Whenever you watch a movie that is based off of source material you are strongly familiar with, you tend to judge it on two different terms. 1.) Does it work as a faithful adaption of the source material? and 2.) Does it work as it’s own standalone film? Supergirl (2026), directed by Craig Gillespie, acting as the second film installment of the DC Universe, is inspired by Tom King’s comic book run of Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. At the time the comic released in 2021, it acted as a refreshing change of pace from your typical comic storylines centered around female superheroes. It boldly stripped down Kara Zor-El’s character as we know it, taking away her usual flawless looking girl power superheroine image in favor of turning her into a more relatable and pure messy “girlfailure” that is haunted by her tragic past. While most other Supergirl stories would have her spent her birthday saving the day and defying gender/sexist stereotypes, Woman of Tomorrow just has Kara celebrating her 23rd birthday with some good drinks. She then travels across the galaxy with her lovable dog Krypto where she would meet a young Ruthye Maryne Kroll that will lead her to a quest of revenge! (I basically just gave you the plot synopsis right there!)
While I’m not gonna say that Woman of Tomorrow is my favorite comic run of all time, it did stand strongly on it’s own as not just one of the better female-led superhero stories in recent memory but as a damn good story in it’s own right. And with James Gunn now in charge of the DC wheel, director Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya) at the helm of this project, the casting of Milly Alcock (House of Dragons) as the title character, and great source material to make a movie out of, you think this would be an absolute home run for DC Studios and female superhero movies in general. Right, right?! Well….you would unfortunately be wrong!
Supergirl (2026) is not without it’s own redeemable merits. Milly Alcock makes for a great Supergirl, feeling like the messy version of the character that was ripped straight off the pages of Woman of Tomorrow. Jason Mamoa is as reliable entertaining as Lobo as you would imagine him being. There’s some effective flashback sequences that tie back to Kara’s past that work quite well in their own rights, one of the few instances when the film allows itself to let those effective moments sink in. Also, David Corenswet is just as charming and delightful as Superman as he was last summer in the limited screentime that he has.
However, the film doesn’t so much feel like it’s trying to honor the spirit and heart of Woman of Tomorrow and feels more like it’s skimming through the pages to capture the “big” moments of the story in order to sell tickets. Or as if writer Ana Nogueira used ChatGPT to recite the plot summary of the comic in just three to four paragraphs. The punk rock style that worked very well in Superman (2025) doesn’t translate as hard here, much of the humor and action beats fall flat, the eye popping visuals from the comics are poorly realized here and not amusing to look at, and the villains (Just like in the comics!) are about as interesting as watching paint dry.
To the film’s credit, Supergirl (2026) does NOT play out as the goofy over-the-top Guardians of the Galaxy knock-off that the trailers themselves presented it as. It does takes itself quite seriously and very rarely undercuts any potential emotional beat in favorite of a funny one-liner. If anything, it feels more in line with Mad Max than Guardians of the Galaxy!
No, Supergirl is NOT Starlord! No, Lobo is NOT Drax the Destroyer! No, the main bad guy is NOT Ronan the Accuser (Although, even he was more memorable!) While there are definitely needle drops throw in (One of which is LAUGHABLY bad towards the end!), it’s no different than other needle drops in other superhero movies that doesn’t star Chris Pratt or Margot Robbie! (We can’t just claim that the Just a Girl happened in Captain Marvel all because Hooked on a Feeling happened in Guardians of the Galaxy!)
And it is that grim tone and edgy portrayal of Supergirl that is able to carry the majority of the film. Kara doesn’t strive to be this perfect girl that many Supergirls in the past are presented as. Instead, she’s strives on her imperfection and feels no need to apologize for it. Sometimes heroes can just let themselves loose and still act for the greater good. And it’s with her journey with Ruthye (despite a rather flat performance by Eve Ridley) that she holds similar confliction with her darker self about not letting vengeance consume you and sometimes it’s best to just not give yourself what you want because it will give you the exact opposite of that. This makes for a great reversal of Superman and an interesting way to examine the character without making her come across as strictly a female version of Kal-El.
Just too bad nearly ALL of that character work is thrown out by the time you reached the third act. Only then, we find Kara making decisions that complete contradicts her entire arc up to that point. Not to get too wrapped into spoilers but Supergirl’s decisions in her final confrontation is a COMPLETE 180 from the decisions she makes at the end of the comic. Whether that was intended to act as full circle moment for this edgy Supergirl, a subversion from most other superhero movies or changes to the book so fans wouldn’t be able to second guess everything beforehand is anyone’s guess. However, by the end, it felt incredibly unearned and left the climax feeling very less fulfilling than it otherwise should have been. (The Snyder cult is gonna have a RIOT with the end of this movie!)
From a technical side of things, the film is quite a mixed bag. While there’s some good set designs and the creatures and make-ups that looks incredibly fitting in such a dystopian world, the visuals and green screen are distractingly flat, feeling like it’s getting the very least of it’s $170 million budget that was given into production. Craig Gillespie has made some good movies in the past but between this and Cruella, he seems unqualified in directing high budgeted big feature films and should just stick to narrative-driven dramas like I, Tonya.
The editing between the flashback sequences and present day is quite distracting, the pacing grinds to a screeching hold in the second act, and while there are a handful of good tunes here, the original score by Claudia Sarne is nothing to write home about, failing to achieve even the ounce of the punk rock energy that John Murphy and David Fleming provided with Superman (2025). Even for a film that has a shorter budget than most superhero films nowadays, I was still expecting better.
The question some of you will ask is if Supergirl (2026) will work better for you if you have NOT read the novelization it’s based on?! It’s hard to say but that doesn’t change the shaking feeling of the film rather uneven quality, it’s bizarrely pacing and structure, and like a handful of chunks was cut out to trim the runtime down to an hour and 40 minutes for more theater showings. (I’m more than willing to believe those rumors about 30 minutes being cut directly from this film!)
Sure, you could bring up similar criticism in regards to Superman (2025) but that film was at least able to get it’s consistent message across involving kindness and warmth. It still felt like a complete vision from beginning to end, had plenty of standout moments in regards to character and emotion, and despite it’s rather overstuffed plot, it still was able to find a payoff for nearly every story element it sets up. With Supergirl (2026), you don’t get that vibe whatsoever, almost as if the film was directed by Lobo himself .
Supergirl (2026) is not a movie I hate or even dislike but it is the one that is bluntly shown the cracks of the armor of this new cinematic universe from Mr. Gunn and Mr. Safran this early on. While I am excited to see Alcock’s Supergirl teaming up with Corenswet’s Superman in next year’s Man of Tomorrow, DC Studios better bring their A-game this time next year or else the DCU could be over before it even gets a chance to settle in.
(At least Clayface looks good though.)
Other comments:
- At my screening, I ran into Dan Murrell, a movie reviewer on YouTube and also previously worked for Screen Junkies, the channel that does the Honest Trailers. I was gonna get a pic of him to prove it but I had to leave immediately after the film ended because I had to go to the bathroom so bad.
- Fyi, I don’t know if there’s a post credit scene or not. I heard reports that there originally was but it got cut for some reason. Just see for yourselves if you want.
- This was probably the least packed early screening for a movie that I’ve ever been to. The only other one I can think of that was worse than this was for Night Swim, where the film press didn’t even bother to show up and they just gave us all the “good” seats because of that.
- It’s very interesting how this makes for the SECOND recent film where the main bad guys are just a bunch of child traffickers. Between this and The Furious, it’s like cinema is trying to send a message to the US government to just release the files of a certain someone.
- Also, see The Furious if you haven’t already! It’s f**king awesome! Best action film of the decade and best action film of it’s kind since The Raid 2!
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