Supergirl | Writer: Ana Nogueira | Director: Craig Gillespie | Starring: David Corenswet, Jason Momoa, Matthias Schoenaerts, Eve Ridley | All images: © Warner Bros. Pictures
Celebrating her 23rd birthday, Kara Zor-El finds solace in the liver-freeing powerlessness of a planet under a red sun and alien grog. But the adopted Earth hero called Supergirl is in desperate need of moving on from the traumatic history of her short life so she can find some meaning in a vast universe. That’s something that becomes even more necessary when her beloved dog Krypto is poisoned by the same villainous pirate that killed the family of plucky young sword-carrier called Ryuthe, and is determined to get revenge. Can Kara find the cure to save Krypto in 72 planet-hopping hours, and will the driven Ryuthe find anything better than vengeance at the end of her journey?
After Superman’s inoffensive and pretty good introduction to the DCU last year, Supergirl is the film that sets the agenda for the DCU. It’s lively, splattered with humour, some surprisingly shocking brutality and a whole load of soul-searching in the face of loss. But then, deep down, it’s also about keeping things personal, no matter how big the universe.
As Kar Zo-El, Superman’s younger cousin, Milly Alcock is a force, almost immediately wiping out thoughts of previous incarnations (not so easy) thanks to Ana Nogueira’s script wisely taking inspiration from the six-part comic series, Supergirl: The Woman of Tomorrow.
The choice to adapt Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s was a damn good one from DCU-overseer James Gunn. It’s a bold statement of intent—directly anchoring the DCU in its comic book inspiration—but also guarantees a trodden and direct plot. The comic series wended its way through the cosmos but was essentially a mix of road-trip and odd-couple humour, with revenge and friendship. A leap from A to B, through multicoloured suns.
Alcock doesn’t have to carry the film on her own, which is just as well when the film purposefully keeps her out of the famous outfit until the climactic final fight. This is Kara without the need of a dual identity like her cousin (or previous movie or TV versions), and just letting loose on a cosmic mission to save her dog. As Ryuthe, Eve Ridley has wide-eyed, indomitable determination. She doesn’t get the chance to shine on screen as she does in the wordy prose of Tom King’s original story, which she narrates. But there are glimmers in the relationship between her and Supergirl that just about pay off by the end.
Opposite them, a mostly forgettable group of pirates, or Brigands, don’t offer up much nuance. When the emphasis is on the female characters, the amorphous blot of Mad Max rejects makes more sense, but it’s almost a shame their leader, this Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts—we know he’s the villain, his face is scarred encrusted, his eyes are red), isn’t the same as his ginger-bearded comic equivalent. There might have been more to say with an insidious opponent who wasn’t so powerful and just more evil human.
Slotting in Lobo (a big entrance for a DC antihero and a deliberate break from the DCEU by casting the hair made for it—Jason Momoa’s) is a bit redundant. While there are some good-natured snarls lifted from the comic (he’s a big part but certainly not the sole source of comedy), the decision not to show his indestructible and sickening regenerative powers is strange in a film that’s happy to be sadistic and brutal in other scenes. In part because of that, he’s not, whisper it, the greatest Lobo committed to screen (all hail Krypton’s Emmett J. Scanlan). Yet.
Director Craig Gillespie has a great vision for bringing rounded female characters to the screen. Still, it’s a shame he opts to put them in an increasingly more conventional space-opera and dystopian vision, where few scenes, if any, capture the glowing cosmic radiance of the original comic’s clash of alien atmospheres and incredible hair. Some of the aliens look like Clive Barker’s Nightbreed. But he has a target and that’s to leave characters like Kara and Lobo in the right place for their next mission in the DCU.
Supergirl isn’t interested in twists and turns, just telling a character-based story with a deadline. It would have been spectacular if the wider universe had let this tale off the hook and unleashed visuals that match the phenomenal art of Bilquis Evely or the wry narrative Tom King gifted Ryuthe found in the original comic. But then, as we know, the universe isn’t fair. Supergirl leaves the DCU in a better place and, by Ra! Two films in, it’s the best DCU film yet. No pressure, Man of Tomorrow.
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