Pour one for SupergirlThe latest installment in the DCU Gods and Monsters online troll attacks, mixed reviews and a very disappointing opening weekend box office – not the result Warner Bros. was hoping for with the sequel to last year’s film. Superman. It’s actually a pretty good movie, as such movies go, but not this one excellent movie. And in today’s oversaturated superhero market, that’s not enough to get people out of their homes and into theaters rather than waiting for a movie to hit streaming platforms.
(There are some spoilers below, but no major reveal.)
The studio tapped Ana Nogueira to write the script, a holdover from the former DCEU’s plans for a standalone Supergirl movie. (The character appeared in the 2022 finale Flash(played by Sasha Calle.) The project was reimagined when James Gunn and Peter Safran took over and launched a “soft reboot” DCU. Directed by Craig Gillespie (Lars and Real Girl, I’m Tonya) signed to redirect.
The story is adapted from the comic book miniseries Supergirl: Woman of TomorrowIn 1968, partly inspired by the classic Western, True Grit. Gillespie envisioned his film as a kind of interplanetary road movie, with Kara Zor-El/Supergirl (Milly Alcock) teaming up with Jason Momoa’s savage bounty hunter Lobo in a dynamic reminiscent of Matty Ross and Rooster Cogburn. Lobo made more of a cameo appearance; She is not featured at all in the comic miniseries, which focuses on Kara’s budding friendship with an alien child bent on revenge. It’s the arc that the film is based on, reminiscent of the Silver Age of DC Comics.
The film opens with the rebellious Kara celebrating her 23rd birthday by jumping around the red star planets with her space dog, Krypto, because she can get drunk there instead of healing/powering up the yellow star worlds. (The green star worlds will kill him, which becomes relevant later.) He mostly ignores the distress calls from his cousin Kal-El/Superman/Clark Kent (David Korensvet). As he embraces a naïve optimism and encourages her to return to Earth and make it her home, she is unabashedly cynical. But for Kara, home is where the crypto is.
