“Supergirl” Falls Flat

Supergirl (Craig Gillespie, 2026) 1 out of 5 stars

It’s tough finding novel ways to tell superhero stories these days, given the 21^st-century glut in the movie market, so kudos to anyone trying their best to say something new. Unfortunately, originality does not emerge from surface retooling of genre tropes but rather from inventive writing and fresh character development. The new DC film Supergirl, from director Craig Gillespie (Dumb Money), has very little of either.

We first met our protagonist, played by Milly Alcock (best known as a young Rhaenyra Targaryen in HBO’s House of the Dragon series), in last year’s Superman, where she showed up at the end, a little worse for wear following what we assumed was a bender. Krypto, the super dog we thought was Superman’s pet, turned out to be hers, and she was ready to take him back. That sets up the start of Supergirl.

As we begin, Kara (Supergirl’s real name) is back on the bottle, drinking herself into one long stupor on a planet with a red sun, Krypto by her side. It’s only on worlds such as this—the star reducing her to a regular mortal—that she can feel the effects of alcohol, which is what she appears to desire most. She’s clearly running from some past trauma, is an addict, or both. In later flashbacks, the movie explains the source of her pain.

Soon, however, fate intervenes, courtesy of a young local named Ruthye (a very good Eve Ridley) whose entire family of sword-makers was just wiped out by a murderous group of galactic outlaws, the Brigands. Now that’s some trauma. These ruffians are led by the psychopathic Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts, The Old Guard), currently on the hunt for a way to travel off world since the last thing Ruthye’s dad did before dying was destroy the Brigands’ ship. Ruthye goes door-to-door soliciting help in capturing and killing Krem, and though Kara would prefer to stick to her drinking, she has no choice but to assist after Krem steals her own ship and shoots Krypto with a poisoned dart.

With only 72 hours to track Krem down for the antidote, Kara is in a bit of rush and does her best to shake Ruthye. But the latter proves resourceful—if also overly confident in her abilities, as she keeps getting into trouble and needing to be saved—and continues to pop up each time after being ditched. Though plenty of innocents will die before the end of the movie, we have no doubt that, eventually, Ruthye will have her revenge and Kara will find her way. Oh, and Krypto will very much not die. I mean, come on, what franchise director in their right mind would let that happen? Collateral damage is one thing, but not the dog, please.

There is nothing wrong with the above-described narrative trajectory, even if we have seen it countless times before (last year’s excellent Predator Badlands featured similar themes). The problems lie mostly in individual characters and dialogue, as well as in the film’s obsession with frequent near-death experiences and subsequent resurrections for Kara (how many times must we see her rise into the air, reborn and ready for a fight?). Because the stakes are so frequently so high, they effectively cease to matter.

And then there’s Lobo (Jason Momoa, the former Aquaman), an ostensible all-powerful immortal who somehow ends up imprisoned by the Brigands on his way to killing one of them for a bounty (I’m unclear as to how it is possible for him to have been caught, based on what we are told about his abilities). No reason for him to be in Supergirl exists beyond fan service (to be fair, all these movies are little more than that). Worse, he’s not particularly interesting. The same can be said for the one-note Krem, a fine actor like Schoenaerts reduced to glowering and grunts.

In addition, the action looks terrible, the CG showing at the digital seams. Even Krypto—an engaging presence in Superman—is off-putting in an uncanny-valley kind of way. Why not use a real dog for some of his shots, if only to add some verisimilitude?

It’s possible that Alcock has talent, but little is evident in Supergirl, thanks to a script that feels AI-generated (though credited to Ana Nogueira) and requires the actress to alternate between party-animal shtick and furrowed brow. Though she is too young for the part (as it is, Alcock herself looks like a teenager), Ridley demonstrates far greater range. How cool it would have been to see her in the role, instead, I kept thinking … Woulda, coulda, shoulda.

Christopher Llewellyn Reed

Chris Reed is the editor of Film Festival Today. A member of both the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA), and a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic, Chris is, in addition, lead film critic at Hammer to Nail and the author of Film Editing: Theory and Practice.