“Supergirl” could have been great

I was a massive fan of last year’s “Superman.” I watched it during a time in my life when I needed that positivity. I loved everything about that movie, and Milly Alcock’s appearance as Kara at the end helped establish her as very different from her cousin. I have read the comic on which “Supergirl” is based, and I was excited to see what they did with it on the big screen.

When her dog, Krypto, is poisoned by Krem (Mattias Schoenaerta), Kara (Alcock) sets out to get the antidote and is joined by a girl named Ruthye (Eve Ridley) on a quest to kill Krem and avenge her family.

I wanted to love this movie as much as I love “Superman,” but there were some flaws that I couldn’t overlook. Namely, that Krem is a very boring, one-note villain. In the comic (I promise I will not say that past this paragraph), he has more charisma and personality. He joins a group of space pirates who commit genocide wherever they go. What they do here is equally terrible (child trafficking), but it is such a minor plot point in this movie. In the comic, while Kara wants to save Krypto and Ruthye wants to avenge her family, stopping the mass murder is also a major plot point. You could remove the child trafficking from this movie, and it would not affect the plot. It was put there just to make Krem and his lackies bad guys, because poisoning a dog and killing an entire family is apparently too subtle.

Despite all of that, there is plenty to like, even love, about “Supergirl.” Milly Alcock is incredible as Kara/Supergirl. Kara, unlike her cousin, was around for the destruction of Krypton: at least the last remaining bit of it. Her father was able to save a part of the planet, but when people started getting sick and dying, he sent her to Earth. She has lost everything and is still dealing with that loss. It is why she goes to bars on planets with red suns (it makes her mortal) to get drunk. The character arc for her was pretty clear from the beginning: someone who lost “her people” finds people to care about again. Just because it’s obvious doesn’t mean it’s not effective. That has a lot to do with Alcock’s performance. She brings a sadness to Kara that informs most of her actions in the film. She has an edge to her that Clark doesn’t. I look forward to seeing how her character evolves in future movies.

I wish this movie had just adapted the comic it was based on, or told a totally original story, as they did for “Superman.” As much as I walked out of the theater liking this movie, I was disappointed that it did not hit as hard as its predecessor. It is anchored by Milly Alcock’s performance, but its potential is hindered by a very boring villain and not really knowing what to do with most of the other characters in the movie. Lobo (Jason Momoa) was all over the marketing, and while I liked him and Momoa was born to play this character, you could have excised him from the movie and changed nothing. Milly Alcock and “Supergirl” deserved better than this movie gave them.

7/10

Rated PG-13 for sequences of strong violence, action, language, and smoking.

1h 48m