Whether you’re a fan of any of the various connected universes that litter the cinematic landscape, or you believe that powering entire franchises with the twin powers of nostalgia and FOMO is heralding the rapid heat-death of the universe, you still have to allow the filmmakers a little time to find their feet. Take James Gunn’s revised take at the DC Cinematic Universe that, so far has been going great – well – guns. A couple of seasons of Peacemaker, a repurposed The Suicide Squad, an animated show of Creature Commandos and a thoroughly lovable Superman film all has given this fledgling franchise redo some solid foundations to dig its heroic red booties into – however, as veterans of the MCU can tell you, all it takes is just one speedbump to throw everything for a loop. After her brief introduction at the end of Superman, is the boozy, burnt out presence of Milly Alcock’s Supergirl that speed bump?
Technically speaking – no? But it’s hardly the second-movie florish the DC Universe was hoping for.
While alien refugee Superman (aka. Clark Kent, aka. Kal-El) has adapted to his life on earth fairly well and used his awesome powers for good, it’s fair to say his cousin, Kara, hasn’t fared quite as successfully. While his home planet Krypton crapped out, Kal-El was sent here by his megalomaniac father as a baby and soon found his bearings, however, Kara had something of a more traumatic origin story that saw the Kryptonian Argo City survive the destruction thanks to the scientific efforts of her father, Zor-El. However, while there seems to be a Kryptonian word for hope, there doesn’t seem to be one for sod’s law and soon another, more harrowing fate eventually befell the survivors of Krypton which led to Kara, and her dog, Krypto, being sent to earth to be with her cousin.
Still plainly traumatised by her gargantuan losses, we find Kara about to celebrate her latest birthday by having no intention of joining her big-hearted cousin as a do-gooding superhero, and instead she travels to planets with red suns that render her human so she can get pissed on epic, multi-planetary bar crawls. While it’s obvious that she’s still, unsuccessfully, processing her grief, her drunken misery is disturbed by the pleas of Ruthye Mayre Knoll, a young girl whose family has just been murdered by Krem Of The Yellow Hills – the leader of a race of violent space barbarians known as the Brigands.
Desperate to avenge her fallen kin, Kara bluntly refuses to aid the girl, but when Krem inserts himself in her life, steals her ship and shoots Krypto with a poison arrow, the troubled Kryptonian has no choice but to join the girl in her quest.
But while they meet countless aliens, visit multiple planets and have numerous run-ins with a wild, immortal bounty hunter named Lobo, can Kara manage to get the antidote for Krypto in time, stop Ruthye from becoming a murderer and manage to find a purpose to her drifting existence all in three days?
As I write this, it seems that after something of a smooth start, the DCU has encountered some critically and commercially violent turbulence thanks to the reception that’s come the way of Craig Gillespie’s Supergirl. However, while people hurling shit at a female superhero property is sadly about as common in comic book cinema as knee-high boots and capes, Supergirl often doesn’t do itself any favours by openly lending itself heavily over to the James Gunn School Of Filmmaking. Based on the lauded Woman Of Tomorrow arc by Tom King and Bilquis Evely, it plonks a traumatised Supergirl into the middle of True Grit style cosmic adventure that should have offered up plenty of surprises, large amounts of emotion and fascinating visuals to really help it stand out from an already packed-out crowd.
However, while there’s a sizable amount of things the movie does right, most of it is regrettably scuppered by the fact that Gillespie seems to be trying ridiculously hard to turn it all into a Guardians Of The Galaxy movie, along with practically identical visuals and a long, and strangely predictable, list of needle drops that suddenly no longer feel quite as innovative as it once did. Treading on such a path that requires you to merge the absurd with the gritty and then try to add heart can prove to be incredibly tricky (just ask Taika Watiti who both nail and failed it within the space of two Thor movies), but thanks to some incredibly dull, derivative villains, a jumbled tone and a lack of that colourful, expansive, supporting cast that helped enliven Superman, Supergirl never really makes out of second gear.
There’s good stuff to be found, to be fair. Milly Alcock’s Kara proves to be canny casting as she gradually ditches the booze-soaked self loathing for the blue, red and yellows of her iconic suit, but the curious balance of her PSTD and heroism ends up being rendered strangely murky by some strange script choices.
Speaking of strange choices, while its a good idea to make your villains villainous (especially when they’re just a bland copy of the Ravagers from GOTG), having a family summer blockbuster indulge in the sex slavery of young girls just seems wildly inappropriate for a film that features a soft cover of Jimmy Eat World’s “The Middle” at the climax. Also registering well is Jason Mamoa’s Lobo, a cigar sucking, blood-red eyed berserker who roars in and out of the movie at will on his space chopper and spits the word “bastich” at people with visible relish; but while you watch him literally tear things up, again you find yourself pulled out of the film by wondering why he was ever cast as Aquaman in the DCEU and not this in the first place. Still, we get more of David Corenswet’s endearing wholesome Superman and hopefully Alcock and Momoa will get a chance for their characters to deservedly grow and shine as the DCU goes on (Alcock is already confirmed for next year’s Man Of Tomorrow), but despite featuring a Star Wars cantina’s worth of impressive, practical, alien makeups and a far better rendition of the character than that 1984 version, there’s something vital missing.
Alternating between playing things as safe as a phase 2 MCU entry and making some strange, unsuccessful swings, neither Supergirl or Gillespie are quite able to find their feet as much as an entry connected franchise still in its infancy should. Whether this proves to bathe Gunn’s long term plans with Kryptonite and spell doom for yet another era of DC movies remains to be seen; but Supergirl – and the arc thats being adapted – end up being far more interesting than the half-hearted, Guardians Of The Galaxy ripoff that she’s currently in.
Hardly the franchise slaying disaster incels and hysterical internet headlines would have you believe, Supergirl still finds herself stuck in a movie that only partially works. Maybe future plans will go on to retroactively turn matters around, but for now, the latest attempt to sprawl the DC brand is just fine. Just not super fine.
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