James Gunn’s new take on the DC Comics universe saw its first feature film in the form of last year’s Superman, which took a super-powered stab at kicking off a brand new franchise set to rival its immediate competition: Marvel’s MCU.
That first outing felt like last year’s biggest mixed bag.
David Corenswet proved himself immensely likeable as the central hero and the film did carry both the comedy and the vulnerability of the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy that landed Gunn the job as head of this new franchise in the first place, but the narrative felt extremely cluttered, the tone played hopscotch in a way that was likely to give you whiplash and the image had a steely quality of it rather than the vibrancy of its comic origins. Superman’s punk rock sensibilities did ultimately shine through, though, and a late cameo from Milly Alcock as Supergirl herself gave us a sneak peek of where things could move to from that initial foundation.
‘I hereby declare that twenty-three will be the best year yet. Let’s be honest, babe: it’s not a very high bar to clear’
One year on, Supergirl has arrived to make good on its predecessor’s end-of-movie tease with a fully-fledged outing starring the Australian Alcock (probably best known for her work as a young Rhaenyra Targaryen in the early episodes of Game of Thrones spinoff, House of the Dragon) as Kara Zor-El, the scrappy younger cousin of the family.
Building on 2021’s remarkably popular Woman of Tomorrow comic run, we rejoin Kara in the hazy midst of her 23rd birthday pub crawl, an intergalactic booze up that sees her sleeping all day, partying all night and hopping from red sun to red sun as a means of getting around her superhuman tolerance for alcohol so that she can, in fact, get drunk. Never one to celebrate alone, she has her dog, Krypto, in tow and the pair are thick as thieves.
Her birthday bash goes awry, however, when she crosses paths with a thirteen-year-old girl, Ruthye, looking to kill Krem of the Yellow Hills, the sinister leader of the Brigands, as a means of avenging her family. Initially reluctant to assist in what could well be a suicide mission, Kara soon finds herself with no other choice to come along for the ride, with three days to find Krem before all is lost. Putting Kara and Ruthye’s manhunt at the centre of the narrative gives the film a clear sense of direction and forward momentum that, to me, wasn’t always apparent in Superman. The stakes are high and character-focused, building off of some quick but well-done establishing scenes that make sure we have a dog in the race before moving on to the planet-hopping task at hand.
If I had to criticise, I’d say that the rapport between the two leads isn’t as strong as that lovely dynamic between Superman and Lois was in last year’s outing, but there’s an admirable effort made to flesh them both out in interesting ways that turn relate back to character even in scenes of action and conflict. Kara, for example, recognises men’s tendencies to underestimate her and capitalises on their hubris and we often view fight sequences through Ruythe’s eyes – a blurred cacophony of lasers and body slams – that, while occasionally detract from the film’s popcorn blockbuster potential, compliment her place in proceedings really well. In all of this, she’s still relatively young and out of her depth compared to her superhero, surrogate big sister.
Prior to her small appearance in Superman, I really wasn’t aware of much of a difference between Kara and her younger/older cousin (comic book timelines are tricky things). Writer Ana Nogueira and director Craig Gillespie clearly understand the importance of differentiating the two, here, delivering an even more personal story than the one we saw Clark get in the previous film. There are explorations into the relationship between her alcoholism and her survivor’s guilt as one of only two Kryptonians left and even an in-universe explanation for the film’s own punky soundtrack that’s nicely understated rather than spelt out in neon lights. It’s never incredibly moving stuff, but it’s a rock solid driving force throughout the admirably sub-two-hour runtime and Alcock sells it all fantastically, leaving any sense of doubt in the dust as she flies off to save the day.
One of the biggest issues with these particular characters (gifted as they are, beyond even the stronger echelon of superheroes) comes in finding ways to create conflict when, at any point, they could easily just zap their way to victory and be done in time for tea. Supergirl uses the red sun/yellow sun power structures already established in this new DC universe to its advantage in this way, cleverly hiding its seam lines rather than arming each villain with a polka-dot bag full of kryptonite to shake at her. There are some genuinely stellar sequences in which Kara sweeps in with the sort of no-holds-barred powers you’d expect from a hero of her caliber, especially one involving ‘tech pirates’ on a space bus, and even when she’s not firing on all cylinders, it’s fun to see her try and get herself and Ruthye out of hot water through other means.
As far as the supporting cast go, there’s really only Jason Momoa around to lend a hand (or, occasionally a hindrance) to the pair as Lobo, the towering, muscular bounty hunter with an eye for chaos. Momoa is, at present, one of the only actors to have carried over from the previous DC universe to this new playground, and play he does, having the time of his life here as opposed to his work on Aquaman. Reportedly, he auditioned for Aquaman back in the day thinking he was in for a chance at playing Lobo, so the chance to finally get to step into the fan favourite’s shoes and rev up his motorbike may well have been a long time coming. He very nearly broke his NDA during the press tour for A Minecraft Movie last year, almost giving a first look at his Lobo well before he’d been given the go ahead to do so!
Visually, the film is a refreshing break away from the oddly blue-filtered look of Superman, with a vibrancy in its cosmic colour palette reminiscent of Gunn’s Guardians movies. It’s so easy to just slap a bunch of actors in front of ‘The Volume’ and call it a day, but this film had more of a sense of place and of presence than a lot of the things I’d seen shot against such a virtual background. There’s probably a hefty amount of CGI at play in dolling up some of the designs, but the wide variety of aliens that people Supergirl’s planets felt like a breath of fresh air, too, with practical effects that could have walked right out of the Star Wars cantina. By my money, the team have also managed to clear up some of the pitfalls of the previous film’s flying sequences, with far less in the way of hokey looking action shots. It’s still not quite perfect, but it’s come quite a long way in a relatively short amount of time.
As an answer to its predecessor, Supergirl felt, to me, like an improvement on what came before in just about every way. It’s a focused and character driven introduction to a different kind of Kryptonian than the one most Hollywood audiences are used to and a deservedly defining take on the character after some bleak false starts (2023’s The Flash stills lives on in recent memory).
Milly Alcock leads a smaller cast that has been nicely scaled-back after Superman’s overcrowded third act saw about a dozen characters get involved. While at times the more intimate scale and greater focus on personal stakes rather than purely world-ending catastrophe can leave the film feeling less ambitious than what came before, I would take an effective, tighter narrative like this one any day.
Bring on Man of Tomorrow next year where we can see both leads come together under one roof.
BBFC: Rated 12A for moderate violence, threat, language.
Supergirl is in cinemas now.
