting the negative out of the way I can now move onto the best parts of the movie, the main shining light being Milly Alcock as Supergirl, who delivers a wonderful performance. Always believable and managing to deliver the otherwise routine lines of dialogue with conviction and honest emotion. The character herself is interesting because it shows us another facet of the Superman lore with her personal ties to Kryptonian culture and life in some very solid flashbacks. Kara's disheveled and drunken state is a refreshing sight when it comes to superheroines in media and opens up a new path female heroes can go to as they no longer have to be the sexy badasses or the idealized superwomen that are spotless, this interpretation of Kara is both funny and engaging with enough flaws to make her feel relatable to the average audience member but who knows how to do the right thing. Some people don't like how this wasn't faithful to the comic but one can easily set the two apart and enjoy this movie for what it is.

I gotta say, I wish the movie had more to say other than "revenge is bad" because it kind of feels flimsy and undecided when it comes to its message. A message that never gains any weight and feels like an afterthought, only somewhat aided by the emotional connection Kara has with Ruthye, which could have been deeper and more concrete as far as I am concerned but that still existed in a technically functioning manner nonetheless. 

I can recommend the movie for superhero film fans because it is a good step forward considering my lack of excitement over Gunn's Superman but I have some reservations. The storytelling is flawed and the lesser moments do stick out, however, the core of the film works quite nicely and is above the average MCU or DCEU experience, even if by a limited margin. 

Supergirl (1984) Movie Review

Supergirl is a fantasy superhero movie released in 1984 and directed by Jeannot Szwarc. The film was made to expand the Superman franchise, which had gotten a very respectable success with the 1978 feature film directed by Richard Donner. The rights to the franchise were picked up by Alexander and Ilya Salkind, who also got the rights to Supergirl in the seventies and decided to go ahead and produce a blockbuster film based on the character as a spin-off. With a 35 million dollar budget, the film starred Helen Slater as Supergirl, Faye Dunaway as Selena, Hart Bochner, Peter Cook, Mia Farrow, Brenda Vaccaro, and Peter O'Toole, Marc McClure came back as Jimmy Olsen from the other Superman movies. The film underperformed at the box office and it was one of the reasons why the franchise was sold to The Cannon Group later on.

Kara Zor-El lives in Argo City, a place filled with survivors of Krypton. She is given a mystical object known as the Omegahedron by a wizard but she loses it. The orb lands on planet Earth and she embarks on a quest to retrieve it. Selena, a malicious witch, picks up the orb and decides to use it to her own advantage. Kara arrives on Earth and discovers the powers the planet's environment grants her, exactly like Superman. She goes to school and gets new friends, posing as Clark Kent's cousin. All goes well for the kriptonian girl, but things change when the fiendish Selena sets her eyes on Supergirl.

Supergirl is a very hard beast to tackle properly since its backstory conditions most of its components. It's a mix between sensibilities that tried to relaunch camp and fantasy with a new honest appreciation for the source. The movie itself seems to be lost between different settings and cultural elements that intertwine without much cohesion or sense. The oddity begins with the dissimilar styles of fashion, costumes and tone throughout. While the campiness of the source material was acknowledged by the Superman movies made up to this point, this is probably at that stage where they were really trying to jam in some of the self-aware cheesiness with goofy jokes and slightly corny lines but I gotta say that it's all balanced pretty well. The performers bring some naturalism and deliver the lines in a believable fashion, the music adds seriousness to the scenarios and the script, while a bit shaky, isn't half bad.

There's some beautiful cinematography at work here with some lovely high contrast, soft-focus images decorated with gleams and glints, the high key lighting gives this a very soothing and approachable look and the vibrant colors infuse it with some personality and make it stand out. The very intricate special effects add a sense of grandeur, these impressive practical VFX elevate the rather pedestrian material and conception of most of the action while delivering the joy we expect out of a superhero movie post-1978 Superman. The ending is particularly amazing with a lot of visual stylization, the art department and set department really did a fantastic job in this aspect. The comic book origins aren't betrayed since we still get a lot of outlandish sets and almost baroque ornamentation in some shots, at several points the frame is filled with details and elements that add life to the shot.

Some elements keep it from achieving its full potential though. The apparent disconnection of the antagonistic factions and the slap-dash, nearly episodic nature of the narrative almost give this one the feeling of a stretched out TV pilot instead of a tightly written feature film, this is also because Supergirl herself doesn't really have a goal to accomplish with any urgency, being thrown into a different environment she has to adapt to and gets to know in a variety of ways. This sounds more like a TV series setting to me.

One thing I enjoyed very much is how they turned the Supergirl story into a fairy tale, not only with its whimsical tone applied to a coming of age story but also because of the villainess being an evil witch jealous of a younger girl who is the embodiment of purity and goodness. It's a very clever and imaginative way to both do something unique with the character but also tie it to the childish sense of wonder of those old stories while still being relatively faithful to the essence of the comics.

It's very much recommended for those who are into the character as well as those who enjoy some cheesy eighties movies back when there was a lot of merit and fun with these summer blockbuster films. If you feel like it needs a rewatch I would suggest to go ahead, it certainly kept a lot of the virtues and also improved in some ways since I last watched it.

Supergirl (2025) Comic Review

A new Supergirl ongoing series has arrived via DC Comics, this time written and illustrated by Sophie Campbell, with Tamra Bonvillain as a colorist and Becca Carey as a letterer. It began to be published on May 14 2025. 

This story takes place in the summer of 2025, after the fall of the Kryptonite asteroid from Superman Unlimited #1.

Supergirl returns to her hometown, Midvale, to visit her parents but finds out that another Supergirl has taken her place, taking Kara's place as a saviour of the locals. The impostor turns out to be a girl she saved previously at Kandor, Lesla-Lar (a genius inventor), who envies Kara's life and powers, so she uses her technological skills to travel to Midvale after becoming obsessed with Supergirl. She then weaponizes her knowledge of the girl of tomorrow to supplant her faithfully, earth's sunlight also gives her powers as well. Kara must now prove to the people that she is the real Supergirl and fight the impostor.

A good mix of giggles, emotion and action, this new Supergirl ongoing series starts out quite great. We are very adequately introduced to the world and the continuity is established organically as we are never truly lost even if we have never read the comics it's picking up from. 

Now, Kara has to deal with issues such as defining herself as a person, revisiting her old home and trying to get away from Superman's shadow. Some of these conflicts are dealt with by becoming a sort of guide to other characters like Lena Luthor and the antagonist of the story. While a lot of this is done through dialogue and internal speech it's all very effective and we are also given very well written and inventive set pieces with monster fights (we even see Titano) and battles between the superwomen.

At one point, we also see the effects of black kryptonite on Kara, turning her into Satan Girl. She doesn't do anything truly violent or disturbing, it boils down to mild edgy phrases, throwing trash, pulling people's pants down, ruining birthdays and writing on walls with her laser-vision. It's all hilarious and fun, keeping things lighthearted and playful.

A very enjoyable beginning to a highly referential and entertaining series with heart and emotional resonance. A good start so far. 

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