“Supergirl” is the first spin-off from the DC Universe’s “Superman.” The film begins on a distant red planet, where Kara Zor-El, aka Superman’s cousin, played by Milly Alcock, is mostly deprived of any superpower.
Only yellow suns give Kara super strength, and she chooses to suffer the indignities of the debilitating red planet much like the first Clark Kent deliberately got his hat handed to him by a diner bully in the 1980’s “Superman 2’.” Unfortunately, this “we’ve seen it all before” is the biggest theme of “Supergirl,” but we’ll get to that.
Kara is a loner but for her trusted dog, Krypto, and she is celebrating her birthday on a bender. A young girl native to the planet interrupts Kara’s interstellar pub crawl and the two join forces to hunt down a common enemy who has fled the planet.
Along the way, our not-so-dynamic duo encounter Lobo, played by Jason Momoa, who seemed like a bad guy in the previews, but only shows up here and there as a competing bounty hunter. His character provides more running commentary rather than carrying any water in the tiresome plot.
The best potential new twist was Supergirl’s dog, Krypto, one of the few bright spots in a teaser in the last “Superman” film. However, the brilliant writers created a plot that, wait for it, puts the dog and hence any hope for entertainment, in a coma in the first act.
So, on my ski trail rating system, “Supergirl” earns a kryptonite GREEN beginner ski trail rating. “Supergirl” doesn’t bomb because audiences are sick of female superhero casts. “Supergirl” is bad because the writing is awful and the plot has big black holes that suck in what little energy the few moments of good acting produce.
And we’ve literally seen it all before: Thor was a much better drunken superhero overcoming demons in “Avengers- Endgame,” and a cool soundtrack via headphones was way better in “Guardians of the Galaxy” or Quicksilver in “X-Men: Days of Future Past.” Milly Alcock still carries the film with a commanding screen presence and deserves a better chance to prove the haters wrong.
“Supergirl” is playing in theaters with a run-time of one hour and forty-eight minutes. The film is rated PG-13 for strong violence, language, and harming a woman’s best friend.
