Supergirl

It’s only the second film in the fledging, new DC Universe and already we’ve resorted to type.

Despite all the potential shown and, hopefully, still on the horizon and all this particular story could have been, Supergirl is your standard and rote ‘modern’ superhero film.

For every bit of promise here, and don’t worry there is a few to go into, the overwhelming whiff of studio interference and playing it safe casts a cloud as dark as much of the film itself.

And there’s the rub. After everything the superhero boon has made clear: what works, what audiences respond to, what performs well critically and commercially etc. the fact that this film is lumbered with almost everything in the ‘bad’ category just makes zero sense.

Let’s start positively. Milly Alcock is excellent as Supergirl and she anchors the entire film. Riding the wave of her scene-stealing cameo in Superman, just spending time with her and good boy Krypto is a joy and she’s destined to become a big draw in the inevitable ensemble films down the line.

Likewise, we’re treated to a moderate amount of Superman as well here. Not as much as perhaps there should be (in this new age, just move quickly and throw them together – why not?) but he is there, and we’re slowly building out the universe.

Jason Momoa’s Lobo is also great fun, often acting like he’s been beamed in from another film entirely and still confusingly quick to bring an actor already ingrained with DC back as someone else (confusing the The Suicide Squad/Peacemaker situation even more) but, still, he’s great.

There’s some great song choices on the soundtrack (although a few cut off a little hastily), the plot is MacGuffin-driven but largely avoids the ‘item-collecting’, ‘videogame’ feeling and it has a, dare I say, ‘Marvel’ feel to the whole thing, playing like a mash up of the more sci-fi and space-leaning MCU flicks.

Unlike those Marvel brethren though, it still feels trapped between the two tentpoles. Yes, the music is there and some desperate attempts at ‘quippy banter’ but everything is also just relentlessly bleak and dark.

Considering how well a lot of the new Superman worked, and how fun this anarchic, ‘punk’ version of Supergirl could be, why are we sending her to endless rusty brown planets, fighting rip offs of the Ravagers from Guardians who, in a beat stolen directly from Mad Max, want to ‘collect wives’.

It’s all a bit grim and nonsensical, all a bit lightweight and no match for the powers we know Kara has. Also, Krypto is conveniently written out of the entire film early doors and even Kara herself is sidelined for the beginning of the third act.

We’re also stuck in between ‘origin story’ and the ‘already established hero’ like Superman. Clearly, we want the latter but there’s so much here unexplained.

The flashback sequence to Kara’s youth is actually probably the best bit here. A strong and lean, tragic tale which makes a lot of sense.

However, everything else just doesn’t really work. It’s very much a ‘Supergirl goes on a side quest’ style of film and feels like it’ll have next to no bearing on any future events in the DCU to come.

So yes it is watchable, yes it has a great lead character and yes it’s clearly trying to do the right thing but, already, DC is throwing the shackles on its new venture before it’s even begun.

There’s enough promise elsewhere that this could just go down as a blip but, even so, what a wasted opportunity.

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