Last year, I’ve covered the first DCU on the big screen, Superman, which I enjoyed this movie for all about Superman trying to connect between himself (as Kryptonian) and humanity, especially in his motive to fight for truth and justice, along with pretty good and fun acting, actions and some writing. Sure its flawed from being predictable, but still, its a pretty good one, unlike those DCEU dumb-dumbs for their harassment campaigns and death threats, but I digress. With the movie have a moderate success, the cliffhanger is calling that we’re gonna have a journey with his cousin.
“Supergirl” is a 2026 superhero movie from DCU that was directed by Craig Gillespie, produced by James Gunn and Peter Safran, and written by Ana Nogueira.
Although its not the first time we have a movie about Superman’s cousin. There’s the 1984 version that, it was originally going to be the spinoff from Superman 1, 2 and 3 (you know, the ones with Christoper Reeve as Superman that we all know?), but when the third had a box-office disappointment, they completely ditched the idea into a standalone movie and for some reason, instead of WB distribute this movie, it was handed over Tri-Star Pictures for distribution and the result… It was a total trainwreck with bad reviews and a flop. (BIG yikes for what would’ve been… Otherwise, maybe il watch it… For my own risk, of course…)
As for this movie, just like her cousin, the idea of more modern Supergirl came back in DCEU. Originally, Oren Uziel was brought to be the writer for the take on Supergirl to extending DCEU, despite that cinematic universe back then was a total Crap Show, even if they wanting to have a female director for Supergirl. But for some controversial reason, they wanting Supergirl to be on her own, rather than being a cousin to Superman, which is probably the worst concept they’ve working on since Michael Bay’s supposed idea of Ninja Turtles being aliens than mutants (Yes its true, don’t pinch yourself). After being hold due to the “you-know-what” in 2020, rather than continue the development about Supergirl, they brought her into the DCEU’s WORST movie ever, The Flash, where we see Supergirl (played Sasha Calle) who’s been teaming up with two The Flash and Batman to fighting against General Zod (despite he was killed in Man of Steel), but SPOILER ALERT, she was killed off. Yeah, like I said, The Flash the movie, was the WORST movie ever for broken down direction, bad writing and… It feels like the biggest broken camel’s back at the box-office. But as we all know, Discovery and WB went into merging together that our public enemy boss (debatable), David Zaslav went into PURGE projects that he made WB fans (like me) fueling with blood boiling with rage with all Zaslav’s excuses (Well, minus Coyote vs ACME, at least it has a second chance), meaning the supposed project of Supergirl with Sasha Calle was binned, and like I said in 25’ Superman, James Gunn and Peter Safran took over as the duo boss of DC Studio for their “Soft Reboot”. So they went back to square one to make their own take of Supergirl (aside we saw her cameo in the end of Punk Rock), rather than making movie to be original, this one is going to be their answer of “Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow” (2021-22) by Tom King and Bilquis Evely, where this one is about Supergirl in space journey, while teaming up with Ruthye Marye Knoll for seeking revenge for her father’s death by Krem. This miniseries comic (with 8 issues) is well-received by critics and audience that the people in DC Studios saw this as an opportunity to make their own as a follow up after our new Superman.
So, with all that said, is it worth of space journey to fight for Truth and Justice for Kara, of is this film should be wiped out oblivion from Red Sun?
Well, lets find out.
The Story
For a movie about Kara in her journey in space, we expect to have a fascinating and complex story for learning about her motivation and fighting against the evil threats? Well, yes and no.
The movie begins where we introduced Kara Zor-El, whom after years of living in launched Kryptonian city called Argo (due to Krypton goes “bye bye” from Red Sun), and then she got launched away to Earth due to Argo’s Kryptonite outbreak, she lives in her fun time in her ship with her pet Krypto, flying around in space and visiting various planets to have a party and drinking, mainly for celebrating her 23rd birthday, despite she lost her powers (temporarily) from the effect of Red Sun. However, her fun time (and talking to Superman from video message) is abrupt when she meets a human alien named Ruthye Marye Knoll, who seeks revenge over the leader of space pirates named and human traffickers named Krem of the Yellow Hills, mainly because he murdered her family. But their rocky conversation (mainly Kara refused at first) was ALSO abrupt when Krem himself, and his crew members of his space pirate group called “Brigands” shows up to hijack Kara’s ship, and when her pet Krypto tries to fight him, Kara’s good boy got hit by a terminal poisonous dart, meaning Krypto has 3 days to live before he’ll die. So its up to Kara teams up with Ruthye on a vengeful mission to hunting down Krem and his crews of Brigands.
Though as always, I don’t do the comparison between the comic miniseries and this movie, but, this feels like another vengeful story over the death people to connect, but it wasn’t just about Ruthye goes into Vengeance (Batman style), but also for the sake of poor Krypto from terminal poison dart for Kara, which definitely showcase how mean-spirited Krem really is for nearly kill that poor dog, cause otherwise, Kara is gonna be mad as John Wick in revenge, but I digress. I know lot of you looked at this movie and go “Hey, this looks and sounds like Guardians of the Galaxy when Gunn did three of them back in MCU days!”, I mean, it really sounds like it but the differences are in GotG which is about the group of unlikely extraterrestrials with their history of crimes band together to hunting down the zealot war crime over a stolen artifact (mainly the Power Stone), here, its about the duo girls who’re working together for vengeance, which sounds rather average for their plot. Im not saying its bad, but the writing isn’t as perfect to describing, but at least it has some good execution they pulled. Mainly the character driven and the chemistry between Kara and Ruthye based on the similar struggle from the past and different lifestyle, whereas Kara who’s being a loose-cannon outside of living in planet Earth with Krypto, while Ruthye is like a warrior princess in demand to information to hunt down crimes like Krem and his Brigands, even though this movie is leaning towards Kara as the main focus in the movie, mainly to regain her motivation to follow her route from her cousin, Superman, to fight for Truth and Justice in galaxy way, along with be brave and strong without being overwhelmed in fear (which explains why they always saying “don’t freak out”. Otherwise, that motivation sounds like something out of Green Lantern stories), though its nice to giving us a the flashback about her origin story. While it has some nice emotional part of this movie, the movie also has humors, which I find them to be… Good, they’re not the funniest in this movie, but it does have some chuckling moments from either dialogue from Kara or even a familiar Czarian named Lobo.
While its a perfect writing for average plot and okay jokes, but it does have a nice execution about the chemistry, some motivation and character driven.
The Presentation
The movie’s budget costs between $170M–$186M, which is cheaper than 25’ Superman. Though despite being two times less than before, but at least it looks pretty nice.
For starter, since this is the space journey from space and different planets, you would think its gonna be unique and colorful in various planets? Well yes, they kinda do have. Its mainly that almost every planets are deserted (unless if there’s one planet that has both yellow and green sun), or if some other are lucky that taking place in the village or even in the market. Even though I just wish they could’ve give us something unique and colorful world building, kinda like in MCU, but that’s just me. Though its one location that I like is the design in the world of Krypton, I mean yes, it feels beige looking for the lighting, but its just that they want to make if feel mix of modern and futuristic and rich, unlike Man of Steel which is just a land with towers, or Donner’s Superman that it looks like a land covered in advanced technology with crystals (no offense for the latter, cause I like the 1978’s Superman). Though its no stranger that they filmed in two ways. The first is some scenes were done in studio sets in Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, the same studio for gave us Harry Potter movies, but even before WB took over, this studio also used from Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace and 007’s Goldeneye (aka the first Bond movie of Pierce Brosnan era). And the other is where they filmed in outdoor, such as London in England, Scotland (which is part in UK, and, like Austria, has a beautiful mountain views) and even in Iceland. Which I will say, the outdoor filming, while looking deserted, they look beautiful for the landscape, whether look normally beautiful in Ruthye’s homeland(?) or could be colorful like the last planet for the climax.
As I said before, the movie is mainly focuses on Kara, they also made an interesting effect of cinematography based on her emotion, whether be frenetically and aggressive camera work in her anger or overwhelmed or going smooth and fluid when she’s calm, which is a nice touch to her, along with some of use of visual effects. Of course, the visual effects are done in cooperation by Digital Domain, Framestore, and our old friend Industrial Light & Magic.
As for the designs, while some are looking good, but some can be rather… Iffy. For Supergirl’s costume, her outfit looks pretty nice and it looks kinda faithful from the comic, sure we have a similar “Kingdom Come” symbol and some similar textures from her cousin, but to be honest, it looks pretty good for what they pulled. But a very interesting fact about her outfit is that her were done from the same material from Chris Reeve’s Superman cape, which I find it pretty surprising and maybe even dedicated. The Brigands design are pretty cool, they look more like a sci-fi themed pirate or viking for what they’re wearing and carrying weapons, along with more unique like Krem that more like the viking captain, along with the amount of pierce and studs all over his face, I know its a makeup, but still, damn… Aside Ruthye’s outfit looks standard at best, but if I have problem for the costume design, its when Kara wears her protective outfit when she’s in capsule from Argo to Earth, I mean I get for “safety first”, but it looks more like she’s wearing a sauna suit (You know, an outfit that makes your body sweating?).
As for the action scenes… Man, it has a lot of action than 25’ Superman. There are a lot of which scenes of fight scenes to describing like when Kara fight against one thug over Ruthye’s family sword, a fight in the transport ships with Sklarian Raiders or even two battles of Kara and Logo fighting against Brigands, one in Bilguis and the second is the climatic battle in Barenton (Man, Brigands like relocation from planet after planet, eh?). They have a lot of pretty cool fight with either weapons or hand-to-hand, and even dealing with obstacles, even if with Kara either on her own, Ruthye or Lobo, it could be challenging when Krem has more than dozens of space pirates in his group.
While there are some are flawed and the budget is lower than Superman, but we won’t deny the presentation in this movie looks pretty good for what they’ve done.
The Characters
While its not perfect, you think they’re gonna give us the most fascinating and relatable characters? Well, no doubt on that.
Lets start with our titular protagonist in this movie, Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl (played by Milly Alcock), she’s the main focus, as I said before, at first, she likes to going out in her crazy journey to visiting planet after planet with party and drinking, despite her powers have stopped from the effect of the Red Sun, until she’ll get her powers back from Yellow Sun. However, whether or not she has powers, she’s pretty much of a loose-cannon, from doing her own action and making her own powerful choice for Truth and Justice to follow her cousin’s footsteps, even if its not easy to do so when her pet Krypto is in condition from terminal poison in three days to live. I find her to be pretty nice, im assuming she’s meant to be a broken down cousin with her journey outside of Earth without her cousin (though Superman has the right to stay to help Metropolitan and scolding Lex Luthor), along with binge drinking and party nature, making her as a loose-cannon and careless, but then again, with the combination of Krypto’s bad condition and Ruthye’s help for revenge, she has a difficulty choice for her life and journey while she’s rebuilding herself in redemption, which il give an appreciation for the way she’s written, its not perfect, but il give credit for trying, while Milly did a good work of her performance.
Alongside Kara, there’s Ruthye Marye Knoll (played by Eve Ridley), she’s an alien young girl who comes out to seeks revenge against Krem for killing her parents and she needs help to going after him with Kara. I find her not bad, she’s more of a no-nonsense lost daughter to seeks revenge along with trying to giving Kara an advice while in the journey, despite the first time they work together is a rocky start, until the relation between her and Kara gets lighten up once Kara got her powers back. While I find her good, but the downside I have is that we don’t get to see her in action, she’s always being told by Kara to stay there, like dude, you have a family’s sword to fight Brigands in the name of vengeance for family! On second thought, maybe they don’t wanna copying too much from Batman. While Eve did a nice work of his role, despite she looks kinda emotionless, but I just wish her writing could’ve gone better.
Next we have the main villain in the movie, Krem of the Yellow Hills (played by Matthias Schoenaerts), he’s both human trafficker, space pirates and the leader of Brigands, where his motive is stealing money and treating humans and various aliens like they’re in slaughter house. I find him to look creepy and intimidating for his enjoyment of rampage, murdering and looting with his group in space and planets, though his motive is just like every pirates as I mentioned before. Though I hate to say for any comic loyalists, despite he’s one-dimensional motive, I find his appearance to be pretty intimidating as a sci-fi themed viking look, whereas in the comic version, he looks like a generic mix between pirate and viking (sorry, folks). Though il give a credit for Matthias that he did a nice work of his performance.
And last but least is Lobo (played by former Aquaman, Jason Momoa), he’s a mercenary and a bounty hunter from Czarnia who’s been on his journey in space for killing bad guys for goods. Its safe to say that Lobo is definitely steals the shows with his “Don’t give an Eff” attitude, badass and some dark sense of humor. Its no stranger he’s more of an antihero role in this movie that he usually gives a small helping hand with Supergirl, but then again, he only likes to killing baddies for the sake of Cash Money. And honestly, I think Jason as Lobo fits perfectly in his role for not only with his sense of humor, but also… Well, he looks fittingly badass as a bounty hunting Czarnian.
As for the rest, they’re pretty much give us either info for Krem’s whereabouts or even plot convenience to Kara.
There’s Zor-El and Alura In-Ze (played by David Krumholtz and Emily Beecham) who are Kara’s parents who escaped from Krypton’s destruction to launch their home city Argo to the space before gave birth, along with learning to be brave without being overwhelmed, Drom Baxton (played by Diarmaid Murtagh) who’s Krem’s second-in-command of Brigands, the Sklarian Raiders (played by Clara Rosager, Heather Agyepong, and Alice Hewkin) who are the trio space pirates for disturbing the bus ride, along with being forced to share info for finding Krem, Bomar and Mareck (played by Kadiff Kirwan and Thalissa Teixeira) who’re the couple who exchange about Krem’s setup about the kidnapping. And lastly, we have Superman (reprised by David Corenswet), who discovered our main cousin from crash landing in front of Fortress of Solitude, especially unlike the first movie, he’s being a lovable dork when he first meets Kara, which I will admit, I find it pretty good and cute when he first meets his cousin.
While some characters are flawed for my criticisms, but the performances and some characters are good at some points.
And now for my final opinion of this film
Overall, Supergirl (2026) is good, but its not as perfect as her cousin’s movie last year.
While the story is a typical revenge plot over the death of family (like something out of Batman story like million times), but it has a good execution for redemption story to Kara for regain his motivation to save her good boy Krypto, the presentation, while some are flawed, but look pretty nice for the visuals for space and planets, the filming is pretty good, the performance are good, some characters are either average or promising, and the action scenes are pretty good too.
However, the movie is flawed for many reasons like some jokes are okay, some of the costume designs while some are good, but there are some are either bellow or questionable, but some characters like Ruthye could’ve gone better for maybe, like… Get into action. Not to mention, the end of climax that, while the climax is good, but the way how it end before the ending is… Pretty dumb. If you wanna know about, il never let you know, til il post my SPOILER THOUGHT.
I know there are a lotta people who’re easily throwing toxic shade of saying “GURR!! THIS IS THE WORST DC MOVIE EVER, BANISH GUNN AND SAFRAN TO HEURLRLRGH!!!!”, like that, you know what I mean? But im sorry to say, Snyder Cults and hardcore haters, not EVERYTHING about this Supergirl movie is all bad, are a FEW redeeming quality that we like to give what they’re trying with the action scenes, the character development, the world building, the messages and other things about this movie. Though sure, I know there are some comic loyalists will be pretty unpleased for the end result for DC Studios take of Supergirl version by Tom King and Bilquis Evely for the obvious comparison. And yes, im aware the movie is unfortunately becoming a flop quickly due to the combination of bad timing (mainly it was released a week after Toy Story 5) and the toxic infestation by Snyder Cult (I know, I keep bragging over these “fans”, but im sure some of you will go “Yeah, I know how you feel about toxic community, my friend”). For my recommendation, its only for die hard fans of DC Comics who watch the show or movies (yours truly included), especially for the fans who watched DCU contents like 25’ Superman, Peacemaker and Creature Commandos. But for non-fans, just watch it ONCE, and you’ll make your conclusion, but don’t be too toxic after watching this, cause if not, then you’re just a Gros Tata (“Big Fat Idiot” in my Quebecois translation).
For my rating, im gonna give this one a 7/10
So this ends of my Movie Review, if you guys have your opinion or any suggestions, let me know at comment bellow and support me on KO-FI.com/blackevil.
Thanks for reading, and im Anthony, signing out.
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