Check out my full review @ https://www.manuelsbento.com/supergirl-2026-a-fierce-gritty-cosmic-awakening-hampered-by-familiar-trimmings/
Rating: B-
SUPERGIRL is a beautifully gritty, visually striking cosmic adventure anchored by a powerhouse performance from Milly Alcock, who perfectly captures the raw vulnerability and fierce strength of Kara Zor-El. While the film shines brightest when diving into the somber depths of survivor's guilt and features a scene-stealing Jason Momoa as Lobo, it gets dragged down by a bland villain, an inconsistent emotional anchor in Eve Ridley's Ruthye, and incredibly frustrating, mood-ruining needle drops. Still, I found it a highly personal origin story inserted in a space western worth experiencing on the big screen.
When one watches a movie and leaves the theater wondering who the picture was supposed to be made for, it doesn’t bode well for the film. Unfortunately, that’s very much the case for one of this summer’s most anticipated blockbusters, the latest effort from director Craig Gillespie. So why the confusion over the target audience? It’s simple: this action-adventure superhero release is all over the map, an offering that decidedly feels like it was put together by committee (and probably a marketing/product development committee at that). The picture includes a little of this, a little of that, and, ultimately, a whole lot of nothing. “Supergirl” plays like yet another cookie-cutter release in this genre, except that it also can’t really decide what it wants to be. From what I could tell, this is supposed to be an introduction/origin story (told in flashbacks) about Kara Zor-El (better known as the film’s title character) (Milly Alcock), a refugee from the doomed planet Krypton. She makes her way to Earth with her beloved pooch, Krypto, where she makes contact with her cousin, Kal-El (aka Clark Kent), better known to the residents of his adopted world as Superman (David Corenswet), subject of a 2025 release by the same name. However, despite the reunion with her cousin and living on a planet whose yellow sun has imbued her with an array of fantastic superpowers, our heroine laments the loss of her home world and subsequently leaves Earth to roam the galaxy with her unruly canine sidekick in search of a new home, answers and herself. She spends much of her time hanging out in dive bars, usually three sheets to the solar wind, and in the company of unsavory characters when not cleaning up the messes created by her dog. Her odyssey eventually leads to a chance off-world encounter with a zealous, articulate would-be teenage warrior, Ruthye Knoll (Eve Ridley), who seeks revenge against the evil Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts), a marauding villain who murdered her family in cold blood. But, given Ruthye’s limited combat experience, she needs help in taking him on, so Kara comes to her rescue but pays a big price for doing so – Krypto is shot with a poison arrow and only has three days to live. Consequently, Kara and Ruthye team up to exact revenge against Krem and to procure from him an antidote to save the pup’s life. Sadly, though, the execution of this adventure leaves much to be desired. For starters, the narrative is simplistic and not particularly compelling, meandering from fight scene to fight scene with action that’s pretty generic, punctuated with some incredibly cheesy special effects and trite cinematography. The story is often derivative, too, tapping many other movie franchises to move the picture forward, including elements reminiscent of the “Star Wars,” “Road Warrior” and “John Wick” films. Furthermore, several brief appearances by Superman and by Jason Momoa as Lobo, one of Kara’s colorful brawling allies, serve as little more than shameless visual marketing plugs for the respective existing and upcoming cinematic franchises of these characters. But perhaps the biggest problem is the character development, especially that of Supergirl herself. She’s definitely not someone made for kids, what with her frequently inebriated behavior, salty language, repeated graphically violent encounters and questionable cohorts, but she’s also not someone who’s going to appeal much to adults, either (and it doesn’t help that Alcock seems wrong for the part and that her character development is wildly uneven at times). And all of this leads back to the question I rhetorically asked at the beginning: Who is this movie supposed to be made for? I’ll admit I found Schoenaerts to be a surprisingly convincing villain. I also thought the idea of taking Supergirl’s character in an unexpectedly dark direction to be an inspired (albeit risky) choice. But the clumsy handling of this decision (among many others) undermines whatever value it may have otherwise added. In short, there’s nothing especially “super” about this release, something that the creators should have more consciously borne in mind when bringing this project to life in light of its title.
A frustrating mess of a movie that never figures out what it wants to be or who it’s for. The story is paper‑thin and strangely unfocused, drifting from one generic fight scene to the next without any real emotional weight or clear narrative purpose. For a supposed origin film, it does a poor job making Kara Zor‑El feel compelling, coherent, or even particularly likable.
Milly Alcock’s take on Supergirl is part of the problem. Instead of giving us a hero with depth or charisma, the film leans into a moody, often inebriated drifter who spends more time sulking in space dive bars and cleaning up after her chaotic dog than actually growing as a character. The attempt to make her “edgy” ends up making her feel shallow and oddly off putting. It doesn’t help that Alcock has publicly gone out of her way to antagonize the very demographic most likely to show up for this movie 13 to 17 year old boys. It’s hard to get invested in a character when the actor seems to hold a visible contempt for a big portion of the fans.
Visually, the movie has its moments, it occasionally looks slick and colorful—but that only underscores how empty it is underneath. It borrows ideas and vibes from better franchises, as Brent Marchant indicated (you can see traces of “Star Wars,” “Mad Max,” and “John Wick” all over it), yet never builds an identity of its own. The cameos from Superman and Lobo feel less like organic storytelling and more like clumsy ads for other projects.
The biggest issue is that Supergirl herself is written in a way that alienates almost everyone. She’s too foul‑mouthed, violent, and hard drinking for kids, but too thinly sketched and erratic to resonate with adults. The film flirts with an interesting darker angle for the character, then bungles it with inconsistent writing and tonal whiplash. By the end, you’re left asking the same question over and over: Who was this movie actually made for?
There are tiny bright spots—a surprisingly solid villain turn and the occasional cool visual—but they’re buried under weak storytelling, uneven characterization, and a lead performance that never clicks. For a film called “Supergirl,” there’s nothing particularly super about it, and even less reason to care about where this version of the character goes next.
