At The Movies with James Phelan: Supergirl

I have to admit this upfront – I have a problem with ‘Superman’ movies. Insofar as nothing is really a problem for Superman. Basically because he’s a godlike colossus of purity and endless strength who can spin the world on its axis if he so wishes.

Bar pesky kryptonite, who or what can bother Superman to any sustained extent? In fairness, Christopher Reeves’ original take on the man in tights was a romantic tinged hit in the 70’s that literally did the heavy lifting for the entire franchise by convincing the world that Superman could fly.

Ever since that early magic, many subsequent iterations across the decades have repeatedly failed to recapture that spark. Or find a fresh spark. But God knows, in every generation, D.C. have another go at solving the entertainment vacuum in which Superman mainly operates.

All of which is to say that the team behind ‘Supergirl’ seem aware of the inherent problem of almost immortal impervious characters by doing their damn best to humanise, interestingly weaken and scuff up their heroine. It turns out that Superman’s cousin Kara has fled her adopted home of Earth in favour of an intergalactic pub crawl.

You see, even Kara has tired of the infallible strength provided by the yellow sun of our solar system. She has discovered if she parties on planets enlightened by a red sun for instance, she can actually get drunk. Even with killer hangovers, Kara finds masquerading as a human in the outer limits of the universe less painful than being a near deity on Earth.

With more than a whiff of ‘Guardian of the Galaxy’ vibes to both her partying and her musical choices, Kara is trying her best to be a loner until her one companion, a fluffy dog called Krypto, is shot with a slow-acting poison by a marauding alien chief. The same bad guy also just slaughtered a local sword maker’s family. But, crucially, one daughter, Ruthie, has survived and now wants to team up with Kara for a revenge rampage.

This section of the story feels heavily indebted to a strand from the gorgeous tapestry that is ‘The Princess Bride’. To be clear I have no problem with riffing on this classic to bolster and enrich the foundations of a blockbuster. I welcome it, in fact. The only onus for the borrowers is to do something interesting and entertaining with it. And on this front, ‘Supergirl’ fails.

Ruthie’s very recent and raw loss means the film has to deal with real pain and this in turn is painful for the audience. The movie is ill-equipped to go to these places and Kara repeatedly stresses her mission is solely to save her pooch. Which might be understandable and relatively selfless, but her continued ignoring of Ruthie’s world-shattering trauma comes off as heartless.

I’ve already mentioned the venn diagram of possible influences that this movie is operating within. In its constituent parts, it all sounds super promising, but the inspiration that the movie makers should have really tapped into actually comes from the small screen. 

The template to aim for should have been the expert splicing of sci-fi and western tropes that the scintillating TV show ‘Firefly’ proved was possible. (The short-lived ‘Firefly’ actually spawned an excellent film called ‘Serenity’ too). 

There is an attempt to inject more interest with the inclusion of the bounty hunter Lobo late on. I’m assured this character is a fan favourite from the comics but here he is introduced flatly and as played by Jason Momoa he seems little more than another generic kick ass wise ass. We aren’t offered his unique selling point. So, Lobo seems like a man lost on his way to a Kiss convention rather than someone we are actively rooting for.

In the lead role Milly Alcock certainly looks the part and exudes genuine charisma and presence. She just deserved a better movie around her. It seems a shame that she may not get a second crack at this character. Fittingly, the film limps to a tepid last scene with her more famous superhero cousin. It’s a bland end for a film that seemed determined to fight being branded as such. File under underwhelming.