Supergirl (2026) Review

https://youtu.be/s1-pfiVMKAs?is=cZV9WWp6Trr0kTdV

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Some people could assume if you’re related to a great person, you’re just the same. I hate to break it because that’s not always true.


PLOT


2026’s Supergirl follows Kara Zor El, cousin to Kal El. She was raised in Argo City, the last functioning city of Krypton that survived via force field system by the protagonist’s father Zor (David Krumholtz) to prevent it from being destroyed by the planet’s core. The separation however did uncover the mineral of Kryptonite that started killing citizens via radiation. When Kara’s mother Alura (Emily Beecham) died of Kryptonite poisoning, Zor sent her and her pet dog Krypto to Earth where Kal has already adapted as Clark Kent. When the latter found her ship crash-landed near the Fortress of Solitude, he helped her adjust to her new life such as teaching her English and giving her a matching to the moniker he wears under the superhero alias of Superman. The story’s present follows Kara traveling around the galaxy to celebrate her birthday and still gets messages from Kal that she should put an effort to settle into Earth. During her bender where she stops at planet Holzherr, she meets Ruthye Marye Knoll who goes to her asking for help against the leading Brigand bandit Krem of the Yellow Hills, the murderer of her parents and brother. She denies her help until Krem hijacks her ship and poisons Krypto. Learning from a local healer that her dog only has three days to survive, she and Ruthye travel together to get the antidote from the bandit. When having a skirmish with space pirates dubbed ‘Sklarian Raiders’, she’s able to narrow Krem’s location to be on planet Bilquis. There, she also learns form a local couple, Bomar & Morack Vran (Kadiff Kirwan & Thalissa Teixeira), that the Brigands are kidnapping young women, forcing them to be their brides. While the couple does try to do the same to Kara & Ruthye in exchange for their daughter Sarna (Asha Sotan, it doesn’t go as planned due to the interference of the intergalactic bounty hunter Lobo who is after the bounty on Krem’s lieutenant Drom Braxton (Diarmaid Murtagh). Amidst the commotion, Ruthye would try executing revenge on Krem, but Kara intervening would lead to the death of Bomar and his family. Regretting this, she tries following the Brigands to planet Barenton, but gets weakened by its green sun. Ruthye does follow and tend to her long enough until she gets captured by the Brigands who have also captured Lobo. She does free him and herself, but gets spotted once reaching topside. When the planet rotates to a yellow sun, Kara recovers and rushes to save Ruthye. With Lobo’s help, all the Brigands are wiped out and the captured women are saved. Ruthye almost goes for the kill again when alone with Krem, but Kara would again remind her it won’t undo her pain. When the girl walks away, she takes her sword to kill him herself and finally get the antidote from him to save Krypto in time. Once her dog fully recovers, Ruthye participates in the remainder of Kara’s birthday celebration before settling in with her aunt. The film would end with Kara returning to Earth and telling Kal she’ll stay & reaffirm it as her new home.


THOUGHTS


The best way to discuss this film is through Pros and Cons


Pros: Once James Gunn & Peter Safran took over DC Studios, fans expected the Gods & Monsters era of the DCU to be consistent with each show and movie that they drop going forward. Those expectations come from the fact Gunn worked with Marvel first to adapt Guardians of the Galaxy. There is a vibe similar to the former when getting through this one because director Craig Gillespie was tasked to make a different scenario of an adventure after what Gunn pulled off with Superman. Because many viewers expected the same thing is where the disappointment emerges.  If we’re entering a new interconnected franchise, I’m gonna remember nothing is gonna look the same from another sequel or not. Having said that, I still enjoyed checking this out in theaters in a 4DX ScreenX viewing. I feel like if I didn’t treat myself to such a screening, I would’ve not enjoyed it as much as I do as of writing this. For a cosmic setting, everything hits its mark in terms of VFX, costume/makeup and production design. With everything and everyone feeling lifelike, that helps make all the fight scenes all the more exciting. Everytime Supergirl powers up before her melee attack, you know it’s just gonna get much better. Because the protagonist has had instances of being written much similar to her iconic cousin, those who don’t read the source material assume she’s a carbon copy when that’s not true at all. With a solid script by Ana Nogueira, actress Milly Alcock is able to give a strong lead performance of the girl of steel. We’ll never get enough of David Corenswet’s spot on optimism as Superman anytime soon, but what Alcock does differently is teach that not all heroes think the same. Having to live what’s left of Krypton, she’s got the case of trauma where she doesn’t know who else to trust outside what’s left of her kind. She can’t be open minded like Kal because she knows better how unpredictable people can be and she can’t risk being heartbroken after all she’s lost. Before meeting Kal, Krypto was all she had at that point and losing him would break her all the more. Since that’s her motivation to go after Krem, she takes Ruthye under her wing because she gets how it feels when your world is taken from you and you can’t get it back. You want to root for Ruthye as well because breakout Eve Ridley is able to desperately become noble for her age as she feels there is nothing left for her to do other than complete something she believes will honor them. Kara takes the kill for herself because she knows she is not in the right headspace to commit to revenge and should keep on living in order to honor her family the way she wants to. It is a helpful decision because she can avoid living with hate the way she has. Now that they got to more than expected by saving trafficked girls, there’s no doubt they’d be proud of her bravery. I do see the big gripe on the portrayal of Krem because Matthias Schoenarts is highly straightforward in being the diabolical kind of villain. We’re so used to many complex villains over the years that we didn’t expect this guy to be one who enjoys being ruthless. That said straightforwardness is exactly how I remember Malekith from Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World and that’s not completely a good thing, but I still respect Matthias’ commitment to the part. Then again, you gotta expect that if he ain’t gonna hesitate shooting Krypto before the trafficking reveal. The big surprise here would not be Seth Rogen voicing an alien pilot, but the addition of a character who was not in the ‘Woman of Tomorrow’ comic this movie is based off of. Jason Momoa has expressed gratitude with his Aquaman tenure, but had said in the past Lobo was his dream role and boy did he live up to it. Considering this is a bounty hunter who destroyed his own planet, you’re gonna be asking yourself why has he remained a popular character since first published in 1983. I think through Momoa’s performance, Lobo remains an entertaining antihero because despite the separate joy he has in the chaos he can cause, he still has his own form of honor since he never exactly boasted on how formidable he is to the point where he’s a business first-pleasure second individual kind of guy. He won’t say it, but he does respect Ruthye’s determination no matter how predictable she might come off and he stuck around to see Kara finish Krem out of amusement. Had she not done it, he definitely would’ve. I won’t bet when we’ll see this guy again since the DCU will have its changes going forward. Should he run into any other protagonist in the future, I’m sure it’ll be just as fun. With Kara now wanting to stay on Earth, it’s quite the given when I say we’ll see a whole other share of exciting adventures whatever Gunn has in mind next. 


Cons: There is a lot going for this movie that I can respect, but fun stuff like this still had some questionable moments upon rewatching. Like for example, Ruthye’s father Elias (Ferdinand Kingsley) knew it was a matter of time for Krem to return expecting new weapons, and yet still chose to not make any. If he didn’t want to make weapons anymore, he could’ve asked a bounty hunter to deal with the Brigands. And if they had a trip to blow their ship, his wife Delilah (Emily Piggford) should’ve used it way before Emond (Bruce Lennox) died. I don’t even blame Ruthye getting desperate to offer her dad’s sword to anything willing to work for her but if Krem proved anything, she should be aware there’s a lot of people out there that’ll take advantage of her just like how Krem did her parents and she’s lucky Kara is the only one that comes around with sentimentality. And at this point, the bar in Bilquis should be surprised to see two women when the Sklarian Raiders are females as well. I know we find out later the Brigands traffic girls from that planet, but it’s not a big deal for women to walk into a bar if there’s also female employment within, such as a singer and Morack bartending. And how long was Lobo asleep? Because if he was there the girls got there, he should’ve asked for Dorm way before he passed out drunk. What can be harder to believe than that? It’d be how no one uncovered Kryptonite until after Argo City became the last city of Krypton remaining. I could say Krem doesn’t expect Kara to come after him because he’s that confident she wouldn’t stop him, but it’s a whole other thing for him to have antidote out in the open as a necklace. He’s lucky Kara struggled to take it let alone the fact no one else ever seemed to tried because I doubt Krypto is the only thing he used the poison against. Mext thing, they could’ve sent Kara directly into the green sun if they didn’t want to put up with her anymore. Krem doesn’t kill Ruthye immediately because he can traffic her too, but not killing Kara  and Lobo is just giant procrastination. What surprised more than how the antidote wasn’t even damaged one bit when Kara tosses Krem around before killing him, it was the fact Superman enters his apartment without a hassle. This is the 21st century dude so it should not be that easy to keep your cover to casually fly into your window without worrying about cameras. If Mr Terrific controls the cameras for him, I wish that was implied.
In conclusion, Supergirl may not be an amazing comic book adventure compared to Superman, yet it is a big improvement from the 1984 version for successfully being able to give something grounded and simultaneously entertaining as you would want from the genre. As long as you accept this is nothing like the man of steel, I assure that you’ll be satisfied.