Supergirl
review by Bobby Blakey
After years seemingly floundering trying to get their cinematic universe going, DC and Warner Bros made the decision to reset and start over. In 2025 this reset kicked off with an all-new Superman film directed by Co-CEO of DC Studios himself James Gunn. In it we got the first tease of Supergirl who is now flying onto the big screen with her own adventure, but does the film bring something super to do the character and its source material justice or will it fail to deliver hope?
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Supergirl follows Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl, reluctantly joins forces with an unlikely companion on an epic, interstellar journey of vengeance and justice when an unexpected and ruthless adversary strikes too close to home. The film stars House of the Dragon star Milly Alcock in the title role along with David Krumholtz, Jason Mamoa, Wil Coban, Emily Beecham and Matthias Schoenaerts from I, Tonya director Craig Gillespie.
I was never a big fan of Supergirl so didn’t read the Tom King and Bilquis Evely series Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow that the film is based on so went in with fresh eyes. The trailers seemed fun and familiar with a tone similar to that of Guardians of the Galaxy which I was totally fine with. The addition of Lobo hyped me up to see what was to come and on the other side I had a great time with it despite it having some issues.
The story follows the source material closely for the most part with some obvious additions including Lobo who was not in that story. I was not a big fan of the young girl that pulls Kara into her quest for vengeance mostly because she falls into the same tropes that had done a billion times before. Her story drives the narrative but also gets exhausting with her constantly getting herself back in trouble like every
young character does in these films. I didn’t find it hurting the overall film but wore thin fast.
With that pushed to the side I very much enjoyed Alcock as Supergirl. While the story focuses on this young girl’s trauma and the quest to save Krypto, it also uses flashbacks to tell the origin of Kara for those that may not already know. It helps to get the audience to understand her completely different outlook on life than Superman does which was always a part of the comic lore whether people like it or not. I know the Tom King story pushed it a lot more, but it makes the character more interesting as opposed to just making her Superman all over again.
I knew going in that Lobo was likely going to be a smaller cameo which makes total sense being a Supergirl movie and not a Lobo movie. His small screen time is still outstanding with Mamoa clearly born to play this role and bringing him to life to perfection complete with dropping “Bastich” bombs that had me smiling ear to ear. Of course, I would have loved to have more screen time with him, but I also feel knowing the character is a more adult oriented character who rarely cares about anything other than booze and mayhem would have likely ruined his appearance.
The uses of the various suns is a smart direction to keep things with Kara all over the place and explain every questioned element about her lack of or massive amount of power. There is plenty of action here that is fun to watch and lets both Kara and Lobo cut loose. I loved the stylistic approach to it, but there are moments where it is so chaotic and fast camera movements and angles make it harder to see what is going on. It was fine with me, but I can see some being bothered by it.
In the end I thought it was a fun time at the movies. Was it perfect, no, but I loved that it leaned into the sci-fi elements, brought drama and laughs and tried to be something totally opposite than Superman. It’s a story all its own while still connecting to Superman and expanding the DC Universe opening it up to so many other things without forcing anything down your throat. There are no after credits scenes, and it doesn’t need it. I love it stands on its own to further the bigger narrative without feeling like it needs to.
Decide for yourself and check out Supergirl in theaters now from Warner Bros Discovery and DC Studios.
