She may have stumbled (literally) into a cameo late in last year’s excellent Superman but now, Supergirl is ready to soar into a feature of her own. Milly Alcock returns in Supergirl as Kal-El’s younger cousin Kara Zor-El, with whom we catch up during the week of her 23rd birthday. With superdog Krypto as her companion, Supergirl jets off to planets with corresponding red suns, which weaken her powers enough that she can actually get inebriated. Trying to catch her between hangovers, Superman (played again by David Corenswet) places numerous video calls from Earth and worries that Supergirl’s hard partying has caused her to lose her way. It’s enough to say his previous attempts to help her assimilate to Metropolis and find kinship with the humans who live there didn’t land with Kara.
One of Supergirl’s pub crawls is interrupted by a young girl named Ruthye (played by Eve Ridley), who announces to a saloon full of ne’er-do-wells that she aims to avenge the murder of her parents and brother. Even with one of her father’s custom-made swords as a reward, the patrons become reticent when they learn the target is Krem (played by Matthias Schoenaerts), the ruthless leader of a clan of space pirates called the Brigands. Ruthye’s plight shakes Kara from her drunken stupor, leading the pair to travel to the seedier parts of the galaxy to find Krem’s criminal crew. On their bar-busting brigade, Supergirl and Ruthye cross paths with Lobo (played by Jason Momoa), a cigar-chomping, motorcycle-riding bounty hunter who has a Brigand score of his own to settle.
Sporting a duster jacket and oversized sunglasses, the titular superheroine of Supergirl advertises to the world that she’s too cool to care about anything or anyone. Throughout Kara’s adventure, director Craig Gillespie and screenwriter Ana Nogueira flesh out this iteration of the character, showing how her seeming immaturity masks an inner pain. While Superman was able to leave their home planet Krypton years before its destruction, Supergirl had to stay by her parents’ side as Kryptonite radiation slowly eroded their bodies and the land around them. She’s jealous of her older cousin’s status on Earth and constantly feels like she’s living under his shadow. After a terse exchange, Ruthye asks Supergirl if Superman is as rude as she is; “he sees the good in everyone; I see the truth,” Kara hisses back.
Milly Alcock is outstanding in the intimidating lead role, taking what could be considered a generally unlikable character on the page and making her feel like an essential part of this new DC Universe. There’s a raucousness and scrappiness to her portrayal that’s welcome in a superhero movie landscape where characters typically seem impervious and overpowered. In the way she charges through intergalactic taverns and roughs up any guy foolish enough to get in her way, Alcock’s Supergirl more closely resembles a cowboy in an old Western than a cape-donning Kryptonian. There’s even a scene where she arm wrestles with a few tough guy aliens who, at their own peril, severely underestimate her strength. As good as Alcock is with a mischievous wry smile, she’s just as good conveying the hurt in Kara’s eyes during the flashbacks to her final days on the eroding Krypton.
As with fellow female-forward projects I, Tonya and Cruella, Supergirl continues director Craig Gillespie’s proclivity towards stories with brash women at their center. He carries the feminist streak through with a soundtrack that includes music from great girl-led acts like Wet Leg, Wolf Alice and Rilo Kiley. Gillespie’s known as a filmmaker who relies on needle drops to establish an often rebellious tone and, thanks to Krypto, Supergirl literally starts with a needle dropping onto a spinning record. Unfortunately, the biggest head-scratching, record-scratch of a song selection comes during the final fight scene, which also features overly precious slow-motion and special effects that get less convincing the longer you linger on them. It’s fair to say that Gillespie doesn’t stick the landing in the film’s final third but there’s plenty, especially in the middle, to recommend.
Score – 3.5/5
New movies coming this holiday weekend:
Arriving in theaters on Wednesday is Minions & Monsters, an animated prequel starring Allison Janney and Christoph Waltz, taking place around 40 years before the events of 2015’s Minions, where the gibberish-talking yellow creatures aim to make a monster movie of their own in Old Hollywood.
Coming to theaters on Friday is Young Washington, a historical war epic starring William Franklyn-Miller and Mary-Louise Parker, following George Washington before his days as President, focusing specifically on his experiences and command as a soldier in the French And Indian War.
Premiering on Netflix is Enola Holmes 3, a mystery sequel starring Millie Bobby Brown and Louis Partridge, continuing the journey of the titular Victorian-era detective as her impending wedding is put in jeopardy when her brother Sherlock is kidnapped.