Movie Review - DC's Supergirl

Truth. Justice. Whatever.

Supergirl is a 2026 superhero film directed by Craig Gillespie, written by Ana Noguiera, produced by DC Studios, Troll Court Entertainment, and The Safran Company, and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film is based off of various Supergirl comics by DC Comics, specifically Tom King's 2021-2022 miniseries, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. It stars Milly Alcock and Eve Ridley. This is the second film in the DC Universe. It was preceded by Superman and will be followed by Clayface and Man of Tomorrow.

"Home is wherever you are, buddy." - Supergirl

Plot

Kara Zor-El spends her days drinking on planets with red suns and shirking her responsibilities to Earth. When a young girl on a vicious quest for revenge crosses her path, Kara must begin to understand the true meaning of the symbol she wears on her chest.

The Sweet

When it was announced, I was really, really excited for Supergirl. I thought it was a genius strategy to kick the DCU off with Superman and then immediately juxtapose the Man of Steel's bright, kind-hearted demeanor with his cousin's harder edge and more cynical outlook on the world. As the marketing ramped up and the release date got closer, though, my excitement started to wane, as did the excitement of the general public. The trailers weren't very good and there just wasn't a lot of buzz surrounding the film, so it really started to lose steam.

Supergirl definitely does some things right. Milly Alcock gives us a great performance as Kara Zor-El. I think Supergirl herself was the best part of the film, which is exactly what I said about David Corenswet's Superman in his film last year. She has this sassy, devil-may-care attitude that is really interesting when you realize that she is one of the most powerful people in the universe. You see that she is this lonely mess of a person despite having Kryptonian blood. That's such an interesting contrast to the goody two-shoes that Superman is, and I think that's why the character works.

Jason Momoa is also tons of fun as Lobo. I will talk a little bit about his actual role in the film later, but he's just chewing up the scenery with this obnoxious, edgy bounty hunter that looks like he's pulled directly from a comic book panel. Is it a little jarring to have Aquaman in a completely different DC role just three years after he retired the trident? Sure, but Momoa fits the role so well that you don't even notice. He honestly probably fits Lobo better than he fits Aquaman, so I think the casting really works.

The production design here is also really fantastic. Anytime you have a space opera, there's room to have a lot of great-looking sets and costumes and characters, and Supergirl makes the most of that. There's definitely CGI, but a lot of the environments look like the right blend of practical and computer-generated imagery. Since this is a planet-hopping film, we get tons of different weird alien creatures that look all sorts of crazy and cool and gross. It just adds a little creative flair to a film that sort of needs that.

The score is another aspect that really stuck out to me. Now, the movie decides to have these really random, Guardians of the Galaxy-esc needle drops in the middle of nowhere that didn't work for me, but when it got to the operatic, epic soundtrack, it really hit. I think a lot of these sequences of Supergirl stepping into her suit and fighting bad guys work because of the swelling music that backs these scenes.

I feel like there's a lot to like in Supergirl. It's got some really fun sequences, the main character is great, and it's a competently made DC superhero flick. I love comic book films. I love space operas. So, naturally, I am going to get some sort of entertainment out of this film, regardless of its actual quality as a story. Which we will talk about next.

The Sour

Everything that works with Supergirl is, in my opinion, the barebones, surface-level minimum that you need to say a movie was made with competence. It doesn't do anything offensive with the story or characters. There aren't massive gaps in logic. It just...doesn't really do anything interesting or unique.

Supergirl feels like another movie that people are going to refer to as a "product of superhero fatigue". It's got everything you've come to expect from the genre: action, CGI, hero versus villain clashes, epic set pieces, cameos and setup for future films in the universe...and none of it feels fresh, new, or interesting. At every turn of this movie, I just thought of at least five movies that have done similar things but better. This movie steals plot points and character beats directly from The Princess Bride, Guardians of the Galaxy, Mad Max: Fury Road...it just feels so derivative and unoriginal.

One of the biggest contributors to this feeling of a cliché-ridden film is the main villain. One of my friends described Krem of the Yellow Hills as if "Gorr, Ronan, and Immortan Joe had the most generic baby possible", which is such an accurate statement. It feels like he is the most cookie-cutter evil space pirate possible, to the point where I had trouble telling the difference between him and his thugs. He's not memorable in any way. Everything, from his look to his voice to his motivations and goals, just feel like re-hashes of so many generic space criminals from other, better films.

The other problem is Ruthye Marye Knoll. Ruthye is this little girl that Kara encounters who is seeking revenge on Krem...and she's almost the star of the movie. The main plot really revolves around her, not Kara, and that feels wrong in all sorts of ways. Sure, Kara is still the one with the main arc, but the villain and actual plot are all tied to Ruthye. This would be weird even if Ruthye was a compelling character, but it's made worse by the fact that she feels incompetent and uninteresting in every single way. She's this thirteen-year-old child who doesn't stand a chance against any of these space pirates, but she thinks she has a skill set on the level of Supergirl's. That makes for a very annoying, condescending character who doesn't really have anything compelling about her.

And let's talk about Lobo. I know I'm not the first to have this criticism, but as soon as Jason Momoa appeared on screen, I wondered if they really earned his appearance in this movie. And, as fun as he is, the film does not provide a compelling reason for him to be in this story whatsoever. He's only in here because he is hunting one of Krem's thugs, not because he's connected to the main story. The guy Lobo is hunting doesn't even have any lines to my knowledge. I couldn't tell you a single defining trait about him, so when Lobo's mission is centered on this random space pirate that I know nothing about, it really feels like they just came up with a half-baked boilerplate idea to shoehorn him into the movie so that he can be in future DC projects.

And, to me, the biggest disappointment with Supergirl is its missed potential. The reason I was excited for this movie in the first place was because it was a chance to explore a darker, more cynical side of the DC Universe after introducing us to hope and kindness through Superman. Supergirl is an undeniably more twisted version of her cousin, and that allows for a very different type of story. What we got was not that: it was just a generic superhero space opera that does not do enough to differentiate itself from the hundreds of superhero space operas to come before it. It doesn't even really feel like a Supergirl movie. It feels like the blandest, simplest version of something like Guardians of the Galaxy or Mad Max.

Final Thoughts and Score

Supergirl isn't a disaster, but it's a massively disappointing and bland sophomore entry in this franchise that continues my growing concerns about James Gunn's DC Universe.

I am going Sour here. Age range is 8+.

SWEET N' SOUR SCALE

Sweet (Great) Savory (Good)

Sour (Bad)

Moldy (Terrible)

"Supergirl"

Fun Factor: 6/10

Acting: 7/10

Story: 5/10

Characters: 5.5/10

Quality: 5.5/10

Directed by Craig Gillespie

Rated PG-13 for superhero violence and action, language, disturbing themes and images, thematic elements

Released on June 26, 2026

1 hour and 50 minutes

Milly Alcock as Kara Zor-El / Supergirl

Eve Ridley as Ruthye Marye Knoll

Matthias Schoenaerts as Krem of the Yellow Hills

David Corenswet as Clark Kent / Kal-El / Superman

Jason Momoa as Lobo

David Krumholtz as Zor-El

Emily Beecham as Alura In-Ze