“My cousin and I have very different ideas about what it means to be a hero. He sees the good in everyone, and I see the truth.”
Since Endgame, I’ve been waiting on DC to seize the momentum away from Marvel. The MCU has essentially been waffling since that epic conclusion, so I figured that DC would engage in some carpe diem and saturate the market in order to pull the focus away from their rival. And yet, that doesn’t seem to be the case. We are lucky if we get one movie a year, and if I’m honest, the one we get isn’t spectacular; they are just average. I wasn’t blown away by last year’s Superman, and I wasn’t blown away by this year’s Supergirl. Milly Alcock was a great choice, and I won’t dispute that, and Jason Momoa is carbon-copy casting for Lobo, but the quality of story makes these top-tier casting choices wasted effort. In a time when DC should be giving us a layered story that draws us in, they give us a straightforward fish-out-of-water story about a girl and her dog with a dash of space pirates.
“Home is wherever you are, buddy.”
On her 23rd birthday, an emotionally isolated Kara is far from Earth, drowning her painful memories in an alien dive bar under a red sun where her powers are neutralized. Her life changes when she crosses paths with Ruthye (Eve Ridley, The Witcher), a fierce young girl on a quest to hunt down Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts, Old Guard), the ruthless space brigand who murdered her father. Initially reluctant to get involved in the teen’s revenge quest, Supergirl is forced into action when Krem poisons her beloved dog, Krypto, and steals her spaceship. With a strict 72-hour countdown to track Krem down and secure the life-saving antidote, Kara teams up with Ruthye.
I will say that the film does appear to be a faithful adaptation of its comic origins. The film adapts Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s acclaimed comic mini-series, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. Milly Alcock plays Kara as a weary, sarcastic, and hardened hero. The film captures her deep trauma from watching Krypton die, matching the comic’s darker emotional edge. The film has one clear deviation, which does seem to go against the titular moral code, which already has and will undoubtedly face the same kind of backlash the 2013 Snyder film faced, but in the context of the film, it felt fitting.
The film does take some liberties, particularly Lobo’s forced introduction, which result in a bumpy pacing detour. In the original comic, Lobo does not appear, but I can see the reasoning behind the decision to include him. He is among DC’s most interesting characters, an anti-hero if there ever was one, and as I said earlier, Momoa is basically picture-perfect casting. Ironically, before becoming Aquaman, Momoa originally thought DC was approaching him to play Lobo. His casting now is practically a self-fulfilling prophecy, and he doesn’t disappoint. He brings his signature, charismatic energy to the interstellar bounty hunter, but the reason for the character’s inclusion feels less like a natural story beat and more clearly designed to set up future DCU projects. And while I would be eager to see more of the character, in perhaps his own standalone project, in this one, it takes away from the sisterhood element of the Woman of Tomorrow storyline.
The central storyline of the Woman of Tomorrow comic, is the dynamic between Supergirl and Ruthye, as Kara attempts to prevent her from going down a dark path. That is depicted well in the first two acts, but we start to get away from that at the beginning of the third, though we do circle back to it during the film’s climax. However, I would have liked to have seen just a bit more bonding between the two, because it didn’t feel like enough time was dedicated to fully establishing this connection. The foundation was laid but does not feel fully supported.
Video
Supergirl is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.39:1. The ultra-high-definition 2160p image is arrived at by an HEVC codec with an average bitrate of 65 mbps. The native material is also 4K, as is the digital intermediate. The Dolby Vision keeps the presentation deeply embedded in the production design of the shoot. Each planet has a slightly different color scale because the suns are different color stars, and this is a nice but subtle detail that keeps the threads of the story true in the image presentation. Sometimes the colors are washed in or and sometimes green. In spaceships and bars the colors shift to neutral and somewhat cold colors. Black levels allow for good shadow definition, and if you want to appreciate these barroom brawls, that’s going to be important. When Supergirl is in her suit or we see Superman himself, those core basic colors dominate.
Audio
The Dolby Atmos audio presentation defaults to 7.1. Here’s what you need to know. This is a very manic movie, and the surrounds are going to have to work overtime to keep up and keep you immersed. The score is actually a nice beat here and gives the best indication of where we are in the film’s emotional beats. The subs truly deliver, and there’s a lot of crap getting blown up or thrown around. There aren’t many quiet moments here, and the surrounds do a very solid job of locating you properly in the action. Dialog cuts through as needed, and this at times is a pretty good show-off disc for your system.
Special Features
The extras are found on single UHD disc. There’s two hours of this stuff, and I would have preferred an extra Blu-ray for the extras. This is what we got.
Flying Off The Page: (11:02) As has been mentioned the film draws heavily on the Woman Of Tomorrow comics storyline, and we get to hear from those writers and creators. There are plenty of comic pages here used to compare and contrast what we got on the screen. There a nice amount of behind-the-scenes footage, and a lot of the focus is on production design.
Girl’s Best Friend: (5:25) While there were some real dogs as stand-ins here, Krypto is almost completely CG. He’s not the dog from the comics. He’s a yip-yip dog, because that’s the kind of dog James Gunn has. So we know he and Superman or Supergirl have opposite tastes in dogs. But we’re stuck with Gunn’s. I’m sure Gunn loves him a lot, but he’s no Krypto.
A Practical Legacy: (11:04) Here we get to see how the many aliens were created. Much of them are appliances and animatronics. So why not make Krypto this way? The team takes us through many of the featured aliens, and we get to see how they were brought to life.
The DC Dream – Lobo: (5:43) Jason Momoa was born to play this character, and he’s the best thing in the movie. Of course, he deserves his own bonus feature. You really get a good look at Momoa’s energy for this character. He’s just having way too much fun.
Showdown At Evely Square: (8:30) A scene-specific feature that takes us step by step behind the scenes for one of the bigger action moments.
Space Is A Bad Neighborhood, Babe: (10:34) Here we go behind the scenes for the huge sets and exotic locations.
Mixtape For A Hero: (5:08) I love to visit the soundstages where the orchestra lays down the score, and here it is.
The Making Of Supergirl: (24:57) This is really a summary of all the other features. Too much repeated footage and interviews here.
You Are Here – A Supergirl Map Of The Galaxy: (4:22) The feature is narrated by actress Eve Ridley as her character Ruthye. She gives us a bit of the lowdown on the planets and places they visit in the film.
Krypto Saves The Day – Coastal Catastrophe: (5:31) An animated short where Krypto is just trying to enjoy a hot dog at the beach.
Deleted Scenes: There are two with no play-all option
Final Thoughts:
I must reiterate that I don’t think DC is making the most of Marvel’s fumbling lately. And while Supergirl is a decent movie and faithful to its source material, there just isn’t anything about it that makes it stand out amongst the crowd or prompted persistent re-watches. The story is straightforward and there are good performances, but once watched, it just feels like I checked a box, and I don’t need to revisit it.
Parts of this review were written by Gino Sassani
