Just managed to catch Supergirl with my daughter last night finally and whilst it’s not as bad as I had heard, it’s also not great. Supergirl hit digital services in my country and likely globally or will be soon. Therefore, ahead of that here’s a review of whether you should catch it at home if you didn’t already see it in theatres.
Not As Bad As I Heard
I heard a lot of bad things about this film and it was rated as Rotten on the RT critics score. Audience liked it a little better than that, but certainly not enough to swing the box office. It was a sure fire flop, let’s face it. Is it worth watching at home though?
I think it is, but like me you’ll probably finish the film with several ideas of what they could have improved to make it a hit.
The Good
Supergirl actually starts well enough, a few things aside I would have cut or changed, I was actually enjoying the film much more than I expected in the first third. Kara being irresponsible and getting caught up with Ruthye by accident worked. My only real issues are some bland design choices. Why for example are there so many ordinary looking Human’s spread across the Galaxy, why is basic the same language as English, etc? Honestly, it could have benefitted from being a bit more ‘out there’ and colourful with a more alien feel to the places we visit.
As it stands every planet just looks the same outside of what colour Sun it has. Oh and I liked the Red sun/Yellow sun mechanic in play (at the start), but it stopped working as the movie went on. We continue instead with more variations and it made it unclear what power we are supposed to be expecting from Kara at any given time.
The Bad
The problem with this film is it’s too long and it has too many moments that could be cut for better pacing. Meanwhile the action scenes are not particularly spectacular. It’s like Kara’s abilities come and go depending on what the scene needs and by the finale she’s Supergirl and nothing can handle her. It’s just all things you’ve seen before and often done better.
The worldbuilding isn’t great in this film either. I don’t remember any of the species I met in this film, except the one that looked close to copyright infringement on the Halo games. Don’t remember the names of any of the worlds or which order they were visited in either. Though, for some reason everyone off-world listens to Earth music so it really just feels like small modern towns in the middle of nowhere on Earth.
Finally, the villain’s plot armour is even stronger than Kara’s in this one. He continually gets one upped and somehow manages to end up ahead, or escaping, that it just becomes tedious. The Kryptonite weapons he used at the end were just weak sauce. Not been used all film, and Kara gets over it somehow by pure force of will. Not to mention the green sun thing might have been a good idea had the bad guys not waited so long a yellow sun appeared. Didn’t they time it? Why the hell did Kara agree to be blindfolded, only to show us she can see anyway and then get willingly led to a planet that poisons her in the day and makes her Supergirl in the night, or whatever the equivalent is?
Ugly?
Look, I’ve never liked Lobo, he’s an Edgelord’s dream and that’s no different here. Does Momoa do a good job? For me it’s middling, I think he’s well suited to the role, but I’m not a fan of Lobo or Momoa as an actor. Momoa’s best work came in Game of Thrones and Stargate: Atlantis, because both were limited roles. Lobo is also a limited role, so he should be fine, but it’s not selling a film to me.
Ruthye and Kara are cast well and play well off one another. Momoa is hardly in it and when he is, he’s just a dick, which is what Lobo is. The villain is not brilliant and the next character that amazingly gets the most screen time in this film outside these is Superman, despite him being on a different planet. Everyone else is a cardboard cut out and just so generic and dull that they become forgettable instantly.
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Ultimately Supergirl is the right story for story for this version of Kara, but it is executed badly either in the scripting process, or most likely in the direction which is where I feel the film suffers as playing too safe. Not being willing to cut scenes that are not working, or redundant and what seems like phoning in the worldbuilding that should have sparkled in this film.
Gillespie was not the right director for this and the film suffered for that. At least as an outsider looking in at the finished film only. I of course could be very wrong on where the problems actually stemmed from.
Yet, the movie is fun enough to keep you attentive I think when watching at home. I could absolutley see me slightly enjoying this less in a theatre though, you feel like it should have ended multiple times before it does.
GRADE: C+
Not as bad as some have made out and it started better than it ended. Overall though, this was a great ides for a movie that was executed badly by either the writer, director, producers or all three. I will certainly look forward to seeing more of this version of Kara, but with how poorly the film performed, will we actually get much more Supergirl?
I’ll also add that there is less interest when we cover Supergirl stories than any other movie or shows within the comic book world. This review I’m writing will get less traffic than the TV review I published an hour ago for House of the Dragon. I know this because the trend has been consistent since we started covering the film. For whatever reason, the fans what watch these superhero movies just aren’t into Supergirl, the film, or the character. not brilliant for DC Studios,, but to be fair it’s also not as bad a film as some are making out. it’s just very generic and samey, with a decent lead character and then some nobody background characters.
Leave your own reviews for Supergirl or feel free to critique mine in the usual place below.
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