It’s never a fair fight. I think that’s what I like least of the “Super” genre: the constant leveling of the playing field. And it does have to be leveled as Superman is Superman, Supergirl is Supergirl, Superdog is Superdog. I’m waiting for Superdog to retrieve every single stick, ball, and frisbee on the planet. That would make an unfortunate headline.
As is, Supergirl, the film, plays a lot with the pseudo-science of the DC universe. The post-intro part of the film starts with Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl (Milly Alcock) at a dive bar on a planet with a red sun. Supergirl has no super powers on a red-sun planet, and she likes it that way cuz she can get trashed, which is something the relatively new adult likes to do. Of course, when you’re super, trouble finds you, this time in the form of Ruthye Marye Knoll (Eve Ridley), a brigand survivor bent on revenge.
Supergirl has much rougher outlines than her namby-pamby cousin Superman. For those of us who thought maybe Krypton only produced weird wholesome aliens, Supergirl seems much more relatable, tbh. She’s a bit of a hedonist lush, and she’ll question doing the right thing before shrugging and then doing it anyway, like when some great ass responds to Ruthye’s plea by shoving the girl and stealing her cool weapon. Despite a massive mass misadvantage – and the fact that she’s probably drunk- Supergirl takes on the beast of a thief, retrieving the kid’s sword and, in turn, collecting her as a companion.
This is where I liked the film. It immediately led to a shuttlebus moment which made me question reality – not that the interstellar Greyhound was attacked by pirates, but a sheer questioning of “what kind of f***ed up alien chooses a middle seat on a flight?”
Oh, did I mention the brigands shot Superdog? Yeah, Supergirl is gonna go all alien John Wick on their asses, I tells ya.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite work like that. There continues to be more playing with red-sun, yellow-sun, green-sun bullshit throughout the film. It’s “red light/green light” for Krypton cultures. And this all made me wonder how many beings out there are “super” on Earth. Krypton wasn’t the only “red sun” planet, was it? And why is no other being in the universe affected by this shit besides Kryptonian residents? I mean, do Earthlings get totally weak in a red sun world? Is this “super” as we get? Geez. That thought is kinda depressing.
It doesn’t matter. The point to all of this is Supergirl has some skillz, but really needs the yellow sun to clean house, which is kinda what we’re waiting for the whole film, even when Jason Momoa shows
up for no earthly reason. Momoa is not Aquaman in this film, which makes me wonder what happens when Supergirl shows up at Justice League.
Never mind.
Supergirl, the film, seems much more a feminine anthem than a genuine superhero film, much more so than the Wonder Woman films. I say that because of her relatability. Wonder Woman still seems so distant and above it all, which worked in the first interation, but did not in Wonder Woman 1984. But I digress. The problem with making a relatable superhero reliant on said congeniality is we have to relate to them from an audience perspective, as Supergirl isn’t just stating, “I am Supergirl. This is what good looks like.” That’s Superman’s statement. This one is more of a: “I am Supergirl; take a number, will ya? I’m sleeping off a hangover.” I fear this message is not going to play especially well to the masses.
There was once girl named Kara
Earthly powers unbounded bar far-a
Thugs shot her dog
So she went half a hog
To bring justice near the next yellow star-a
Rated PG-13, 108 Minutes
Director: Craig Gillespie
Writer: Ana Nogueira, Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster
Genre: Super?
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Milly Alcock believers
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Misogynists
