Supergirl

★⯪☆☆

Supergirl (2026)

Runtime: 110 minutes

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for sequences of strong violence, action, language, and smoking.

The best part about Craig Gillespie's Supergirl is that it suggests how grief can consume us, removing all sense of rationality, filling us with denial, anger and the desire for revenge, something that Kara Zor-El (Milly Alcock) warns Ruthye Marye Knoll (Eve Ridley) not to pursue, warning her that she'll be corrupted with guilt by her actions.

Other than that, there isn't anything particularly novel about this low-stakes venture, a structural and visual mess that's noisy, from the overloaded chaos of fights to the incessant soundtrack that permeates the proceedings. It uses a dying dog and a quest for revenge, but the worldbuilding, character progression and other subtle thematic hints of oppression and bride slavery on page can't match what's shown on the screen. There's committed performances from Alcock and Jason Momoa as Lobo, but one also starts to question halfway whether the movie is even about Supergirl when it demands heavier investment on Ruthye over exploring Kara's emotional interior. If there's a movie to fold your laundry to, this is it.

On the planet Holzherr, Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts), the leader of a ruthless group called the Brigands, visits a home demanding for weapons, and subsequently kills an entire family except Ruthye, forcing her to head over to a nearby bar to recruit anyone that can help her avenge her family. Kara, who's come to this planet to get drunk (a red sun turns her into a normal human), talks about 20s life to her dog Krypto, and fights off a thief who stole Ruthye's family sword in the bar. Kara's reluctant to help, but Krem eventually finds her ship and poisons the dog, meaning that both of them have a similar goal in pursuing and eliminating a threat. This launches a Star Wars-like adventure that involves them heading over from one place to another, while meeting some allies and adversaries on the way.

The setup is similar to John Wick, but the emotional connection to her dog isn't convincing. Wick's wife passed from an illness, and her final gift to him was a dog to support and accompany him in his time of grief, making its demise even more heartbreaking for John. As he says, "It wasn't just a puppy." It was a symbol of hope for John to continue living on in a life of retirement and loneliness. Here, Krypto (who is completely CGI), is established as an annoying troublemaker that trashes the place - which we knew even from last year's Superman - and there isn't much of a compelling reason why Kara connects to it other than her separation from her family and homeland, something which is established in flashbacks later on.

Likewise, these don't expand on her attitudes and beliefs. When Krypton was on the verge of destruction, her father Zor-El activated a force-field that saved the city, but made it adrift in space. Unfortunately, the separation exposed the mineral Kryptonite, poisoning the entire city's residents, which pushes him to send Kara away to Earth where she'll join Kal-El/Clark Kent/Superman (David Corenswet). They remind her to always be good, even if she isn't nice all the time. So, why did she develop a cynical worldview, becoming bitter and wanting to seek isolation from everyone? Throughout the venture, Ruthye is blinded and consumed by her need for revenge, so Kara's evolution is missing an essential piece that doesn't fuel how she changes from this encounter. There's also a scene later on where the film writes itself into a corner, placing all characters into dead-end situations, so a memory of inspiration and the rising yellow sun feels like a cop-out.

As for Ridley, she'll grow as a performer. There are times where she's a little stiff, possibly from the lack of direction, but she sells the final scenes where her character wishes all of this never happened. Momoa brings energy to Lobo but is a one-note character who appears and disappears to the convenience of the screenplay, who suggests codes and morals that are barely explored. And not to mention, Krem is as generic as a villain can be, with muddled motivations that are shakily established from the opening scenes. Does he need weapons, or money, or young brides? The third one is definitely clear, but the others are a curious footnote. There's something interesting here about how the Brigands extort and capture young girls to be used as bride slaves for continuing their race, but it merely scratches the surface of this complicated topic.

I usually use a "if I evaluate this on a low bar" lens when there are fundamental flaws, but even the action here is gratingly familiar, with dodgy visual effects that make the already messy sequences even more jarring. There are distractingly fake backgrounds, and the composition of these scenes are inconsistent; sometimes, it's disorienting and difficult to decipher what's going on, other times, the camerawork is quite clever with rotations and pans. Fortunately, the climax fight finally brings up the intensity of things and thematically resolves Ruthye's grief in a satisfying way, but there's also a feeling that the connective tissue in between won't be remembered a few days from now. Gunn's Superman, albeit its flaws, was at least ambitious enough to expand its canvas into geopolitics, public perception, manipulation and morality. This one barely even tries.