By Erin Free
Worth: $16.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Milly Alcock, Jason Momoa, Eve Ridley, Matthias Schoenaerts, David Krumholtz, Krypto
Intro:
Like most superhero movies of late, Supergirl is certainly very good, but it’s not exactly great.
It’s pretty much impossible to write about a new superhero flick without mentioning the looming, much-heralded shadow of “superhero fatigue”, that sense of audience exhaustion constantly threatening to trip up the mighty ambitions of Marvel and DC Studios, and their seemingly non-stop emission of big and small screen entertainment. With that said, maybe it’s time to just accept superhero content as the entertainment industry’s current status quo, and celebrate the superior stuff whenever it comes down the pike. Like most superhero movies of late, Supergirl is certainly very good, but it’s not exactly great. It’s got heart, laughs and plenty of action, but it doesn’t quite hit the heights in the ways you’d hope.
We first met Superman’s boozy, party girl cousin Kara Zor-El at the end of James Gunn’s 2025 DC Studios kick-off Superman, and she’s now front and centre, with young Aussie actress Milly Alcock (Upright, House Of Dragons) making a major impression with a warm, wild, cheeky and wholly engaging performance that rates as the film’s major highlight. The plot here is alarmingly simple, with Kara off in the distant universe chasing a good time. She gets sidetracked by the orphaned Ruthye (the charming Eve Ridley), who is in pursuit of the evil Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts has a ball with his grubby, creepy bad guy), who killed her entire family before her eyes. When Kara’s scene-stealing CGI dog Krypto gets zapped by Krem with a poison dart, the planet-hopping party girl gets serious and joins the chase to get the antidote and save her beloved pet. Yep, that’s it.
Well, sort of. In amongst that very simple, straight-ahead narrative, we also get flashbacks to Kara Zor-El’s origin story (she remained on a dying Krypton a lot longer than her cousin Superman, and was sent to Earth as a positive force…a nice reverse of James Gunn’s shocking refit of the classic Superman origin in his 2025 film), complete with a wonderful turn from David Krumholtz as her father, and a series of hilarious appearances from the perfectly cast Jason Momoa as intergalactic badass bounty hunter Lobo. This classic DC cult fave character isn’t exactly essential to the plot, but he’s certainly fun to have around, and his Supergirl shot is obviously a platform for his upcoming (at some stage) own movie.
Colourfully directed by Aussie Craig Gillespie (Dumb Money, I, Tonya) and tartly scripted by first-time feature screenwriter Ana Nogueira, Supergirl crackles with sassy energy, and there are moments of genuine, heartfelt emotion that hit the target very nicely. There are also, however, very, very loud echoes of previous superhero movies, with James Gunn’s superior Guardians Of The Galaxy series (the final 2023 instalment of which probably rates as the last truly great superhero movie) a way, way, way too obvious influence. Hopefully setting a new trend (please!), Supergirl runs at a very comfortable 108 minutes, and never outstays its welcome…though it does feel a little like we’ve seen it all before. A superhero movie now has to bust out of the box really hard to get complete, no-concessions kudos (hello, Deadpool & Wolverine), and while Supergirl is certainly highly enjoyable, it’s no instant classic.
