On Screen: “Supergirl”
Supergirl
The era of DC Comics heroes dominating the box office is officially over!
“Supergirl” is a colossal disappointment.
Briefly introduced in the epilogue of “Superman” (2025), Kal-El’s (David Corenswet) punky young cousin, Kara Zor-El (Milly Alcock), is also a survivor from the doomed planet Krypton.
But, unlike Clark Kent, Kara still remembers the language and culture of her home world since her parents (Emily Beecham and David Krumholtz) raised her on an outpost known as the floating city of Argo — until that too was destroyed — so young Kara was placed in a pod and shipped off to Earth with her beloved dog Krypto.
Still resentful about being transplanted, nomadic Kara celebrates her 23rd birthday by drinking far too much on a distant planet called Holzherr. Her solitary self-indulgence is interrupted when angry teenage Ruthye (Eve Ridley) announces that she’ll trade her father’s sword to whomever will help her kill Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts), leader of the human-trafficking Brigands, who just slaughtered her entire family.
Disaffected Kara has little interest in joining this revenge quest until villainous Krem incapacitates Krypto with a particular poison for which only he has the antidote — that he carries in a little vial around his neck.
As the newest Caped Crusader, scrappy actress Milly Alcock (“House of the Dragon”), tossing her tousled blonde hair, does her best but everything seems to work against her. The chaotic, confused action scenes are photographed in a drab, murky brown haze — and the canine Krypto is obviously a CGI creation.
Based on Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s “Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow” comic-book mini-series, this generic PG-13 spinoff about sex slavery was scripted by Anna Nogueria and directed by Craig Gillespie (“I, Tonya,” “Cruella”), who eventually dispatches help via a macho male motorcyclist a.k.a. cigar-chomping, intergalactic bounty-hunter Lobo (Jason Momoa).
FYI: Few moviegoers remember an earlier “Supergirl” (1984), directed by Jeannot Swarc, starring Helen Slater as Kara Zor-El with Brenda Vaccaro, Faye Dunaway and Peter O’Toole.
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Supergirl” is a second-rate, flawed 4 — playing in theaters … thankfully, there’s no mid-or-post-credits scene to stick around for.
Susan Granger is a product of Hollywood. Her natural father, S. Sylvan Simon, was a director and producer at M.G.M. and Columbia Pictures. Her adoptive father, Armand Deutsch, produced movies at M.G.M.
As a child, Susan appeared in movies with Abbott & Costello, Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Margaret O’Brien, and Lassie. She attended Mills College in California, studying journalism with Pierre Salinger, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism.