Milly Alcock plays Superman’s cousin, Kara, who is on a destructive streak and refuses to use her superhero powers.
The revamped DC Universe launched last year with Superman, in which Milly Alcock made her first appearance as his cousin Supergirl, and now she gets a solo movie of her own.
While Superman (David Corenswet) uses his superhero powers to save humans on Earth, we first meet his cousin Kara Zor-El/Supergirl (Alcock) while she’s hopping around the galaxy on an extended bender with her trusted dog Krypto.
She is grieving the loss of her family and her home planet, Krypton, and doesn’t want to be a superhero; she just wants to numb the pain. When young Ruthye (Eve Ridley) asks for help killing the evil Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts), avenging the death of her parents, Kara rejects her request.
However, when Krem poisons Krypto – giving the pooch 72 hours to live – Kara decides to team up with Ruthye to take down Krem and get the antidote.
Director Craig Gillespie, known for Cruella and I, Tonya, has made a deliberate effort to set this apart from James Gunn’s Superman. The characters are very different, and it makes sense that their movies should feel like separate entities too.
Supergirl is edgy, character-driven and set in space, plus Kara’s backstory is more affecting and emotional. It also doesn’t feel much like a superhero movie for large portions of the film, with Kara wearing a Blondie T-shirt instead of her red and blue suit.
While it’s easy to draw comparisons between this film and Gunn’s MCU trilogy, Guardians of the Galaxy, there are plenty of other clear inspirations, with weird and wonderful creatures like Star Wars, a Mad Max-looking villain and a dog-revenge plot straight out of John Wick.
Game of Thrones actress Alcock establishes herself as a star as this broken, destructive and punk-rock version of Kara. She has the perfect attitude and looks badass in her action scenes, is actually quite funny, and brings the emotion in poignant flashback scenes spoken entirely in Kryptonian.
But unfortunately, the narrative is pretty weak overall, Krem is a conventional if menacing villain, and the visuals are quite murky and CGI-heavy at times.
Plus, there also should have been more of the hilarious Jason Momoa – playing the bounty hunter Lobo, looking like a member of KISS – and the adorable CGI pup Krypto and the music choices could have been more memorable.
So, although Alcock is the perfect Kara and the change of tone is refreshing, Supergirl is not quite good enough to cut through the superhero fatigue.
In cinemas from Thursday 25th June
By Hannah Wales
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