This Supergirl film is not so super.This chaotic Dystopian, mess puts edgy Milly Alcock (House of Thrones) in outrageous action scenes trying save her dog Krypto, who may be the best character in this film. Felt to us very derivative of other successful dystopian franchises including, especially Mad Max: Fury Road, with a theme about trafficking young women, Star Wars with it’s canteen scenes, but also District 9 and even Dune.
As head of the DC Universe, James Gunn is as responsible for this film because he hand-picked Director Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya, Cruella) and former actress and playwright, Ana Nogueira create this latest entry. Nogueira loves the genre and was given the task of reading all of the DC comics about Supergirl to create this latest iteration of Kara Zo-El, cousin of Superman. The last time we saw Supergirl was briefly in Superman last year, but before that starring Helen Slater in 1984. Nogueira is known for writing snappy dialogue and creating emotional connection for her characters, but here, the lines were lame, and the connection is weak.
Alcock obviously worked hard, training 2 months to do the action-packed physical scenes required of her shot by Cinematographer Rob Hardy, that often come out of nowhere in this rocky story. And there are gross scenes of her vomiting and peeing that just make her character even more chaotic, messy and disgusting.
Jason Momoa is way out there in a macho role as an interplanetary bounty hunter biker that saves him, but not the movie. His huge glowing cigars are a signature affectation that is useful visually. He’s the rye, sarcastic and even a bit jovial character; even a bit likable in this role.
Supergirl meets Ruthye (Eve Ridley) whose family has been violently killed in front of her by head Brigand, Krem, (Matthias Schoenaerts). They are a ruthless bunch of villains who are thieves and human traffickers of young women they capture and want to impregnate to help populate their world. Ridley plays an extremely grief stricken, bottled-up young woman filled with revenge for what happened to her parents. She follows Supergirl, hoping to convince Kara Zo-El to help her fight the frightening villain with the rivet imbedded face. We didn’t understand why a space pirate in this film would have a Eastern European accent in what is already a questionable sci-fi concept. What bothered us most, was the weak emotional connection between Rythye and Kara, even at the end.
During most of the film is Kara trying to distance herself from everything else so she can concentrate on getting the only antidote that will save her poisoned dog Kripto, we met in the last Superman film. Talking about Kara’s cousin, Clark, (David Corenswet), he is in a couple of scenes, dimples and all, but not central to anything. We never see his power, probably to keep Kara in the limelight. There’s a cool soundtrack that uses a lot of popular pop music, but it doesn’t save the movie.
Alcock works hard in action sequences that pop up to keep us interested. But this film does nothing to lessen super hero fatigue. It’s a chaotic mess with no post credit scene showing something to look forward to, because this film never really takes off.
Warner Bros. Pictures 1 hour 48 minutes PG-13
