‘Supergirl’ could have been more super
By Jesse Burchill
Staff Writer
Released June 26, “Supergirl” is a superhero movie directed by Craig Gillepsie and starring Milly Alcock, Eve Ridley, Matthias Schoenaerts, and Jason Momoa. Based on the 2021 comic book “Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow” by Tom King, the movie features Kara Zor-El/Supergirl (Alcock) as she teams up with Ruthye Marye Knoll (Ridley) to seek revenge on Krem of the Yellow Hills (Schoenaerts), the leader of the space pirates and traffickers, the Brigands, who murdered Ruthye’s family and poisoned Kara’s dog, Krypto. However, I felt like the final product was a bit of a mixed bag. I enjoyed watching it, but even though some changes are to be expected in a movie adaptation, the changes in “Supergirl” were a bit distracting. Krem of the Yellow Hills is a much different character in the movie. He looks and acts completely different, lacks the more nuanced character traits he had in the book, murders Ruthye’s entire family instead of just her father, and is not of the same species as Ruthye, greatly changing their relationship to be both more and less personal. While Krem is still intimidating, the changes seem rather pointless and make him more generic as a villain. Several of the planets he attacks in the book are replaced with just one, which reduces the scope of his crimes, although they’re still utterly deplorable. Ruthye’s journey in the book, guided by Kara, is to recognize that murdering Krem in revenge will not relieve her of her grief. Along the way, the two gradually become friends, and when they’re stranded on a planet with a kryptonite sun, Ruthye protects a severely weakened Kara from the dangerous local wildlife. The story culminates in Ruthye fighting Krem one-on-one while Kara fights the rest of the Brigands. In the movie, Ruthye still has this arc, but the fight between her and Krem never happens, and the planet with the kryptonite sun has no life on it to defend a weakened Kara from. Furthermore, Supergirl does much of the heavy lifting in their pursuit of Krem throughout the movie - this results in Ruthye having far less to do than in the book, even though it’s her revenge story as well. Eve Ridley does give a good performance with what she has, but her character feels fairly underused in comparison to the book. The book has absolutely beautiful artwork and coloring. Artist Bilquis Everly and colorist Mat Lopes create multiple vibrant alien worlds, and every panel stands out. In comparison, the movie is very dark and drab most of the time and lacks the color palette that helped make the book so memorable. Despite the changes, I will admit that “Supergirl” still works as a decent movie. Krem is still a formidable villain, Kara and Ruthye’s relationship is fun to watch, the action is cool, and the flashbacks with Kara’s parents Zor-El and Alura were sweet. However, there were two parts of this movie that I loved and think stood out the best. The first is Jason Momoa as Czarnian bounty hunter Lobo. Momoa perfectly captures the kind of rough, gruff, and (mostly) jerkish person that is the Main Man, and his performance makes you wish he had more screentime than he actually got, given the revenge theme and that he’s also chasing a member of the Brigands. The second, and my favorite performance in the movie, was Milly Alcock as Supergirl. Kara begins the movie as a functional alcoholic who neglects her relationship with her cousin Superman and struggles with the trauma of losing her homeworld, home city, and parents in quick succession, while Superman was too young at the time to remember any of it. Despite this, Kara still strives to do good where she can, even at times when she can be abrasive and cynical. Her flaws are not gone at the end of the movie, but she’s working on them, and this makes her character development feel more real. Alcock sells the emotional beats of Kara’s arc perfectly, especially in her last interactions with her parents, when she retells her home’s doom to Ruthye, and when she comes to visit her cousin at the end. Even if you don’t like the rest of the movie, Alcock can easily resonate as a great Supergirl, and I’m excited to see Alcock’s version of the character in future installments of the DCU. Ultimately, “Supergirl” is certainly serviceable as an entertaining movie with an engaging lead, but as an adaptation and a follow-up to 2025’s “Superman,” it falls short. Rating: C Good, but not super
