Take 75: Supergirl (2026)
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a Supergirl who just wants to have fun!
In Supergirl (2026) Milly Alcock reprises her role from last summer’s Superman as Clark’s cousin, Kara Zor-El. With Krypton in tow, and Intent on enjoying her 23rd birthday, Kara leaves Earth and its yellow sun for space and a red sun under which she is powerless and can experience the benefits of being “normal”, drink to her hearts content, and escape the shadow of her Blue Boy Scout cousin. So of course she runs into trouble. She reluctantly ends up teaming up with Ruthye Marie Knoll, a young girl seeking vengence against Krem, a sadistic space who whose family is killed by Krem of the Yellow Hills, who butchered her family in front of her. To make matters worse, she steals Kara’s ship and poisons her dog! With 72 hours, Kara, Ruthye, and another ally they meet along the way must track down Krem and his gang and settle some scores.
As we saw from her brief appearance at the end of Superman, this is not the the Helen Slater/ Melissa Benoist Supergirl, i.e. aspirational goodie two-shoes variety most of use are used to and expect from our heroines. She makes it clear that she is not that girl very early on. When this movie begins, this is further illustrated when we first see her boozing it up and hanging out in grungy bars. Where most people would be awestruck in the presence of Superman, she finds him to be stuffy and annoying. She’s scrappy and had no qualms about fighting dirty. Although she feels for Ruthye when she hears her story, she isn’t compelled to instantly don the ‘S’ and right a wrong. I believe her words were “Not my monkeys, not my circus” or something along those lines. She is already given interesting layers to play and it’s fun to see just how unlike Kal-El Kara is. She is NOT just Superman in a skirt, something so many people have tried to make her out to be.
Milly Alcock is great here. She embodies the rough, edgy vibe they are going for. A lot has been said about her appearance by internet trolls. I vehemently diagree. Though not the conventional beauty people usually associate with the character, she’s still striking. And her bucking the trend of what is “expected” of Supergirl is kinda the point. Here looks are secondary here. This Supergirl is much more about attitude and presence and she’s definitely got it. A+ for casting her and I look forward to whatever the DCU has in store for the character, especially with her in the driver’s seat.
There aren’t a ton of other characters in this one. Eve Ridley as Ruthye is everything you want- sympathetic, relatable, and do not fall into the annoying kid character. Her circumstances won’t allow that and she plays it well. Every seen with David Corenswet hits. The guy is a great Clark/Superman. He seems to be getting more and more comfortable in the role. This was a nice tease for next summer’s Man of Tomorrow. Matthias Schoenaerts as Krem is downright dastardly. You hate him in the beginning , you hate him in the middle, you still hate him in the end. Score. The last major character is a big one, literally: Jason Momoa as Lobo. I will admit, I know next to nothing about the character. I know he’s a big deal isn’t he comics. His power level makes his quite a player on the board. I will say, for all that, we don’t necessarily get that here. He is actually underscored if anything. I am kinda of grateful for that. He could easily have overpowered the film and could have drawn to much focus. They used him sparingly which is smart. He was good in the role and we see that there is potentially a lot more there and I’d like to see it later down the line, but here was not the place. This really was Kara’s movie, but I was left wanting at least a little more Lobo.
Lots to like about this one. As I have said, I really enjoyed the edgy, rough around the edges contrast they gave us for Kara. Again, the scenes with Corenswet her great. They also make excellent use of flashback. We get to see young Kara. We get to see how she acquired Krypton. We see what happened to her planet and we get to see why she isn’t a carbon copy of Clark. The flashbacks might have been my favorite scenes of the film. The action is also really good. It’s only about an hour and 48 minutes so it moves at a quick pace and never gets boring. Also loved the James Gunn-ness of it. We get a freakin’ Space Greyhound here! Little elements like that are always appreciated.
The biggest gripe I have is the choppiness of it all. Whereas Superman was meticulously orchestrated, this one was not as smooth. Choppy is definitely the word I’d use to describe it. Some of the special effects were a little messy to the point where I wasn’t 100% sure of what I had scene. Same for the plot. It’s pretty straight forward, but every now and then, there would be a story decision that seemed just a little bit questionable. And, this is a little personal nitpick for me. Over the course of the movie, Kara is under various suns and her power level fluctuates. It was hard to know just how powerful she is supposed to be at any given time. Part of me would have loved a power meter on the screen during the entirety of the film just to know how close she was to maxing out. But again, that might just be me. Oh, and only last one: the costume. I thought they did a fantastic job with it. It looks great! Perfect translation to the big screen from the page—- I just wish he’d worn it more. For story reasons, it works that she’s not in it throughout and I get it, but seeing who cool she looked in it just made me want more. Hopefully next time…
Overall, I really had a lot of fun with this one. It does have a few moments that took me out, sure, but I enjoyed this character that was sometimes on the verge of being a little unlikable. I do wish some of the unintentional rough edges could have been smoothed out. Would absolutely see it again and can’t wait to see what’s next.
My score: 7.6
Is the DCU bus still running, or is this your stop? Let me know in the comments. And until next time…
