After seeing Supergirl, I think Milly Alcock is a good choice for the title role.
I also think the movie is kind of boring. I didn’t hate it—but I didn’t like it. It’s a flat movie that is just sort of there, without really entertaining or nourishing your brain.
Alcock is supremely let down by a script that saddles her Supergirl with a drinking problem and major mommy/daddy issues. I’m all for the notion of Supergirl, aka Kara Zor-El, being the rebellious polar opposite of Superman (David Corenswet, who appears in a few of the better scenes), with his Boy Scout image. But, man, you have to make it fun. Instead, Supergirl opts for dark and dreary, with lackluster stabs at humor.
Director Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya) is all over the place with the tone. The script mostly has Kara off of planet Earth and spending time fighting space battles with a gross and uninteresting villain, Krem of the Brigands. There are also “origin story” scenes of Kara’s life that began on Krypton and moved to a domed floating city before she made her way to Earth.
The origin scenes, and the few scenes on Earth with Superman, are actually very good. It’s when the action heads to space with Kara trying to save her poisoned dog, Krypto, that things get tedious. Yes, this is the second film in James Gunn’s new DC Universe that has Krypto in peril—offscreen, to save a few bucks in special-effects budgeting. I love Krypto, but will every movie in the Superman universe have him in peril? Let’s branch out with the dog.
Kara is saddled with a whiny sidekick in Ruthye (Eve Ridley), who is trying to avenge her family’s death. She’s a major bummer. Jason Momoa is tacked on in a few scenes as Lobo, an interesting-enough character that, nevertheless, feels trivial in this movie.
Alcock labors through it all with a winning screen presence and an energy that keeps the whole thing floating at times. She will continue to have a presence in future DCU films (including the Superman sequel Man of Tomorrow), but this relative misfire will probably be her one solo movie.
It’s not good; it’s not horrible. It’s just sort of there—and that’s not a good trait for a big-budget superhero movie.