brendan halpin

I saw Supergirl during the last heat wave. (So like, 2 weeks ago?). I knew it didn’t do well with critics and that the box office had been underwhelming by blockbuster movie standards, but I liked it a lot.

I think that after last summer’s bright and cheery Superman, folks were expecting more of the same. But that’s not what the filmmakers were aiming at. The idea here, which I think is cool and actually justifies having 2 identically-powered heroes, is that Clark is open hearted and optimistic because he was raised from infancy by loving parents, whereas Kara grew to adolescence with loving parents and had to essentially watch them die. So she’s angry. And she drinks too much—this is a gag in Superman, where she stumbles in at the end, a party girl who goes off-planet to get wasted, but in this movie its clear that she’s burying her grief under alcohol.

So, yeah, this is a darker movie than Superman, but not the grimdark of some earlier DC movies. It’s also a science fiction movie that takes place entirely on other planets and in space, so that’s a very different vibe from the Metropolis of Superman.

I have rarely seen a movie that tells the truth that grief makes you angry. You see it in revenge movies, but what’s touching about Kara’s story is that there’s no revenge to be had. Her parents weren’t killed by some evildoer—she’s angry, but she’s got nowhere to put this anger, so she channels it into self destruction, which is tough when you’re invulnerable, at least under the light of a yellow sun.

Also? Yes, the costume is kind of dumb with the high boots and the short skirt but at no point in this movie does the camera ogle Milly Alcock the way, for example, the camera ogled Scarlett Johansen in the Avengers movies, especially the first one where her character is introduced with some soft bondage porn.

I suspect this may be driving some of the negative responses to the movie—some people—fine, fine, men—think women probably shouldn’t be superheroes, but if they are, they need to be filmed as objects of desire rather than people.

Eve Ridley also gives a brilliant performance, and Jason Momoa is delightful, although it was never fully clear to me exactly why Lobo was in this movie at all.

I did not like the fact that Krypto being in mortal peril is the plot driver because a)Krypto was so fun in Superman and I was looking forward to more of him and b) DON’T HURT THE DOG, DAMMIT!

So, yeah. It’s probably gone from theaters by now, but when it pops up on HBO Max or whatever, I recommend giving it a watch, unless you’ve got dead parent or injured pet trauma, in which case it might be a tough watch. (Mileage may vary of course—I have dead parent