I didn’t expect much going in, but wow, this was astonishingly bad. I kept thinking, “Eventually, this has to get better. Right?” I just kept thinking that, but it never did.
Sadly, my biggest gripe would be the writing. I’m a writer too, and I understand how hard it is to get a story right, so I hate to criticize. But this script never deserved to be filmed. It was many drafts away from being remotely complete. This is an epic failure that can’t fall on one person. James Gunn is supposed to be the savior of DC, but did he even read this script? How on earth does this pass through multiple layers of approval and get filmed? I could go on, but you get the point. After this, I have zero faith that DC can ever be anything but a joke with only an occasionally good movie.
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An Unbelievable Character
Supergirl is supposed to be 23 years old in the movie. She only gets her superpowers once she arrives on Earth, which wasn’t that long ago. But her character acts and talks like she’s got decades of regret and angst built up from, I don’t know where. How can she give a lecture about how killing for revenge is bad and will haunt your soul? Exactly how many people has Supergirl killed before this movie starts? According to the flashbacks, it would be zero. There’s no history shown or referenced in any way about any adventures she has been on other than falling into a drunken stupor on any red-sunned planet she can find–which is the only place she can get drunk.
Jason Momoa as Bulky Beetlejuice, I mean, Lobo. (whoever)
Momoa stars as Bulky Beetlejuice. He shows up, no backstory other than Supergirl’s five-second synopsis of who he is–and like, how exactly does Supergirl even know who he is? Again, Supergirl has like two days of experience so far, and she knows everything about everything. Anyhow, Momoa plays somebody named Lobo. Obviously, anyone who knows anything about intergalactic matters knows this guy. Lobo is a character that we’re not supposed to know much about, but we want to know more. At least I think that’s where they were going with this character, but with this script, who knows?
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Action
There was action. It was not dramatic, and it definitely didn’t offer anything new.
Plot Holes
So Krypto (the dog) gets shot with an arrow that has some kryptonite-based poison that a doctor identifies and conveniently gives Krypto 72 hours to live unless Supergirl can get the antidote. Supergirl leaves Krypto and runs off to find the guy who shot him and get the antidote. That’s the entire motivation for the movie. But when Supergirl gets shot with those very same arrows, all she has to do is fly up and expose herself to yellow sunlight, and she’s cured. Do you see where I’m going with this? Why not just put Krypto in a doggy spacesuit and fly him out to a yellow sun? Problem solved. It works for one character, but not the other.
Also, the guy who shot Krypto just happened to have kryptonite-based poison arrows in case he runs into one of the two existing Kryptonians left in the universe. Sure, I guess if you want to cover every single possible threat, but that sounds like an edge case if I’ve ever heard of one.
My favorite is that the bad guys retreat to a planet that orbits two stars, one yellow and the other green. For some reason, green stars suck the energy from Supergirl because…? Don’t ask. And how the bag guys know this is… Again, don’t ask. But, given all of this, why would they pick a planet that has a yellow star at all? Like, just go to a planet with one green star. Problem solved. But anyway.
Our Sun is Green (sorta)
I’ll bet no one at DC Comics knew this, but technically, our sun is green. The sun emits light across a spectrum on what’s called a Planck Distribution. The peak of that distribution is about 500nm, which is green light. We don’t see the sun as green because the cones in our eyes absorb red, blue, and green and then combine them in a perception of color> But we don’t actually see the truth. If you go above the Earth’s atmosphere, the sun appears white; all colors are mixed together. The Earth’s atmosphere scatters blue light, which is why the sky is blue, and if you have white light, and you take out a bunch of blue, you get… Yellow. What color is the sun? It’s tricky. Because it emits across a spectrum, it is technically all colors: white. But again, the peak of the energy released falls in the green portion of the spectrum. Maybe someone should let Superman/Supergirl know that. 🙂
Grade: D+
About The Peetimes: Read a synopsis of first 3 minutes of this movie.
There are no extra scenes during, or after, the end credits of Supergirl.
| Rated: | (PG-13) NA |
| Genres: | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi |
| USA release date: | 2026-06-25 |
| Movie length: | |
| Starring: | |
| Director: | Craig Gillespie |
| Writer(s): | Ana Nogueira |
| Language: | en |
| Country: | US |
Plot
When an unexpected and ruthless adversary strikes too close to home, Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl, reluctantly joins forces with an unlikely companion on an epic, interstellar journey of vengeance and justice.
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TL:DR… I think you missed a couple things, but are right on others… My biggest gripe is the super suit…
I disagree. I went into the movie with trepidation, much as I did with Captain Marvel… Because of Ms. Alcock’s pre-release religious/political commentary… Similar as Brie Larson’s.
But, as with Captain Marvel, I found the movie enjoyable overall… It’s less preachy about girl-power than CM… And it feels less of an origin story… Perhaps there were some glaring issues, sure. But the film treats the viewers as if we know something about the characters already…
Because, for the most part, we do…
We know that this character is related to the other Kryptonian. If not by blood and/or planet origin, then at least by powerset and costume… So we know she’s strong, has laser eyes, can fly , etc… She doesn’t have to prove herself like CM did… So the movie can skip that preachy plot point…
But then there are the lesser known characters… Devoted comic fans will know Lobo… But I don’t… Not sure about Ruthye, Krem, and the other bad guys at all…
As for your issue with the poison darts… Perhaps it was a lack of attention.
When Krypto was poisoned, it wasn’t a kryptonite dart at all… They were on a red star planet, and had no powers at the time. So Krem used a generic poison dart on the pooch… The 72 hour timer was a bit dumb… But the dog’s poisoning at least makes SOME sense…
Later in the film though… I think it’s fair to assume that Krem figured out he was dealing with a Kryptonian, when Kara was fighting the bad guys, after the barkeeps tried to trade her and Ruthye for their daughter… Kryptonians may be mostly extinct. But it’s only been for around 31 years based on Kara’s age, plus 8 years. (she was born 8 years after Argo City was saved from Krypton’s destruction). So Kryptonians are likely still known around the universe. Even if mostly dead…
So he figures that out, and still wants to trap Kara for their barbaric “marriage” schemes… What better way to trap a Kryptonian, than to make them think they are in the clear?
So Krem flees to a system with a yellow sun. Kara follows and is stranded on the planet, only to discover that there is the green sun too! (I’m not familiar with green suns in the comics… I know that yellow gives normal superman style powers, red takes powers away, and other colors actually give MORE power… Just not sure about green.)
So, she has a shot with the yellow sun, but the green sun was a springtrap… And Krem wants to hedge his bets, so crafts himself some kryptonite poison darts, at some point offscreen… This is annoying. To be sure.
I’d say my biggest issue with the film… Is the costume… Not the color choices… Not the design of the S… Something I’m sure someone is going to call me a creep or something for.
It made Milly’s shape just… Wrong…
She’s a good looking person. And I think a thinner or less rigid chest piece would have made a world of difference…
Instead, in my opinion, it looks like they implanted a world between her body and the suit. I know the idea is that she gets the suit from Clark, and it’s modeled after his equally clunky costume… But James Gunn really should have taken SOME notes from our last 2 on screen supergirls… (Melissa Benoist and Sasha Calle)
Cue the comments about the male gaze and my own figure. It’s just an opinion, folks…
In my defense, I am trying to write down Peetimes during the movie. So I know I miss some of the details. I totally missed that Krypto was shot with a genetic dart. Still, super convenient and the 72 hours thing was inexcusable. That’s just lazy writing.
As for the rest, I can see that your explaination of Krem’s motivation might track. The movie didn’t make that obvious at all, which could have been interesting. I’m thinking back and I’m not sure I remember a single scene with Krem where Kara isn’t involved. I’m sure there has to be one or two, but none come to mind. If we see the moment that Krem realizes that Kara is a Krytonian and he wants to make here a *bride* then that could change the tone a lot. We also need to know what Krem’s abilities/powers are. Like I said in the previous comment to another user, when Krem tossed aside that falling tank-thing I was like “WTF, who is this guy and what is he capable of?” Up to that point I didn’t see any evidence that he was *enhanced*.
I didn’t know anything about Milly’s comments before the movie. I don’t have a problem with what she said. I don’t think she’s *completely right* but she’s definitely not wrong. For the record, I think her acting was pretty decent. There was never a scene where I thought the acting was questionable. I’m complaining that the character/writing are terrible.
I used several emojis in my initial comment… But, at least in the app, they were all converted into the sign for “male”… I promise I didn’t use that sign at all in my comment. I’m not obsessed with male-superiority. *insert shrug emoji*
WordPress! Well, you get what you pay for. I’ll go back and edit your comment and take those out.
I don’t feel the need to glaze this movie because while I think it’s overhated, I do think that there are MANY fair criticisms to be made, but I am annoyed by this review because so many of the critiques here are CinemaSins level hits that are just stupid. I can admit, the pacing is not great, especially compared to the source comic which is well done, the needledrops are pretty bad, and Krem is not an interesting villain. But these plot nitpicks are terrible. The movie specifically shot down the idea of bringing Krypto to a yellow sun immediately, literally ten seconds after the explanation where they describe how the poison paralyzes and kills they state that moving the subject will expedite the poison’s effects and kill them. Saying Kara acts like she’s got decades of regret and angst for no reason because she hasn’t killed anyone ignores that she is only a few years out from watching her parents wither away in front of her from radiation poisoning as her entire planet is destroyed. I think that’s a valid reason to be a little jaded. Outside of the fact that it’s not rocket science to understand that she doesn’t need to have killed someone to understand why letting a 13 year old girl kill someone else is probably not going to be good for that little girl’s mental health, she’s also cousins with the Superman of Superman fame, who I imagine would have also impressed onto Kara some of the merits of his no kill rule, which she only betrays when Ruthye is out of sight. Krem having Kryptonite arrows as a skilled killer who is aware that he is being tracked down by a Kryptonian is fully reasonable. the reason they didn’t go all the way to a planet with just one green sun is because they’re in space and the implication is that even finding this planet was hard enough. I doubt these bounty hunters who clearly have powerful enemies seeing as they’re being tailed by Lobo are going to go on that long of a detour. Also I don’t know why it would be weird for someone who has been traveling through space to seedy areas to get drunk who is also cousins with Superman to be aware of a famous planet destroying antihero who also frequents said places.
I can recognize that as a fan of the character Supergirl, I’m a little biased. But this is a solid B- movie, so it’s not like there aren’t other problems to address. I just think this specific review sucks
I guess I should have led my review with: I’ve never read a DC comic. I’ve heard of SG, but I don’t know anything at all about her backstory, or anyone else in this movie. I had never heard of Lobo or Krem before. When the tank-thingy fell and Krem tossed it aside I was like, “What the hell? Up to now I thought this was just a regular guy. I guess he’s got some superhero powers. I don’t get it.”
Basically, for someone who has no history with the universe, this movie didn’t make much sense. It was just “stuff happens so we can have another fight scene” type of plot. And there were way too many convenient events that kept the plot going.
Kara got hit with a half-dozen poison arrows and shook it off and flew back into the sunlight. That’s not consistent with how Krypto reacted.
I get it that Kara’s character motivations are primarily driven by the fact that she watched her parents die two years previously. But it was two years ago. If I have a friend who’s parents die suddenly then I’m all in on being there for them and giving them all the room I can to grieve. But after two years you have to say, “Dude, move on with it. You can’t let this define who you are.”
Dan,
You’re right, the movie was not put together well. D+ or C- …at best. I didn’t have to read the entire Bible to enjoy The Ten Commandments and I should not have to read all the super-girl comic books to enjoy the movie. I also would have very much like to have had more information on the Lobo and Krem character’s backstory than was given.
Although I did catch the poison part of the story, I didn’t understand why Kara couldn’t just get the dog to a planet with a yellow sun within 72 hours and then she would have had unlimited time to retrieve the poison. She could have even gotten Superman’s help.
I go to comic book movies in order to be able to escape reality and to be entertained. This movie gave me too many question that i had to find answers for.
I probably won’t go back and pay to see it again, but I will be waiting for the day it premieres on HBO.
Finally, someone who’s on the same page with me. 🙂
Let’s start with the villain. There’s zero flesh on that character. All we know about Krem is that he leads a “race of men” or something like that and they capture women to be “brides”. Oh, and he has a spiky tatoo thing on his face and is written like a *Space Russian*. It’s like the writers were trying to say: here are a bunch of reasons to dislike this character without knowing anything of substance about them. It’s so typical of DC movies to create shallow villains. DC certainly doesn’t have a monopoly on it. The MCU has a few shallow villains here and there–the Dark Elves in Thor II come to mind. I totally understand that one of the hardest things to do is to write a good villain. But just because it’s hard to do is no excuse for not trying. And that’s what this movie feels like. It just doesn’t try.
Even Supergirl isn’t particularly likable. She’s going to ignore the plees of the young girl until Krypto gets poisoned. So basically, this story tells us that Supergirl is a self centered, self pittying, unsupportive person. But she loves her dog so we’re supposed to like her now. I’m I right?
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