[0:00] After crashing through the fortress of
[0:01] solitude to pick up her dog, Kara Zor-El
[0:04] is back in Supergirl. It's a
[0:06] hard-drinking, isolated version of the
[0:08] character in a movie that brings a lot
[0:09] to like, from western tropes to needle
[0:11] drops. But, for every dog that needs
[0:14] saving and young child that needs
[0:15] role-modeling, can this rough-and-tumble
[0:17] Supergirl be a new enough take on these
[0:19] tropes to really soar? Or is it more red
[0:22] sun than yellow? I'm Clint Gage, and
[0:24] this is my review of Supergirl.
[0:26] >> Two tickets from that dive bar.
[0:28] >> Funny.
[0:30] That's what I've been calling you.
[0:32] >> Touché.
[0:36] >> Going into this movie, I was excited. I
[0:38] had real expectations. Before we even
[0:41] get to the DCU of it all, I'm officially
[0:43] a fan of Craig Gillespie. He's a guy who
[0:46] makes movies that are all better than
[0:48] you'd think they'd be. In Cruella and I,
[0:50] Tonya, and Lars and the Real Girl, and
[0:52] even Finest Hours, that boat broken half
[0:55] rescue movie was surprisingly really
[0:57] good. And these are movies that could
[0:58] have easily become forgettable entries
[1:01] in their particular genres, like just
[1:03] another biopic, or another live-action
[1:05] remake, or another movie about who's in
[1:08] love with the sex doll. So, the prospect
[1:10] of tackling a superhero movie with that
[1:12] particular ability to elevate a film in
[1:14] an otherwise tired category was
[1:17] intriguing. And where the DCU is
[1:18] concerned, I'm here for James Gunn's
[1:20] universe. I've liked what's gone into it
[1:22] so far, and I loved Milly Alcock's first
[1:24] appearance as Kara in her cameo in
[1:26] Superman. I think this version of
[1:27] Supergirl is a blast, and her solo
[1:29] outing didn't do anything to change my
[1:31] mind on that front. But, this is also
[1:33] where Supergirl starts to become a tale
[1:35] of two movies. And for everything that
[1:37] the movie does right, that thing's got
[1:39] an alter ego that's doing it a little
[1:41] wrong. As a result, the movie is this
[1:43] shuffling few steps forward, few steps
[1:45] back kind of slog that never really
[1:47] finds a rhythm. For example, the
[1:49] reluctant hero thing is actually very
[1:51] difficult to pull off. It's hard to play
[1:53] I don't care in in engaging way, because
[1:56] if the character on screen doesn't care,
[1:58] then I certainly don't care either.
[2:00] Alcock manages it here about as well as
[2:02] you could hope for.
[2:04] >> Let's be honest, babe. [music] It's not
[2:06] a very
[2:07] high bar to clear.
[2:10] >> Kara is a mess and there's [music] no
[2:12] real concern with her ever not being a
[2:15] mess as part of her journey. It's very
[2:17] fun. And the other side of that coin,
[2:18] however, is that she doesn't have much
[2:21] of a journey. She's not a markedly
[2:23] different person [music] at the end of
[2:24] the movie than she is at the beginning.
[2:26] And not because of anything she did or
[2:27] didn't do as a character or an actor,
[2:30] but because the story she's been put in
[2:32] doesn't give her much to do at all. And
[2:34] the result is a movie that sort of
[2:36] flattens out and drags. And when she
[2:38] first meets Eve Ridley's Ruthie, the
[2:40] young girl out for revenge against the
[2:41] man who murdered [music] her entire
[2:43] family, Kara is protective, sticking her
[2:45] neck out to do the right thing for a kid
[2:47] who's in over her head. And by the end
[2:49] of the film, Kara does exactly the same
[2:52] thing. And part of the point there is
[2:54] that it highlights the impact she has on
[2:56] Ruthie. Ridley ultimately gets the
[2:58] lion's share of the character work in
[2:59] the film and her character's journey
[3:01] winds up feeling far more complete than
[3:03] Kara's.
[3:06] >> He has 3 days. You cannot give up on me.
[3:11] >> So, while Milly Alcock's performance is
[3:13] a real strength of the movie and she
[3:15] does pull off the reluctant hero trope,
[3:18] it is a very familiar trope and the
[3:20] shorthand that's used in portraying it
[3:22] is a real [music] weakness. Familiarity
[3:24] in general is another villainous plot
[3:27] Supergirl tries to thwart. [music]
[3:28] On one hand, the movie wears its
[3:30] influences proudly. The comparisons to
[3:32] James Gunn's work on Guardians of the
[3:34] Galaxy have been obvious since the
[3:35] trailers first dropped and we knew the
[3:38] True Grit archetypal Western structure
[3:40] would be a big part of the film because
[3:42] of the source material, Tom King's Woman
[3:44] of Tomorrow run.
[3:45] >> [music]
[3:45] >> A Mad Max influence is just as obvious
[3:47] in the grimy, lifeless terrains and
[3:50] dying worlds on which most of the movie
[3:52] takes place. Planets where people
[3:54] scratch for survival, but the old
[3:56] reliable Mos Eisley Cantina should get a
[3:58] shout-out as well. The alien design and
[4:01] practical makeup effects and costuming
[4:03] throughout the movie are genuinely
[4:04] top-shelf. And clearly the customers in
[4:07] Star Wars' most wretched hive were on
[4:09] the filmmakers' minds. [music] And yet,
[4:12] while I'll happily take True Grit meets
[4:14] Mad Max by way of Guardians and Star
[4:16] Wars, there still manages to be a dulled
[4:18] edge to the whole movie. Instead of
[4:20] taking the post-apocalyptic vibes of Mad
[4:23] Max, [music] they lift a whole plot
[4:24] point straight from Fury Road and handle
[4:26] it, frankly, a little clumsily. And
[4:28] instead of the emotionally relevant
[4:30] needle drops of Guardians of the Galaxy,
[4:32] Kara gets slow-paced montages set to a
[4:34] Jimmy Eat World cover that I found
[4:36] baffling.
[4:37] >> Your eyes are beautiful, you proud
[4:40] >> [music]
[4:40] >> Luthor
[4:43] >> The film's two other headliners fall
[4:45] into these buckets as well. Matthias
[4:46] Schoenaerts as the film's villain, Crim
[4:48] of the Yellow Hills, looks incredible.
[4:51] His whole appearance would make the
[4:52] creature design team from A New Hope
[4:53] proud. The beads studded into his face,
[4:56] the machinery grafted into his body, the
[4:59] weird little red button he needs to
[5:00] activate to speak, all of it adds up to
[5:02] a striking and genuinely pretty cool
[5:05] image that would have felt at home in
[5:06] the Thunderdome. But, they don't ever do
[5:09] anything with it. Crim, for all the
[5:11] post-apocalyptic biker gang aura he
[5:13] generates, gets nothing else to go on.
[5:15] He has some affectations that
[5:17] Schoenaerts is clearly having a good
[5:18] time with, like how he's eating
[5:20] something in almost every scene, but
[5:22] that's really all they are,
[5:23] affectations. There's nothing that makes
[5:25] him scary or formidable other than a few
[5:27] throwaway lines about his relative
[5:29] strength and the way other people on
[5:31] screen are afraid of him. Meanwhile,
[5:32] Jason Momoa's Lobo finds his way into
[5:34] the movie as well. And the mostly
[5:36] impervious anti-hero bounty hunter is
[5:38] just as much fun as fans have been
[5:40] anticipating. Now, cigar chomping gets
[5:43] thrown around a little excessively
[5:45] anytime a J. Jonah Jameson or a Hellboy
[5:48] or a Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum from
[5:50] Independence Day show up on screen, but
[5:52] Momoa more than earns that descriptor in
[5:54] all the best possible ways in Supergirl.
[5:57] He looks the part as well with face
[5:58] paint and prosthetics [music] that cut
[6:00] the kind of imposing figure the fan
[6:01] favorite deserves. But, Lobo doesn't
[6:04] need to be there. [music] Characters
[6:06] come and go in movies. Sometimes with
[6:07] very little fanfare, sometimes playing
[6:09] crucial roles in the story, and they
[6:11] don't always have to be the latter. The
[6:13] issue with Lobo is that he feels like
[6:16] extra tacked on. [music] The one major
[6:18] scene he has with Kara has real reshoot
[6:21] energy. It's added on to a scene that
[6:23] didn't need any extra motivation to get
[6:25] to the next scene. Nor is he a
[6:27] particularly unique foil for Kara that
[6:29] propels her character in any meaningful
[6:31] way. He just happens to be looking for
[6:33] the same group of guys that Kara and
[6:34] Ruthie are after. [music] The only real
[6:36] added value he gives the movie is a few
[6:38] admittedly fun one-liners, and [music]
[6:41] maybe that's all Lobo needs to be.
[6:43] Ultimately, he only shows up to put his
[6:45] immortal stamp of approval on Kara's
[6:47] actions, but that feels both unnecessary
[6:49] and frankly more than a little
[6:51] pandering, and it leaves me not entirely
[6:53] sure what to do with it.
[6:55] >> Stop.
[6:57] You're hurting my head.
[7:01] >> So, the story of this movie continues to
[7:03] be they did it right on one hand, but on
[7:06] the other hand, not so much. And as just
[7:08] the second entry into Gunn's DCU, that
[7:10] issue spills over into all the stuff
[7:13] that comes with being part of a
[7:15] currently expanding expanded universe.
[7:17] On one hand, Supergirl needs to continue
[7:19] building outwards to some extent,
[7:21] [music] and this is another of the
[7:22] film's strengths. Her scenes with David
[7:24] Corenswet's Superman are wonderful.
[7:26] That's not to say that Superman saved
[7:28] the day here, or that Supergirl needs
[7:30] Superman to be interesting. It's the
[7:31] dynamic between the two of them that is
[7:33] great. One positively [music] looking
[7:36] towards the future, while the other
[7:37] still nurses old wounds. I'm definitely
[7:40] looking forward to more of this duo on
[7:42] screen. But, on the other [music] hand,
[7:44] where her solo film is concerned,
[7:45] Supergirl needs to flesh out Kara's
[7:47] backstory. And the structure of how and
[7:50] when flashbacks are deployed in
[7:51] Supergirl aside, because my personal
[7:53] preference would have been a [music]
[7:54] straight chronological telling of this
[7:56] story as opposed to stopping in the
[7:58] middle to tell [music] us her backstory,
[8:00] I did find myself way more interested in
[8:02] her time growing up on a floating
[8:04] lifeboat of a city after the destruction
[8:06] of Krypton. Now, there's work being done
[8:08] there on both fronts as the film [music]
[8:10] continues to build on the changes made
[8:12] to Kal-El's origin story from Superman,
[8:14] while also introducing another side to
[8:16] that story via Kara. The present day of
[8:19] the film, with all the cribbing from
[8:21] True Grit and Mad Max and Guardians,
[8:23] feels far [music] less fresh and
[8:24] interesting than Kara's shielded
[8:26] childhood on Argo. Again though, this is
[8:29] Supergirl's biggest challenge. There are
[8:31] a lot of things [music] that work
[8:32] throughout this movie,
[8:33] but there are just as many reasons why
[8:34] they don't quite add up.
[8:37] >> He sees the good in everyone.
[8:39] And I see the truth.
[8:42] >> And so, I'm giving Supergirl a six. Kara
[8:45] Zor-El's standout moment in Superman
[8:47] gets a feature-length follow-up that
[8:48] almost gets everything right.
[8:50] Unfortunately, that means it gets
[8:52] everything almost wrong as well. Milly
[8:54] Alcock is great as Supergirl, carrying
[8:57] the weight of real trauma and cementing
[8:59] a very cool dynamic with her on-screen
[9:00] cousin. While the alien design and
[9:02] practical makeup effects make the film a
[9:04] joy to look at. Jason Momoa's Lobo and
[9:07] Matthias Shonarts Krim [music] are just
[9:09] as cool visually, but unfortunately,
[9:11] they also don't have a lot to offer in
[9:13] this entry in the burgeoning DCU that
[9:15] treads more water than I would have
[9:17] liked.
[9:18] >> Now, let's party.
[9:19] >> Oh, that might be a problem.
[9:22] >> That is what I think of Supergirl. Let
[9:24] me know what you think in the comments
[9:25] below. And for more movie reviews,
[9:27] you're already in the right place. Be
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[9:30] like to watch.