The Screen Scribe

I am not going to lie; I have been dreading doing this review since last week. I made no secret of my dislike of James Gunn’s Superman last summer, and Supergirl has done little to change my opinion of the direction of the DCU under James Gunn’s leadership. Now I have a lot to say about James Gunn and his handling of the DCU thus far, but I am keeping that for a Side Notes piece that I am currently working on. Hoping for a release at the end of the month, maybe sooner. But alas, Kara Zor-El. For a film titled Supergirl, there was not much particularly super about it. And the worst part is, it wasn’t even Milly Alcock’s fault. After a stellar breakout role in House of the Dragon, this should have been her star vehicle to bigger things, and she does herself justice in it. It’s just a pity about everything else. So, let’s dive into it shall we?

The film follows Kara Zor-El, a cynical young woman who grew up surviving on a harsh fragment of her destroyed home planet, Krypton. Unlike her optimistic cousin Superman, Kara is deeply traumatized by her tragic life, and aims to escape her past by doing a perpetual pub crawl across the cosmos. But fate intervenes when a young alien girl named Ruthye approaches her, seeking aid in avenging the murder of her family by a ruthless space pirate named Krem. Kara initially refuses, but a direct, malicious attack by Krem on her dog Krypto forces her into the conflict. Together, the two girls embark on a gritty, planet-hopping interstellar journey across the galaxy to hunt down the killer and save Krypto.

Oi vey. Even that spoiler free premise drained the life out of me. The worst thing is, this is almost the entire plot of the film, minus a few pit stops along the way. It is actually one of the thinnest narratives I have seen for a comic book film in a long, long time. And I sat through fucking Morbius at the cinema, which, funnily enough, actually had a better opening weekend. Does that not tell you enough? No? Ok, let’s continue. I don’t want to go into massive detail because it will just overlap with my upcoming DCU Side Notes, but the major issue here is not Supergirl the character, not Milly Alcock the actress, not even Jason Momoa playing Jason Momoa in make-up. It’s James Gunn. Despite not writing this, despite not directing this, you can see his fingerprints all over it, and this appears to be a recurring theme in the DCU projects released so far. More on that in Side Notes.

Then there is the writer. This is the second tentpole film of the newly rebirthed (IYKYK) DCU, a film with a budget of $170-190 million dollars. A barely known actress from the Vampire Diaries whose only writing credit was a short film in 2018. And suddenly she is handed the responsibility of an almost $200 million summer tentpole film? Not only that, she is apparently writing / collaborating on the Teen Titans and Wonder Woman films? With James Gunn himself. Wow. After coming out of Supergirl my first thought was bloody hell I could’ve written a better story than that. No overarching theme, not an iota of character development, or even the slightest bit of meaningful worldbuilding. The plot was riddled with inconsistencies and contrivances, all stacked so high I genuinely started to get annoyed as the film progressed.

Look, I try to remain as neutral as possible in my reviews, but it is difficult to ignore the accusations of nepotism that have followed Gunn’s career when a script this thin is greenlit for a $170–190 million DCU tentpole. Because there is no way that script gets the go ahead at any other studio, and shows Gunn was not totally honest when he claimed no script would go ahead at his DCU that was not rock solid. Well I am sorry mister Gunn, but if that’s what you rate as a rock solid script then your DCU has major issues. I genuinely could write a 2000 word essay on the multitude of problems with the script of Supergirl. It just leaves me in utter disbelief that this is the standard of writing that is being greenlit in Hollywood at the minute. And what on Earth did they spend almost $200 million dollars on because the CGI was abysmal, the sets looked like CW television sets, the colour grading looked like a someone took a piss on the camera lens, and don’t even get me started on the soundtrack. I have had it with James Gunn’s obsession with scoring every film to a punk-rock-pop soundtrack. It absolutely killed the mood and ruined any sort of tension or atmosphere the film tried to build. $170-190 million? This film looked more like a B movie with a budget of $20 million.

And apparently Millie Alcock only earned $500k for the leading role. She deserved far more for the absolute shit show that this was. Because let’s be honest, she was about the only enjoyable thing in this car crash of a film. Momoa was serviceable as Lobo, mildly entertaining, but its just Momoa being Momoa in costume. That’s it. I hate to say it but those are the only positives I have for Supergirl, the second entry in James Gunn’s DCU by James Gunn. Because lets face it, David Corenswet is not the star of the DCU. Millie Alcock is not the star of the DCU. Hell, even John Cena is not the star of the DCU. The only star in this DCU is James Gunn, and that star is a catastrophic supernova.

Also, this is the second DCU film to include the idea and practice of a space harem. Yeah. Justing saying.

2 / 5 ✨ from the Screen Scribe.

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