REVIEW: ‘Supergirl’ just isn’t weird enough to be good sci-fi
Milly Alcock as the titular hero in Supergirl, directed by Craig Gillespie.
Some of the best sci-fi is, well, weird. In a seemingly infinite universe, there are enough star systems and planets to house just about every permutation of life forms, landscapes, and technologies. Stuff that should feel absolutely bizarre, frightening, or even hilarious. So when superhero movies have their characters undertake a more cosmic adventure than simply saving little old Earth, I expect some wacky sights and sounds.
That feels like the intention behind Supergirl, the second release of the rebooted slate of movies in the DC Universe, which kicked off with James Gunn’s Superman last year. That first movie gave us a brief introduction to Supergirl (Milly Alcock), a.k.a. Kara Zor-el, the younger cousin of the Man of Steel. Kara isn’t nearly as straight-laced or driven to help as her cousin. She prefers to travel to star systems with red suns that suppress her superpowers, allowing her to drown her sorrows over her lost homeworld. Feeling adrift in an uncaring universe, her only real connection is to her dog, Krypto, the untrained super-mutt that tore up the screen when Clark looked after him in the previous film.
Of course, this space bender wouldn’t make for much of a heroic story, so Kara’s begrudgingly called into action to pursue a so-called Brigand by the name of Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts). Krem has killed a young girl’s family, poisoned Krypto, and seeks to kidnap more young women as slaves, forcing Kara to decide what sort of Kryptonian she wants to be.
Matthias Schoenaerts gets to wear a bunch of hardware on his face and menace people in a vague accent.
Supergirl is directed by Craig Gillespie, who has made several movies over the years about ambitious women who make the wrong choices to get what they want (Cruella and I, Tonya), so you can see what the studio saw in hiring him. The movie also wants to depict the worlds beyond Earth in these connected films in a familiar, grungy aesthetic, similar to the original Star Wars trilogy. The only gleaming, high-tech location in the movie is Krypton (seen in flashbacks) and it serves as a cautionary example of a people who ignore warnings about environmental collapse. The rough-and-tumble sensibility extends to the production techniques, too, with conspicuous use of practical alien costumes and sets. Your interstellar mileage may vary, though, on whether you find the visuals impressive or more like an old episode of Doctor Who.
As much craft went into Supergirl, though, the movie doesn’t reach escape velocity. It’s weighed down by lots of odd choices that make it feel decidedly terrestrial, as though the filmmakers were worried they would - ahem - alienate the audience with too much sci-fi weirdness.
The first odd choice that comes to mind is the music. Supergirl wouldn’t be a James Gunn-produced film without some needle drops, but I can’t understand why Kara would be cueing up “Le temps de l’amour” by Françoise Hardy on a jukebox on a planet light-years from Earth, or why a house band is serenading bar patrons on a different planet with “The Girl From Ipanema” or “Cheek To Cheek”. They’re all great songs, but they make no sense in context. Shouldn’t we be hearing some otherworldly, yoinky-sploinky alien music?
The movie deserves some praise for interesting alien costumes for extras.
The locations are all pretty samey, too – rocky deserts and steppes that are distinctly lacking the kind of variety we see on a production like Andor. Give me sets where the visuals are freaky, not just reused from the latest Disney+ show. These are admittedly small details, but they add up and put an extra burden on the story and characters to catch your interest.
Kara’s plight is lamentable, since not only is she orphaned from her entire planet like Superman, but she didn’t get to fall in love with Earth from infancy like he did. Her method of dealing with her pain, though, feels one-note. She goes to planets that let her feel something, gets drunk, and repeats. The movie is crying out for Kara to have other self-destructive habits or messy friends to fill in the picture. Hell, even a tendency to hook up with random aliens might give her character some more detail. Obviously that last suggestion would ignite an online firestorm with certain toxic nerds (who conveniently forget Chris Pratt’s Star Lord’s promiscuity in the first Guardians of the Galaxy film). But the point stands: Kara’s character doesn’t feel developed enough, making her moral choice at the end of the film that much more confusing.
The supporting characters in Supergirl are fine, but unmemorable. Kara’s client/friend, Ruthye (Eve Ridley) is like a video game NPC that needs constant minding by Kara. Schoenaerts doesn’t get much to do as Krem other than walk and talk like an orc. His powers are ill-defined and the final fight with Kara is underwhelming; I guess he’s just durable enough to survive a Kryptonian walloping him into the ground? Finally, the much-anticipated (by 90s comics fans) appearance of Jason Momoa as immortal bounty hunter Lobo is…just okay. Somehow the movie dials back Momoa’s typical swagger, resulting in a character who doesn’t leave much of an impression beyond, “Yep, makes sense that Momoa is playing that guy”.
As fun as it is in theory to get a female superhero who isn’t trying to be a shining inspiration, the world around her feels too small. It doesn’t call out to be explored by the erstwhile hero. While the villains in the story certainly have an evil operation (they’re sex traffickers after all), disrupting that seems to be low priority for the main characters. Whereas Superman felt overstuffed but charming, Supergirl is like a great drink that’s been watered down.
Supergirl gets two and a half stars out of four.
Stray thoughts
I was wondering if Momoa’s Lobo would get a chance to drink space Guinness so Momoa can continue repping his favourite brand onscreen. No luck!
Why do the Brigands keep fighting at the end when they’re clearly outmatched? How do they know to surround Ruthye when she escapes the crashing ship?
How does Krem know about Kryptonite?