We are currently experiencing a biblical heatwave in the UK, so I sought refuge in the local air-conditioned cinema, where Supergirl just happened to be playing. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.
I expected the kind of CGI slopfest that has typified the summer 2026 season: corporate product bereft of any genuine inspiration, originality or desire to tell a tale. And don’t forget that female superhero movies have to be infused with a hefty dose of feminist power fantasy messaging now. It’s the law.
Early word on the movie wasn’t good, and every time star Millie Alcock opened her mouth in interviews, she didn’t so much speak as change feet. The box office projections are poor, and all the signs point to Supergirl being a historic flop.
In some ways, Supergirl is all the things I thought it would be. At the same time, it is nowhere near as bad as I feared it would be. Maybe it’s the low expectations, or the heatstroke, but I didn’t hate it.
It’s Time For Some Qualifiers
Don’t get me wrong – that statement comes with a lot of caveats. Let’s start with Supergirl herself. Millie Alcock is best known for her stint on House of the Dragon, but I first saw her in the Australian comedy drama series Upright, where she plays a mouthy, obnoxious brat. James Gunn must have watched it and said:
‘That’s my Supergirl.’
Portraying Kara Zor-El as a drunk, selfish, grieving trainwreck is an odd take on the character. It’s not like any version of Supergirl I’ve ever seen. If you want to see Supergirl peeing, puking and eating literal shit, then this is the movie for you. Really.
There’s nothing wrong with Alcock’s performance. It’s the concept that will turn a lot of people off. But if you can buy into this version of the character, her issues at least give her a character arc. The movie does a decent job of filling in her backstory and showing some character progression throughout the film.
Mad Max
The plot is simple: Kara is celebrating her birthday with her dog Krypto on a planet with a red sun. This is important because she doesn’t have her Supergirl powers on planets with red suns, although she still beats up a hulking alien three times her size. It’s never quite clear what the power levels are for a lot of these characters.
Space pirates (called brigands) shoot Krypto and steal Kara’s ship. We’ve already seen these brigands wipe out a family with axes, but for some reason they shoot Krypto with a slow-acting poisonous dart. Why? So the plot can happen!
Kara has 72 hours to track down the brigands and retrieve the antidote. She teams up with teenage girl Ruthye (Eve Ridley), who is seeking revenge on the brigands for killing her family.
The brigands are generic, one note villains straight out of Mad Max but with considerably less personality. The leader is called Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts). He’s evil because why not? He kidnaps young girls and uses them as child brides for his men so they can maintain their all-male race or something.
Looks like Supergirl will have to teach these evil men a lesson, eh? In fairness, the messaging isn’t heavy handed, and the movie never seems to be hating on men in general.
The Wrecking Crew
Supergirl visits a few generic planets, populated by many strange looking alien races. I have no idea how lore-accurate it is, but it feels more like Star Wars than the DC Universe at times. How is this meant to appeal to normies? It’s weird.
Jason Momoa pops up, playing Jason Momoa. You know what he’s like. He smokes, drinks, rides a bike and punches people. It’s the exact character he plays in The Wrecking Crew. Although I must say the cigar vape he smokes looks like Krypto’s red rocket. I wouldn’t say that to his face though.
Momoa’s Lobo seems bolted on to the movie to beef it up a bit. He’s not really required, but I’m glad he was there.
My main gripe with the movie is the action. The choreography isn’t terrible, which is the usual complaint I have with these CGI-heavy blockbusters. The issue here is the quick cutting and a camera that won’t stay still for more than half a second. It’s genuinely disorientating at times trying to figure out what is going on as the camera swoops around in a blur.
It gets worse when the teenage girl takes out a six-and-a-half foot man mountain cyborg in hand-to-hand combat. The movie shows creditable restraint up to that point in portraying Ruthye as vulnerable and needing Kara’s protection, then shits the bed.
The somewhat contrived third act unravels as the cartoon action ramps up and the movie loses its tenuous grip on reality. As I suspected, the sense of jeopardy over whether the CGI dog dies was almost non-existent.
Overall
Although this review has been mostly negative, I said I didn’t hate Supergirl. I was out of the heat. I bought into Kara’s journey. A couple of deaths were shocking and showed some real balls. Kara’s scenes with David Corenswet’s Superman were effective in highlighting their contrasting personalities.
Ruthye allows Kara to act as a big sister and grow as a person. It’s basic, but it mostly works. Like Superman last year, the human aspects of the Kryptonian characters are what appealed to me most.
Unfortunately, it’s surrounded by overly busy action sequences that the makers of these capeshit movies seem to think are non-negotiable.
Remember when The Dark Knight ended in a tense stand-off loaded with drama and ZERO crashing spaceships? Good times.
