Slightly Off the Mark: Movie review: Supergirl

There have been a lot of Supergirls.

I fell in love with the first one, who was my age (at the time) and had that cute skirt because, hey, I was an adolescent. I'd have changed my mind if I had to wear it myself. My second favorite was Melissa Benoist from the CW TV show. They were both very much traditional: truth, justice, no killing, all good all the time, just like her cousin Clark.

But that was also the problem with Kara Zor-El: She was a female Superman, and we already had a Superman. I suspect that's why the movie makers took a hard turn away from the Superman movie.

Success was limited. That's no fault of Milly Alcock, who does a fine job as a damaged Kara who had to watch her whole civilization die, slowly, before being rocketed off as the last survivor of her Kryptonian city. Unlike Clark, Kara experienced the death of everyone and everything she loved, with the exception of a puppy she saves.

Now she's rocketing around the galaxy to planets with red suns, where she can feel the effects of the alcohol she's using to forget her pain. She's a mess, but when a generic bad guy shows up and poisons the dog, she pulls a full-on John Wick and goes looking for him. She had three days to get the antidote, because deadlines are a great trope.

Turns out the bad guy is trafficking women and girls to be wives for his somehow man-only planet, and he doesn't hesitate to kill anyone who gets in his way. Kara's sense of justice emerges along with her desperation. Despite all of her attempts otherwise, she teams up with a young girl (an alien named Ruthye!) She's also reluctant to get help from Lobo, a somewhat mental bounty hunter/god who shows up first for a bounty, then apparently because he just likes to destroy stuff.

Kara could have cleaned up with whole situation in minutes if she had her powers. It just goes to show, drinking is a bad idea no matter what planet you do it on. Meanwhile the bad guys, led by main villain, dog-shooter and frankly forgettable Drom Baxton, have apparently gotten wind of Superman and moved to a planet that's deadly to Kryptonians.

I don't usually do this much plot explaining, but I was figuring some of this out as I wrote it.

None of this means you shouldn't watch Supergirl, but you shouldn't go in expecting a sequel to Superman. This is not a typical superhero story of a world or galaxy endangered; it's just a girl trying to save her dog, and maturing a bit along the way. This Kara is, and I think this is good, a far cry from her cousin, who shows up a few times but (and this is also good) never finds out she needs help.

It's a much more intimate story, a bit too drab for my taste, and the script could have been punched up. Still, it was saved by the performances of Alcock, and Jason Momoa as Lobo. I very much hope we see both of them in future DC movies, hopefully with a better script and a more colorful world.

My ranking:

Entertainment value: 3 M&Ms out of 4. I know a lot of hate is being poured on this movie, and with good reason. But as a summer popcorn flick, I really liked it.

Oscar potential: 1 M&M out of 4. Probably less; there are good performances here, but the story was weak.

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