The Reel Review
Kara Zor-El, Superman’s cousin born after the destruction of the planet Krypton, embarks on a galactic journey to retrieve an antidote from a deadly adversary to save her dog, Krypto – teaming up along the way with a girl seeking revenge against the same individual for killing her family. Milly Alcock, Eve Ridley and Jason Momoa star in this sci-fi/fantasy based on the DC comic book superheroine.
There is just so much going on in this second film in the recent DC Universe reboot (after 2025’s Superman), as if the filmmakers couldn’t decide what type of story to tell and whether to make its tone either serious or lighthearted comedy. The result is a muddled, hot mess, despite an impressive, all-in performance from Milly Alcock (House of the Dragon) as Supergirl and some pretty interesting sci-fi world building from director Craig Gillespie. Momoa’s appearance as the bounty hunter Lobo makes absolutely no sense, as though he stumbled onto the set and was given a costume and told to be entertaining. And the CGI of the dog Krypto is well… unconvincing.
The new Superman, David Corenswet, also makes a couple of appearances in the film but this committee-written girl power screenplay, its weak revenge subplot, and a strange sex trafficking element, while all well-intended, should have been reworked in a big way before hitting the big screen.
REEL FACTS
• Australian Milly Alcock’s big break came playing the younger Rhyenyra Targaryen in the HBO fantasy series House of the Dragon, which followed her success in the Foxtel dramedy series Upright, about a runaway teenager hitchhiking across the Australian outback.
• Supergirl director Craig Gillespie’s movie directing credits include Cruella, I, Tonya and Lars and the Real Girl.
• With a budget of $170 million, Supergirl has been a box office bomb, making only $126 million worldwide.
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