Supergirl (2026)
Directed by: Craig Gillespie
Premise: A companion story to 2025’s Superman. Kara Zor-El (Milly Alcock) travels through space on an intergalactic bender. When her dog is poisoned by a criminal, Kara teams with an orphan (Eve Ridley) in search of the antidote.
What Works: Supergirl brings a unique take to the character. Most presentations of Superman, including the 2025 film, are of a wholesome icon of American idealism. In this movie, Supergirl is imagined as his sloppy and cynical opposite. This take on the character is relatively fresh in the comic book genre in which heroes are usually staid. When she’s a mess, Supergirl is fun to watch and this movie is aided by some very good casting. Milly Alcock plays Kara and she’s up for the drunkenness but Alcock also hints at the emotional pain at the root of her character. The cast also includes Jason Momoa as Lobo, an amoral bounty hunter. Momoa does his usual shtick but he’s also charismatic and fun and has many of the film’s best lines.
What Doesn’t: Supergirl recalls another superhero film, 2008’s Hancock. That movie also featured a drunken superhero with equivalent powers. Like Hancock, Supergirl becomes a lot less fun to watch as the character cleans up. Supergirl was directed by Craig Gillespie whose other movies include Lars and the Real Girl and I, Tonya. Gillespie has talent but his filmmaking voice is largely muted here. 2025’s Superman was written and directed by James Gunn who has a distinct filmmaking style. Supergirl plays as an imitation of Gunn’s style. Some parts of this movie are copied directly from Gunn’s Superman and his Guardians of the Galaxy movies but Supergirl is missing the skill and touch that made those movies work. Like Gunn’s movies, Supergirl includes ironic music choices but the songs are poorly selected and placed. Supergirl’s action scenes range from mediocre to dull. There is no showmanship and the action is badly framed and edited. The storytelling of Supergirl is awkwardly structured. At multiple points the narrative stops to give us an extended flashback of Kara’s childhood. It interrupts the storytelling momentum and the movie is quite slow despite only running 108 minutes. It’s also a thematically and morally confused movie. Supergirl is positioned as the cynical counterpoint to Superman but the movie doesn’t do anything interesting with that idea. Kara is a reluctant hero but a hero nonetheless. She acts as the moral protector of Eve Ridley’s character, insisting that revenge is not the way, an idea that is divorced from her backstory and is ultimately dealt with hypocritically. Supergirl has the novelty of being a female superhero story. It makes passing reference to feminist politics, but unlike the series She-Hulk or even 2017’s Wonder Woman, the filmmakers don’t do anything interesting with the character or her identity.
Bottom Line: Supergirl is bland and mediocre. The cast is good and the conception of the character has potential but this film is a porridge of superhero clichés and a weak imitation of James Gunn’s filmmaking style.
Episode: #1107 (July 12, 2026)