3 outta 5

Supergirl is the second film of the once again rebooted DC Universe after 2025’s Superman but tonally it could have fit into the old DCEU Snyder-verse. More than anything, this movie feels of a piece of director Craig Gillespie’s previous output like I, Tonya, Cruella, Pam and Tommy and Fright Night. His movies are usually a little punk and a little messy and a little crazy, which is how this movie feels. It is a bit jarring especially coming after the earnestness of Superman, but that makes her stand out. There are some solid emotional payoffs and cool scenes for a funky DC superhero flick.

Kara Zor-El (Milly Alcock) is the cousin of Clark Kent (David Corenswet), Superman. Kara goes off with her dog Krypto to planets with red suns so she can get drunk. On one of her binge drinking adventures, she gets caught up in the vengeance mission of Ruthye (Eve Ridley) who wants to kill the villainous Brigand, Kerm of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts). This gets her dog poisoned so now Kara has to take Ruthye to find Kerm as he has the antidote on his person. Kerm and his Brigands are very bad dudes who capture girls across the cosmos and one of the Brigands has attracted the attention of the bounty hunter, Lobo (Jason Momoa). As the dynamic duo get closer to Kerm and his crew, things become more dangerous and Kara must defeat the villains and truly become Supergirl.

This movie is a very lose adaptation of the Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow comic that takes the general shape of the plot, a few lines and scenes. There are different, and darker turns that the Supergirl movie takes over the comic that may tick off audiences looking for fidelity to the source. But a movie is its own thing and crabbing about what was changed is fairly pointless. The darker changes work for this film’s tone, even if some things that Supergirl does in the finale doesn’t seem very superheroic, but the bad guy is really, really bad. The look of Kerm of the Yellow Hills is significantly different from his comic version but one of his sidekick goons whom Lobo is hunting looks like the redhead Kerm from the comic, which is a cool reference.

There is some brief flashbacks to Kara’s origin as she lived on the asteroid Argo City that broke off from Krypton. She had a fun life on the planetoid for a while, until everyone started to get sick from Kryptonite poisoning, and her father decide to shoot her off to Earth, where her younger cousin was sent. It somehow manages to be even more of a dark origin story than Superman but there are some bright spots like when Kara first meets Krypto, and when she first arrives on Earth she is confused as her cousin Kal-El doesn’t speak her language. Corenswet still has some funny “aw schucks” energy especially when he is trying to communicate with Kara so he just talks louder. He is trying to be understanding about Kara’s red sun partying ways but he shows that underneath he’s pained by her decisions.

As the Maid of Might, Alcock has a strong energy for Kara, and while it is shocking to watch Supergirl basically just be an intergalactic bar hopping drunkard, she’s still likable. And while it is unsurprising that she embraces her superheroic side at the end, she sells that Kara can be as unbeatable as Superman. Ridley as Ruthye the sidekick is an old beyond her years soul as she grew up real fast watching Kerm kill her family, and there’s a bit where she walks into a bar and tries to recruit anyone to help with her mission, vowing to give them her family’s sword. It is an old timey notion of nobilty that also generates sympathy for the character, especially when a big jerk alien just steals her sword and walks off, causing Kara to intervene.

As his second DC character after Aquaman, Momoa’s Lobo is perfectly big and mean, crashing through the movie to get his bounty, and when he first nabs the bounty it is amusingly messy. When Ruthye first sees him she tries to get information while Kara waves at her to not get involved with the bounty hunter. Lobo is very entertaining and he even says “Bastich”, Lobo’s trademark curse. Kerm of the Yellow Hills has a great name but he is just sort of a generic bad guy with face bedazzling, not as good a design as the comic’s wicked elf. But he is a really nasty murderer, human trafficker, and dog poisoner, making him someone the audience wants to see dead.

The action is cool if not exactly innovative, although the biggest battle is kept for the ending and delivers some big boom, featuring an interesting cover of “The Middle” that conveys Ruthye’s perspective. The movie’s best moments are in little bits like when Kara fits Ruthye with a protective bubble suit so she won’t die, or the opening credit montage of Kara and her hard boozing ways, or a dramatic bit when Kara gets caught on a planet with a green sun that is very bad. Supergirl is a superhero movie that has its own boozy, gritty, punky vibe. She is pretty chaotic for a superhero but fun to watch.