Supergirl succeeds where James Gunn’s Superman didn’t. This movie tells a proper origin story that’s not only entertaining but is concise and to the point without over-explaining the character. This movie is better than Superman. I said it! Last year, I heavily criticized the Superman movie for trying to do too much because James Gunn didn’t want to tell the same origin story of Superman like every other version, and I get that. He tried to pack it with too many characters that took away from the main focus, which was Superman. Supergirl does the opposite, and it’s a refreshing take on the character. I’m not saying this is a great superhero movie. It’s hard to make a great superhero movie when we are very much living through superhero fatigue… yes, that’s a real thing, but all we can really hope for is that the movie doesn’t completely suck and entertains us, especially when there are so many different versions of a DC character from TV to movies. I enjoyed this movie for what it is, and I can’t wait to see it again.
Let me be honest, I wasn’t super excited to see this movie after, in my opinion, the failure of Superman, because if that’s how they’re starting the James Gunn Universe, no thank you, I’m going back to the Snyderverse. However, Supergirl does exactly what it needs to to tell a good story and has a lot of positives. The action is great, the performances are good, and we actually have proper villains. Yes, I know Lex Luther is a proper villain, but only when he’s portrayed right. Nicholas Holt annoyed me with his version of Lex Luther. I like the villains in this movie a lot more…they seem more lethal and are from a planet that not only has a yellow sun, but a green sign, which means kryptonite. I’m a fan of Milly Alcock. I loved her on House of the Dragon, and she very much makes this character her own. Her portrayal of Supergirl is like a young rock star version of the character with snappy one-liners. It totally works. But for me, what I really like about this movie is why they didn’t go back to the beginning to show her leaving Krypton, the story focuses on a girl whose home was lost and is dealing with her grief the only way she could, by partying on different planets. She was a hero without a purpose until she found one. Heroes have to have purpose, and it’s in helping a young girl get justice or revenge for the murder of her parents, as well as taking down the same bad guys that poisoned her dog, Krypto. This is a good story that very much represents the hero’s journey to becoming the hero that they’re meant to be. We get just enough flashback scenes of why she had to leave Krypton and how her cousin found her and introduced her to Earth. Although, for me, and it’s just because I love Jason Momoa, the best part is him playing Lobo, which is a role that he was born to play.
I don’t have many criticisms because there are only so many ways you can tell an origin story without going back to the beginning, and the filmmakers found a good way to do that. However, maybe a few more scenes of her on Krypton would have served the movie better and given her more backstory, or at least more interactions with her and her cousin when she got to Earth. The film is less than 2 hours, and most good superhero movies are about two hours, so I think they could have added more to help really balance the story. But we definitely should have also had more scenes with Lobo…Jason Momoa is great with the limited springtime he has, but we should have gotten one. If this film has one great fault, and this is where it does resemble Superman, it feels at times like Guardians of the Galaxy, the same style and look of those movies. I know that James Gunn didn’t direct this movie, but it’s almost like he is imprinting his own style of making a superhero movie with multiple characters, the same way he did with Marvel. Marvel and DC styles for superhero films can’t be the same. They should be distinct. I’m a big fan of superhero movies, but I don’t want the same style for every kind of film, and even though James Gunn may not be directing a DC movie, the other directors can’t use his blueprint, especially with somebody else’s origin story.
Despite the minor criticisms, I can confidently say that this movie is better than Superman. For a second attempt at making a more comic book-oriented DC movie, the filmmakers succeed just enough to make us want more. The Superman stories will get better, but we very much needed for the fans a really good Supergirl story with an actress who was capable of portraying her properly. She’s not my favorite version, but Milly Alcock knocks it out of the park for me with her performance, especially when she finally puts on the suit. I said it in my review of Superman that even though that movie failed, the James Gunn universe is going to be fun, and this is a big step in the right direction. Supergirl may not be as important in the DC Universe as Superman, but as the other Kryptonian, we needed a really good story. I still think the best Supergirl stories were on TV, but I was entertained with this movie. The music was good for a young Gen Z-type Supergirl, and I think it very much speaks to a younger demographic with her character, but for older nerds like me, we can appreciate this version of Supergirl. It may not be a groundbreaking superhero movie, but it’s what we needed to restore our faith in the James Gunn DC universe. With good performances, good action, and a more concise story that doesn’t try to do much, Supergirl delivers the way it needs to. There’s a lot to build on, and I hope we get to see more. And whatever complaints anybody has about the CGI because somebody’s always complaining about the CGI, it doesn’t take away from a fun story. Lastly, I couldn’t say this about Superman, but I can with Supergirl…it’s nerd-approved, and I will definitely be watching it again.
