An annoyingly safe and generic comic book movie that easily could have been one of the greats.
- Director – Craig Gillespie
- Runtime – 108 minutes
- Certificate – 12A
- Country – United States
I have two real main complaints that significantly drag this down and the first and most important one is its visuals.
Being pretty much a direct adaptation of the comic Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, this had potential to be the one of the most visually striking comic book films thanks to its vibrant source material, but instead it almost feels like they didn’t on purpose. It’s shocking how there isn’t a single memorable image. No shot ever made me think ‘yeah that was a good shot.’ A real visual slop fest. So impressively sludge like. Again when you’re adapting the comic that you are, and the film turns out looking like this, it must genuinely be on purpose because I cannot see another real reason as to why it looks like this.
This then leads to my second biggest issue and that it’s simply boring. The comic is obviously really good and they just don’t translate it. Everything about the film is boring. The villain, Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts), has absolutely nothing going for him and I’m not surprised multiple different actors passed on the role.
The action is extremely bizarre with strange camera movements such as zoom in and outs which made it feel like I was watching an episode of The Office.
The soundtrack as well is forgettable. I know this isn’t a James Gunn film but you’d think if a film is a part of his cinematic universe the music would be good. Everyone and their mother is talking about that one needle drop at the end, and yes it is very weird. Would have worked way better if it was played during the final moments rather than the climax of the final fight. The actual score though I didn’t mind, probably one of the better aspects of the film.
However, the best thing about the film is undoubtedly Milly Alcock as Kara Zor-el/Supergirl. Fantastic casting in which she brings such an edgy but cool vibe to. Usually I don’t like when films try to be edgy because it comes off as cringe and forced, but Alcock does it perfectly.
Alcock acts as a big sister to Ruthye (Eve Ridley) who is trying to seek revenge on Krem for killing her father. I know it’s the same in the comic but here it feels so tired. Just the typical ‘if you kill them, you won’t be able to forget’ or something along those lines. Which is another problem, Ana Noguiera’s script doesn’t do anything new or add anything of note to the trope. The whole script is very surface level and doesn’t build upon the existing comic.
They do actually make one big change with the ending of the comic. It is quite different and whether I think that’s for the best may require more time, but initially after leaving the cinema I didn’t really like the change. Without saying much they could have had the chance add world building to this fresh universe that’s so prominent in the Superman lore. But instead they opted not to include it for some reason.
Another good aspect was Jason Mamoa as Lobo. Again another brilliant casting but his addition feels completely unnecessary. He isn’t in the comic (although was planned to be) and to be honest he shouldn’t be in the film. It feels like James Gunn said he can be Lobo but can’t fit him into Superman, so he’ll get him in Supergirl. If you took him out of it, virtually nothing changes.
Supergirl is an annoyingly generic film with its dull visuals, forgettable soundtrack and flat villain which make for a boring experience, even if Alcock is a great casting.