Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Supergirl Kara Zor-el is a depressed 23-year-old getting sloshed around the galaxy in a rundown spaceship with her emotional support pet dog Krypto. Great. We get it. Her planet died and she lost everybody. She deserves to grieve, rot, and run away from reality. But does is have to be in a super dimly lit movie that can compete with certain horror movies over bad lighting?
The story follows Supergirl (Milly Alcock) as she reluctantly embarks on an intergalactic adventure with Ruthye (Eve Ridley), a teenager on a quest for vengeance against Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts), a ruthless raider. Along the way, they encounter the crazy Lobo, played by Jason Momoa, who, by the way, is criminally wasted in a very small cameo that could have been riotously entertaining.
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Milly Alcock actually makes a terrific Supergirl. She looks the part, has the right attitude, and carries the iconic costume with confidence. The film itself, however, never lives up to her. For a story spanning planets, alien worlds, and cosmic battles, you’d expect visuals that make you sit back and go, “Wow.”
Instead, we’re treated to an endless parade of dimly lit scenes, almost as if the filmmakers are trying to hide mediocre CGI. Are the visual effects actually bad? I genuinely couldn’t tell, because I could barely see half of them in all that murky lighting. The only sequences that truly look gorgeous are the brief flashbacks to Kara’s life in Argo City on Krypton.
Even the climactic battle, which takes place in broad daylight, is smothered in a dreary filter that makes everything look overcast, and hazy. Seriously, ‘The Fall Guy’, a film about a stuntman working on a fake fantasy movie, had better looking fantasy sets than Supergirl.
“Superman is so much better!” my teenage cousin, whom I watched the film with, kept exclaiming throughout the second half. By the time the credits rolled, he had already decided he wanted to rewatch Superman instead. David Corenswet does pop up in a brief cameo as Kara’s cousin, complete with a sweet flashback showing the two meeting for the first time on Earth.
Ironically, those few minutes left me wanting a completely different story. A mini-series following Kara as she learns English, adapts to life in an American city, and gradually grows into the hero we know sounds far more entertaining than the intergalactic adventure this film ultimately delivers.
Rating for Supergirl: 2 stars on 5.
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