I wanted to enjoy Supergirl. I really, really wanted to.
Following the fantastic critical and commercial success of 2025’s excellent Superman, it appeared that DC Studio heads James Gunn and Peter Safran had found an accessible and exciting take on the DC universe. Apart from the Snyder Bros, who will never be happy, audiences embraced David Corenswet as Clark Kent/Superman, and a feeling of optimism was justifiably high.
And then Supergirl flies into theatres.
Following the character’s cameo at the end of Superman, this full-fledged film is the story of Kara Zor-El (Milly Alcock) and her quest to find a cure for Krypto, who has been poisoned by a space pirate named Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts). She’s got three days to do it and has a tagalong named Ruthye (Eve Ridley), who is on a quest for revenge after Krem killed her parents as well. Along the way, we meet up with bounty hunter Lobo (Jason Momoa), who is there for reasons I still can’t quite fathom.
This plot may work for a comic book like Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, which screenwriter Ana Noguiera based their script on, but on the big screen, it’s clear that this tale is a pastiche of concepts and tropes from films like Guardians of the Galaxy, Star Wars, and Mad Max. There’s a massive feeling of “been there, seen that” throughout Supergirl, a film that, in director Craig Gillespie’s hands, doesn’t come close to the excellence of its inspirations.
Milly Alcock does her best with what she’s given, though I can’t say I cared much about her character. At points, Kara ridicules her cousin Clark for his cheerful optimism; that feeling of hope is what helped make Superman such a success. We need some light in the world right now, and there’s very little to be found in Supergirl. The planets Kara travels to, and the people she encounters, are dull, both visually and narratively. Worse than dull, though, the film becomes increasingly boring as it rolls along, overstaying its welcome even with its less-than-two-hour run time. The only time the film ever feels good is when Corenswet’s Superman shows up on screen.
Much has been made of DC Studios co-head James Gunn saying that DC couldn’t make a movie if the script isn’t good. Well, it’s clear by the critical reaction and this weekend’s audience disinterest that something hasn’t clicked with Supergirl. The studio couldn’t afford to release a paint-by-numbers superhero movie so early in its existence, and that’s, unfortunately, what they delivered. The result is a box-office failure as their second release, and audience disinterest with a character that could have appealed to a wide demo.
On that note, I wouldn’t be surprised to see an announcement pretty soon about who James Gunn’s pick for Batman in the DC universe is, just to get the stench of this failure out of people’s minds. Let’s hope whoever it is gets a better story than what Supergirl had to contend with.
