Supergirl (2026)

“He sees the good in everyone, and I see the truth.”

As the next entry to this new DC Universe franchise that started with Superman (2025), this is a solid, action filled, enjoyable film that gets a lot right.

Let me get the negative out first. There are really only a few criticisms to make against this movie. The first has to do with the story. Originally pitched as a loose adaptation of Tom King's Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, it borrows the foundational plot from that book but almost none of the major details. While some scenes are lifted straight from the comic, huge portions of the plot and some of the really important scenes are just abandoned.

Jason Momoa as Lobo is well realized and almost a page to screen capture of the character. Except he was never in the original graphic novel. His place in the film is a bit forced, and he doesn’t really need to be there. He takes a bit of screen time away from our two leads, and while he does work narratively, it feels like he wasn’t needed. That said, if you want a cool, bad ass, cigar smoking, immortal space biker in your film, he’s as good as it gets.

The vibrancy of the comic is also lost, which boasted an incredibly unique and gorgeous color palette and almost psychedelic design aesthetic. While I can see why that was abandoned as it would’ve been difficult to film, what we ended up with is a movie that is mostly brown and aggressively dirty. While this does match Kara and Ruthye's mental state, and the production design of the film does work, aesthetically speaking, I'm a bit disappointed. That’s it for my negatives.

The biggest and most important positive I want to start with is Milly Alcock. She plays Kara Zor-El/Supergirl as this driving force of the plot. She has incredible screen presence, anchoring the film both emotionally and physically. She has fluidity of movement that makes her feel powerful, even when she isn’t super (plot device which I won’t spoil here). There have been a lot of great female action stars, and she might end up as one of them.

Kara’s emotional journey in this film is the entire point, and it is the most effective part of the film. She starts from an abysmal low, somehow gets even lower, but then fights hard to get what little she had at the beginning back, and eventually works through her own personal trauma. It’s one of those arcs that serves as a great narrative backbone to a story, meaty with good emotional highs and lows and satisfying in conclusion. Whenever she is on screen, the movie just works.

Eve Ridley plays Ruthye, a young woman who suffers unimaginable tragedy and sets off on a quest of revenge. She encounters Supergirl and manages to convince her to help on her quest. Of course Kara isn’t really about revenge, and tries her best to convince her it isn’t worth it. That back and forth is a solid dynamic between the two who are the main relationship in the film. Ruthye’s emotional arc runs parallel to Kara’s but is substantively different, and so they don’t really crisscross in a detrimental way. She works because of Ridley's performance as almost a straight man to some of the wild things they encounter.

Action and special effects-wise, this movie is mostly stunning, with a very different feel from last year’s Superman. The fights hit harder, and there is a bit more death and destruction. The stakes, while smaller and more intimate, have a sense of importance. These two women end up making a huge difference in this part of the galaxy, and oh yeah, did I forget to mention this is set almost entirely in space and on alien planets? The alien effects were also really fun, and pretty gnarly in places.

Finally, we have Matthias Schoenaerts as Krem, the main villain of the movie. His motivations are a bit underwhelming, but serviceable. While he isn’t going up there on the greatest villain of all time wall of fame, he is well acted and well framed. Thankfully, his screen presence, personality and sheer brutality work for the narrative quite well. You are rooting for Ruthye to get her revenge on him, and some of the things he does are difficult to watch.

Bits:

Krypto features heavily in the film and is just as incredibly realized as he was in Superman (2025).

Supergirl has her own spaceship, which is exactly what I would imagine a space RV would feel like.

There is a bit of juvenile boy-humor in the film, with at least three instances of urination used as a comedic break in tension.

This is only the second time Supergirl has been the frontliner of a film, and a massive improvement over the first.

Sasha Calle was the last Supergirl on screen (The Flash 2023), and her take was also quite good although very different from this version.

Probably the most successful version of the character is from the television series Supergirl, played by Melissa Benoist. She will probably always be my favorite version of the character, although Milly might be my second favorite.

Smallville also had a version of Kara Zor-El, but she never donned the costume or took up the name. Played by Laura Vandervoort, at one time she was the best version of the character we had seen on screen.

Quotes:

Kara: "Yeah, well, that's the thing, Clark. I have no people."

Kara: "Honestly, I thought we were lucky. But luck, almost by definition, runs out."

Krem: "Your eyes are beautiful when you cry. A lot of pain. Lot of suffering."

Kara: "Revenge, it won't take your pain away."

Kara: "Krypton didn't die in a day. Gods are not that kind."

All in all, this is an excellent but mildly flawed second film entry into this new DC universe. As a launch of likely one of the most important characters in the franchise, it is well made and serves the character well. Will it land for everyone? Probably not. It is very focused on women, it is a bit darker than you might expect, and fans of the original graphic novel will likely be disappointed.

But I had a fun time and recommend it.

3 out of 4 Alien Worlds and Alien Creatures

Samantha M. Quinn spends most of her time in front of a computer typing away at one thing or another; when she has free time, she enjoys pretty much anything science fiction or fantasy-related.

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