Supergirl (2026) - Movie Review

The Movie: Supergirl

The Director: Craig Gillespie

The Cast: Milly Alcock, Matthias Schoenaerts, Eve Ridley, David Krumholtz, Emily Beecham, David Corenswet, Jason Momoa.

The Story: Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl, joins forces with an unlikely companion on an interstellar journey of vengeance and justice when an unexpected adversary strikes too close to home.

The Rating: 6 / 10

The Review:

Yes, that's sadly a six out of ten rating. I was really hoping I'd be able to give it more, but most of the movie for me was quite frustrating and not really what I was hoping for. With James Gunn in charge of the overall content of the current DC Cinematic Universe, I feel like we can expect a little bit of Guardians of the Galaxy and Peacemaker DNA woven into the look and feel of the stories, but I really feel like that blueprint was followed way too closely this time around.

Sure, the movie is fun and it has some really great moments, it just feels like it's trying way too hard to fit in with the cool kids, if that makes sense. If the filmmakers had relied less on poop jokes and Lobo as nothing but comic relief, there's actually a really good story to tell with Milly Alcock's Supergirl aka Kara Zor-El and Eve Ridley's Ruthye having some really great chemistry together. The friendship that grows between the characters over the course of the movie is really special and they should have been given even more room to exist and interact together.

I mentioned the infamous Lobo character who many people have been excited to see on screen, especially being played by Jason Momoa, and I think most of them will be happy with what we're given although I feel like this is another character that could've been given much more to do. As is, he is simply comic relief, and the filmmakers are more than happy to just keep showing us how cool he is without giving him any real substance or reason for existing within the story. I'm assuming we'll get to see more of him in future DCU movies, so this was more like an introduction to the character, it just feels a little hollow when he's only played for laughs.

Going back to Milly Alcock, you can really tell that she is 100% invested in giving the most she has to the character and creating something that can be of real value both in this movie and farther down the road. From what I understand, she did a lot of research to make sure she would be able to get the character just right when it comes to what we know from the comics as well as adapting to the vision that Gunn has for the character. I know there's people out there who weren't a fan of the initial casting and, after watching the movie, I feel like those people wouldn't be happy with anything and just want to complain no matter what so take that for what it is.

The fight scenes in the movie are mostly well done and do a good job of showing off Supergirl's power set, especially when she unleashes her heat vision which is both a highly effective weapon and it just looks super cool on screen. There's a particular fight on a public transportation vehicle that is really creative and shows how innovative Kara can be when faced with adversity, especially when her powers are being dampened by not being near a yellow sun.

I will say that some of the sequences leaned real heavily into that Guardians of the Galaxy stylization. Especially when you consider how the group of bad guys that Supergirl is hunting down are almost carbon copies of the Ravagers, the group of space pirates that were led by Yondu in those movies. They also made me think of the bad guys from the 2009 Star Trek movie and probably several others if I really want to go there. The movie is set on multiple planets so you'd think that the filmmakers could come up with something a bit more original than what we get here, or maybe I'm asking too much and the bad guys should just have that same, familiar look to them.

Overall, the movie is worth a look, especially on the big screen, and Alcock's performance is an absolute highlight, there are just too many flaws for me to rank it much higher than an average entry into the superhero genre. I saw the movie on an AMC IMAX screen which I would recommend given that this is a blockbuster style superhero movie that's set in space with lots of big action scenes. So yeah, if you like your movies with a heavy dose of James Gunn style aesthetics then Supergirl should work for you.

Thank you for reading this review and for following along on my movie adventures.