All That for a Dog

I’ll admit it: I went into Supergirl expecting the worst. 

While I enjoyed The Flash and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and I called The Batman one of the best films of 2022, the superhero-movie genre has been lacking in quality for years. In fact, I didn’t just dislike James Gunn’s Superman reboot, I put it on my list of the worst movies of 2025, right alongside Captain America: Brave New World. 

So, the idea of another movie about a cape-wearing savior saving the world didn’t exactly fill me with anticipation — and Supergirl’s trailers didn’t have me feeling optimistic, either. 

Well, I needn’t have worried. Not as much, anyway.

Supergirl isn’t the squeaky-clean, inspirational superhero movie that Gunn tried to make last year. That’s a good thing. Instead, Kara Zor-El (Milly Alcock) is introduced as someone who’d rather be getting drunk in outer space, on planets where her powers don’t work, than saving the universe or hanging out in Metropolis with her cousin, Kal-El, a.k.a. Clark Kent, a.k.a. Superman (David Corenswet). “He sees the good in people,” Kara says. “I see the truth.” 

Director Craig Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl; I, Tonya) really leans into the character’s origins, and for its first half or so, Supergirl has an offbeat energy that I genuinely appreciated.

For those who need a primer: Kara isn’t volatile and rebellious simply because she’s Gen Z. It’s because she was old enough to remember Krypton before it went kaboom. Where Clark sees Earth as his home, Kara sees it as the place she ended up after losing her real home and her parents. So, she feels isolated, angry, homesick, and resentful in ways that Clark rarely does. As a result, Supergirl is often portrayed (in comic books, anyway) as more impulsive and emotional than Superman. She struggles with authority, questions her role as a hero, and feels frustrated living in the shadow of her famous cousin.

It’s a compelling character angle, one the Helen Slater movie in 1984 and the CW’s Supergirl series didn’t adhere to, and it gives the movie a distinct personality — and differentiates it from Gunn’s film. To her credit, at the very least, Alcock is more appealing than Will Smith was in Hancock, the movie in which he played a drunk, anti-hero superhero. She captures Kara’s sadness and reluctance well enough, and the movie wisely avoids turning the character into a saint.

Also leaving an impression is David Krumholtz, who appears in flashbacks as Kara’s father and makes the most of his limited screen time.

Anyway, the story kicks off when Kara’s beloved, hyperactive super-dog, Krypto (yes, him again), is poisoned by the villainous Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts), who happens to be the only person with the antidote. She also meets Ruthye (Eve Ridley), a young alien warrior armed with a sword and a thirst for vengeance after Krem and his mercenaries kill her family. Together, Kara and Ruthye embark on a revenge quest that gradually forces Kara to confront who she is and whether she’s willing to become the hero others expect her to be.

Yup. All that for a dog. You might say Supergirl is kind of like Jane Wick, in space.

The Keanu Reeves flick has a distinct aesthetic, and Supergirl does, too. Visually, the film’s universe is populated by characters who look like they wandered out of the cantina in Star Wars or an alternate cut of a Guardians of the Galaxy movie, and then went through a Mad Max–inator, giving the whole thing a scruffy quality that’s far more interesting than the sterile worlds most other superhero movies operate in. 

Which brings me to Jason Momoa, who plays Lobo, the intergalactic bounty hunter who makes an uneasy ally for Kara. While he may be a perfect and almost too-obvious fit for the character on paper, I’ve never really warmed to Momoa’s larger-than-life persona. (I didn’t love him as Aquaman in the Snyderverse/DCEU, either.) Fans will likely love this portrayal. I found it meh.

Likewise, Schoenaerts tries to bring life to his performance as Krem, but never fully connects, and Ridley’s stiff performance makes Ruthye’s emotional arc less than compelling.

As the film goes on, the plot beats become predictable, and the dialogue doesn’t ever capture the spark of what makes the best movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe so good. What humor there is in Ana Nogueira’s screenplay rarely lands — not a promising sign, given that she’s also working with Gunn’s DC Studios on an upcoming Teen Titans film and a brand-new Wonder Woman film.

And then, in its final third, Supergirl completely abandons what initially made it distinctive when the movie inevitably becomes the same special-effects-heavy superhero spectacle we’ve seen countless times before. The quirky charm gives way to noise, explosions, and generic comic-book action. Ho hum.

All told, Supergirl isn’t nearly as awful as I feared it would be. There are flashes of originality and a welcome weirdness early on that suggest a more interesting movie below the surface. It’s just that, by the time the credits roll, this one has largely surrendered to the worst aspects of superhero-movie convention.

It’s not terrible. It’s not memorable, either. And while I don’t necessarily regret seeing it, ultimately, I can’t say I’m particularly eager to see this version of Supergirl again anytime soon.

I’m giving the movie a C.