By Dan Skip Allen

Ever since James Gunn and Peter Safran took the jobs as heads of the new DC Studios at Warner Brothers, one of the mandates was to make a “Supergirl” movie. The one from 1984 was maligned a bit for its campiness. Most superhero movies were campy back in the day. This time around, Gunn and Safran wanted to do this character justice. They brought in Craig Gillespie, no stranger to female driven fare. He’s directed the sports biopic “I’Tanya”, and the Disney origin story “Cruella” in the past. Now he is tackling his first superhero film but taking the story from the Tom King run of DC Comics “Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow”. This is a popular story reimagining this character.  Fans were very happy with this story. And so were Gunn and Safran.That’s why they had Gillespie adapt it into this film. Let’s see if that worked or not on the big screen.

Kara Zor-El/Supergirl (Milly Alcock, House of the Dragon) is celebrating her 23rd birthday by doing a space version of a pub crawl. She goes planet by planet, drinking herself into a stupor, sleeping it off in her spaceship, and being woken up the next morning by her best friend Krypto the Superdog. She’s a bit of a hot mess. She just so happens to end up in a dive bar on a planet where an alien by the name of Krem of the Yellow Hills, leader of the Brigands (Mathias Sheonaerts) is. He’s a pirate and a trafficker of humans, mainly teenage girls. He killed the family of a young girl, Ruthie (Eve Ridley), who wants revenge for what he has done to her family. She just so happens to walk into the small dive bar Kara Zor-El is in, and they end up crossing paths by circumstance. Despite Kara not wanting to help the girl by coincidence, they end up joining forces to hunt down and try and kill this bad man who they both have beef with. They aren’t the only ones who have problems with this man and his crew.

Alcock was the perfect choice to play this new version of Kara Zor-El/Supergirl. She embodied all the traits of this specific version of the character. The drunken college school girl part of her character seemed to come easy for her. I live in a college town, and I used to frequent a lot of bars when I was younger, and Gillespie got this part of the story and character perfectly. He even threw in a red sun element so as to not let her powers block the effects of the alcohol. Then, of course, she flies to a place with a yellow sun to wear off the effects from the previous night’s exploits. It’s a typical twenty something college girl getting away from home and letting go of stuff. I loved this aspect of the character. Of course, the Supergirl elements would come into play as the movie progressed, but this was a nice introduction to this specific Kara Zor-El/Supergirl.

One of the things about Superman or, in this case, Supergirl is that they have to have scenes that show them being just that, super. This film has many scenes showing Alock’s Supergirl in various fights with the Brigands and doing incredible feeds of strength and destruction. Mainly against aliens who are like cannon fodder for someone with her abilities. A scene on a space bus against some tech pirates who were invading the bus to steal all of the stuff they could get from its passengers was surprisingly enjoyable to watch.This scene was very well done from a choreography perspective and a fan service aspect. Viewers got to see this character be who she truly was. I loved the music, the comedy, and everything that went into this scene. I was enjoying watching everything that went on.

Besides the main characters I already mentioned, there are a few other characters that play a prominent part in the story. Lobo (Jason Momoa) is a space bounty hunter. He comes across Supergirl and Ruthie at a different bar on another planet. They tend to cross paths with each other, searching for and eventually finding the pirates. He’s looking for the head of a different one from this crew. Momoa makes this character his own. He was born to play this brash, no nonsense bounty hunter. He uses his catchphrase of Bastich a few times and kicks ass all of the time he’s on screen. Lobo is like the DC version of Wolverine from Marvel Comics, except he’s in space. Momoa is funny, rude, and everything in between as this bounty hunter. I think fans of this character will be very happy with his portrayal of the fan favorite character from the comics. I loved every moment he was on screen. David Cranswet also reprised his role as Superman a few times. 

With comic book movies, there has to be a bit of winking at the screen. Not really taking what you’re watching too seriously. Sometimes, though, the writers/directors infuse something important into their stories that surround big fight sequences and explosions. That’s the case here as well. An epidemic in this country and around the world right now is human trafficking. Specifically, young girls are being kidnapped and sold as sex slaves to rich criminals or people who can’t have kids in foreign countries. That’s the main reason for the space pirates. They are human traffickers. I liked how this comic book movie tackled such an important subject around the world and made it part of a fun action film such as this one. Hopefully, shedding light on this terrible thing that is happening all around the world. 

A funny part of the film is right at the beginning. She’s sleeping off a drunk with her dog running around in her ship and the sun peaking through the window. Trash and clothes are strewn everywhere, and the place is a mess. This had me laughing because it’s so realistic to the college girl lifestyle. I think a lot of twenty something things will relate to everything that was shown in the opening credits sequence. This will remind them of themselves to a T. You learn right off the bat who this character truly is from the very beginning of the film. 

“Supergirl” was exactly as I hoped it would be. It was a superhero movie that tackled serious topics but didn’t take itself too seriously. It balanced the funny and comedic moments perfectly well with the action scenes and the touching character moments. Gillespie knew the assignment and passed with flying colors. Sure, this isn’t the 80s Supergirl, but it’s a realistic version of who and what Kara Zor-El would be like in today’s world. A grief stricken twenty something who drowned her sorrows in the bottle until she actually has to get up off her ass and do something important.  She becomes an influence on another young girl who truly needs her. This version of the character will be one that many teenagers and young twenty-somethings will embrace.This is them in a nutshell with a Supergirl costume. Alcock is as fantastic as this character. She embodied everything that Gillespie, Gunn, and Safran were hoping for in this version of the character. Two great turns from Momoa as Lobo, perfect casting, and Schoenaerts as the main villain Krem as well. The action scenes were plenty and incredibly done at that. This is one of my favorite movies from the first half of 2026.

🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 ½ stars