A still from ‘Supergirl’
| Photo Credit: Warner Bros.
Last year, James Gunn’s Superman tried to rebrand the most straight-laced, goody-two-shoes superhero in pop culture as “punk rock”. Now, Craig Gillespie’s adaptation of Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s celebrated 2021 comic Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow introduces the one major DC character who actually possesses a recognisably punk sensibility, only to sand away almost every abrasive edge that made her compelling on the page.This is the second theatrical entry in the rebooted DC Universe overseen by James Gunn and Peter Safran, following Gunn’s take on the Man of Steel. Instead of committing to Kal-El’s Kryptonian super-cousin Kara Zor-El as the traumatised cosmic drifter whose anger exists in permanent dialogue with impossible ideals of heroism, Supergirl reduces its eponymous hero’s first feature-film outing to the same faux-anarchic house style sludge that has metastasised across every superhero film touched by Gunn since Guardians of the Galaxy.Supergirl (English)Director: Craig GillespieCast: Milly Alcock, Matthias Schoenaerts, Eve Ridley, David Krumholtz, Emily Beecham, David Corenswet, Jason MomoaRuntime: 108 minutesStoryline: When an unexpected and ruthless adversary strikes too close to home, Supergirl reluctantly joins forces with an unlikely companion for an interstellar journey of vengeance and justiceThe film follows Kara, played by Milly Alcock, who survived the destruction of Krypton with memories fully intact, unlike her infant cousin Kal, who reached Earth too young to remember anything beyond the mythology later constructed around his origins. She celebrates turning twenty-three by hauling her super-dog Krypto across an interstellar pub crawl on planets orbiting red suns, exploiting the one astronomical loophole that temporarily deprives Kryptonians of their powers and allows her to drink herself into a rare state where survivor’s guilt finally shuts up for a few hours. The premise immediately distinguishes her from Superman, whose unbridled optimism stems from his ordinary upbringing in Kansas. Kara instead carries lived memories of cultural extinction that continue to haunt her. Ana Nogueira’s writing gestures towards that interiority through a flashback sequence set in the last remnants of Krypton in Argo City, yet every revelation is just further spoon-fed exposition.
