You may ask why I felt the need to clarify the year this movie came out. Surely this is the only Supergirl movie, yes? Well obviously you’ve never seen the movie Supergirl that came out in 1984, starring Helen Slater as Supergirl! And neither have I. Few people have. Anyway, on with the review.

Superman (2026) stars Milly Alcock, Eve Ridley, Jason Momoa, Matthias Schoenaerts, Emily Beecham, David Krumholtz, and David Corenswet. It was written by Ana Nogueira and directed by Craig Gillespie.

Quick Plot Rundown –
Superman’s cousin, Kara Zor-El, who we met at the end of Superman (But also she’s been around since before I was born so we didn’t really meet her then) is sad because her planet Krypton blew up but she was alive and a teenager as it all exploded. So Kara’s got lots of trauma. And how do you deal with trauma when you’re stuck on a dumb planet with annoying humans and the only other guy from your planet who also has the powers you have is a goody two-shoes dork whose only real source of trauma is that recently he found out his parents wanted him to have lots of sex and take over Earth? You get in your spaceship with your menace of a dog and you go to planets with suns that negate your powers and get absolutely shit-faced.

While she’s on one of these benders, Kara happens to run into Ruthye Marye Knoll, who’s out for revenge because her family just got murdered by leather-clad space pirates who give off big BDSM vibes. Kara wants none of this revenge mission but then her devilish dog Krypto is shot with poison by the leader of the space pirates! Oh no! So then they have to team up and go to various brown space locales (Buses, bars, haberdasheries, houses owned by bar owners, pirate ships, town squares outside of bars, expanses of dirt, etc.) to track down the Brigands and their somewhat generic leader, Krem.

Along the way they encounter such wonderful things like other vague space villainy, a random Seth Rogen cameo because the Director likes working with him, a bounty hunter named Lobo, flashbacks of planetary destruction, flashbacks of Supergirl’s dorky cousin, questionable needle drops, footage of planetary destruction and a poisoned dog in a hut that we’d previously seen already in the film, but placed in moments designed to remind viewers of the emotional stakes of the movie they’re watching in case they haven’t really been paying attention, and of course, more brown space locales.

General Non-Spoilery Thoughts –
It’s fine. This one kind of broke me a bit. Not because I feel any particular way about it. There’s nothing Earth-shattering (Or Krypton shattering if you know what I mean… HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! WE ALL LOVE JOKES ABOUT FICTIONAL MASS EXTINCTION HERE AT TOO MANY SERVINGS OF JOHN! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! THAT WAS AN EXCELLENT JOKE I MADE!!!) about this film either way. I was just kind of put off by the public reaction to this.

I know not every movie will be liked by everyone and not all superhero movies are great, but on the superhero movie scale this is fine to mediocre at best, with some massive caveats swinging both ways, which I’ll get into. But the reaction to this has been somewhat baffling. Reviewers I like and respect have shit on this and said it’s one of the worst superhero movies. There’s obviously all the annoying internet people. And I’m seeing lots of “James Gunn fumbled after two movies”. Okay. Shut up please.

There will be more movies and TV shows. In general but also from this DC Universe. Some of them will have flaws. Some will be great. It may end prematurely because horrible man David Ellison and his Paramount goons may throw the whole thing out as soon as they take over. If they do. I hope they don’t. Man of Tomorrow and Lanterns look good. Also I’m just sick of how reactionary everything is now. I don’t care that this film has lots of Star Wars cantina vibes by the way. Not everything is Star Wars and I don’t care if it feels like a major influence. Shut up about Star Wars, please, universe.

This blog has inexplicably been around for five years. Or at least it will have been, in a few months. I have not consistently posted during those five years but I have been consistent in reviewing most of the superhero content that has been released during that span of time. I have covered some high highs and some low lows. Superman was a really fun movie and it made me happy. It was a step in the right direction. Despite its flaws, this movie has one thing going for it that is undeniable. Milly Alcock is really really fun and good. She did a great job.

But just because Superman was the last thing that came out, we’re suddenly all acting like we didn’t just endure five years of shit like The Flash, Black Adam, Morbius, Madame Web, Kraven the Hunter, Secret Invasion, Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania, Captain America: Brave New World, and The Flash. Maybe not everyone going to see Supergirl watched all of that, but I know all those reviewers did. So let’s all chill out. There is nothing incendiary about this film. Well, maybe one thing. But I’ll get to that. It’s just a tad generic.

For me, this is Thor: Love and Thunder all over again, but it’s most likely a better movie than that. I’ll show my work. Love and Thunder is not a very good movie. It’s visually gross. There are some terrible visual effects. There’s a lot of improv in it that does not work and Taika Waititi overstayed his welcome as Korg and kind of ruined his career as a Director for a second. Though I believe he released this the same year as his magnum opus, the Daniel Craig Belvedere Vodka commercial. So it all balances out. Check that out if you haven’t.

There are many elements of Love and Thunder I still enjoy though. I haven’t rewatched it in three years probably, but I think the montage of Thor and Jane living together and breaking up is genuinely funny. I think Hemsworth and Portman are good still. And Russell Crowe does some weird shit. It balances out with the dumber more confusing stuff, like most of the plot points in the movie and the fact that the soundtrack is primarily Guns and Roses songs and there’s dialogue in the movie about Guns and Roses and it’s weird and meaningless. I’m rambling. But thankfully I can shift the point I’m making to a different part of the review! Yay!

How Did We Get Here?
The main similarity these movies share is that Supergirl and Love and Thunder are both based on beloved and very specific comic book storylines. Love and Thunder adapts the God Butcher and Mighty Thor, core aspects of Jason Aaron’s Thor run which ran from 2012-2019. Supergirl is based on an eight issue mini-series from 2021 called Supergirl: Woman Of Tomorrow, written by Tom King and drawn by Bilquis Evely.

Love and Thunder made the mistake of condensing seven years of storytelling into one movie, and in the process they made Gorr the God Butcher less interesting, gave Natalie Portman nothing to work with, and just did a pretty poor job adapting a good story. But beside that I think the movie is fine for what it is, it just came after a good thing and people expected more.

The same thing has happened here. Supergirl: Woman Of Tomorrow is essentially True Grit, but with Supergirl in the John Wayne/Jeff Bridges role. The comic is beautiful and colorful and the world within is weird and visually expansive. The comic takes a somewhat episodic, focused approach and delves deep into what Supergirl is and how her trauma defines her. How she is challenged more than she otherwise would be by those who wish to take revenge on her cousin and perceive her to be weaker or less than.

There’s a planet of racist aliens and orbs that can send you across the galaxy and a race to the end of the universe that features Comet the Super Horse, who is Supergirl’s horse but also a man in love with Supergirl that took horse form. He’s from the 70’s. 70’s comics are weird, everyone was on drugs. A lot of the more negative reviews are influenced by the fact that the comic book is quite good and this takes almost no visual cues from that comic book and simplifies the narrative down to the point that it is just fairly uninteresting. But again, I didn’t hate it. Anyway, let’s get a move on, I’ll talk more comic/movie differences later.

Characters –
Kara Zor-El AKA Supergirl – Milly Alcock
So this is quite easily the best part of this movie, which is good. Even if you don’t like this movie or how it adapted the comic, it cannot be disputed that Milly Alcock is incredible. I think she makes a few too many Earth-based references for someone who purposefully spends little to no time on Earth. We don’t know how long she’s been there for, they don’t make it clear, but she is fluent in English. We also don’t know if she lived with Ma or Pa at all, which I think would’ve been nice to see.
She wears her heart on her sleeve in that you can always see her emotions so plainly, but she’s equally holding back because she’s so tired and broken. Apparently people are out there blaming this movie being a mess on her?? She’s so good! Shut up! What a great actress! And though a lot of her dialogue and bits read as “Let’s make her seem like a drunk relatable mess”, she makes it all work. Can not wait to see her in Man of Tomorrow.
It’s just nice to see a version of Supergirl, who again is not a character I particularly care about, who isn’t just girl Superman. She doesn’t need to be boring and girl scout-y and generic. This is not me shitting on the CW show by the way, but let’s be honest, almost every single characterization was off in all those shows. They made a Batman TV show and called it Arrow and wrote a less interesting version of Wally West and called him Barry Allen. But no shade to any of the actors in those shows. Especially Tom Cavanaugh, who is the best.
Anyway, big fan. I hope she gets to play Supergirl for a long time. She’s a lot of fun.

Ruthye – Eve Ridley
So… I don’t know. I’m sure Eve Ridley is a nice person and a good actress. But also she’s fifteen and Milly’s two years older than me so boo to them both. I just don’t think she’s fantastic in this movie, purely because of the material she’s been given. Ruthye in the comic is very specific and well-read, which comes across in her dialogue and her writing. The comic is Ruthye in her old age writing about the adventure she went on as a kid. Like True Grit. But in this she’s just gabbing about revenge and when she isn’t she stands in the direct center of the camera and stares at the camera with a sad confused expression while action or green screens happen behind her. I also don’t like that her whole family dies in this movie when in the book it’s just her dad and that’s more interesting. I don’t know, I like her enough I guess, but her youth is obnoxious.

Krem – Matthias Schoenaerts
He’s fine. I don’t think Schoenaerts brings anything particularly interesting to the role. Most of the fun parts of this character come from the costume design, which is completely different from the comic. In the comic he’s just some ginger dude who works for the King, whereas in this he’s gross and crusty and he’s wearing leather and he has metal studs in his forehead and a weird voice modulator disc on his throat that looks like something a longtime smoker would have. But I’m pretty sure he only uses it once and I don’t know what it’s for.
The most memorable bit with him in the movie is when Supergirl head butts him and some of his metal studs end up in her forehead. But other than that he’s fine. The issue with adapting this storyline is that his character in the comic isn’t supposed to be some iconic villain or super interesting alien design or anything like that. He’s just a guy. And there was always going to be a risk of him feeling generic or like he fades into the background. But because what he does is different and why he does it is different, everything that makes that character interesting is essentially erased from the narrative and then there’s not really anything for Schoenaerts to do. So we’re left with an early scene that feels like a tired riff on Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds and an ending that’s a lesser version of Furiosa, but with a creepy kinky leather dude who just laughs because he loves murdering.

Lobo – Jason Momoa
I’m conflicted. I’m happy Jason Momoa got to play Lobo, because he’s wanted to for a long time. When Zack Snyder approached him to play Aquaman, he assumed he was being cast as Lobo, and was rightfully confused to be cast as Aquaman instead. I think he was fine in those movies. But this makes more sense. Momoa’s apparently a huge Lobo fan, he’s read all the comics. When James Gunn was announced as the new DC head, the first text he received was from Jason Momoa saying “LOBO?!?!?!?!?!” So I’m happy for him. I’ve had time to think about his performance and settle into it, but it was jarring. There’s a lack of mania to his performance that you kind of need for Lobo that’s been prevalent in a lot of Momoa’s other performances.
He’s a bit too restrained. His performance is a bit polarizing for people, but so is the movie as a whole. He’s not in it much. Though I think it’s a good use of Lobo, seeing as he isn’t in the comic. He’s only there because he’s fulfilling a bounty on one of the Brigands and he doesn’t care at all about what Ruthye and Supergirl are up to. Except for one moment after his plot is done and I thought he’d left, he just stops to watch Supergirl do her final battle, which was kind of weird. You’re just watching the movie you’re in.
It also irritated me that he says “shit” a few times, when Lobo usually says fake space swear words. I know he says “Bastich” once or twice. I can’t remember if he said “frag”. But overall good. There’s one line reading in particular when he’s talking to Ruthye that felt very Lobo, but it’s all vibes really. Honestly the fact that he looks like Lobo and he can just stand in a bit of shadow and look cool does half the work for him.

Zor-El – David Krumholtz
I never really thought about Kryptonian naming conventions, but they’re kind of all over the place. I’m sure someone’s explained it, but Superman is Kal-El and his dad is Jor-El. Makes sense. His mom is Lara Lor-Van, so I guess she didn’t take her husband’s last name? Alright. But then there’s Zor-El, Kara’s dad. His wife is named Alura Zor-El and his daughter is Kara Zor-El. Why are their names first name-hyphen-his full name? That doesn’t make sense. I guess that’s what happened with Lara too, I’d assume that’s her dad’s name. But then why didn’t she become Lara Jor-El? It’s some weird societal woman thing, isn’t it? My outside of universe theory is that the writers who came up with these names thought that Lara-El and Kara-El and Alura-El don’t sound great because with the hyphens it’s just vowels rolling right into other vowels messily. Either way. Food for thought. Anyway, David Krumholtz is in this movie and he’s pretty good. I don’t have any basis of what I think Zor-El should be like. I’m not a huge Supergirl reader in general. I do like seeing actor David Krumholtz on screen doing stuff. I don’t know. He’s sciency and he’s not in this much. Much of my thoughts about the Krypton sequences are technically spoilers. But I like him more than Bradley Cooper’s Jor-El, in part because he had several scenes to do things, whereas Bradley Cooper is a recording. But also I don’t like watching Bradley Cooper when he isn’t playing a raccoon he only does the voice for.

Alura Zor-El – Emily Beecham
I think the one thing this movie does that the comic definitely also does is that Supergirl’s mom is barely in it. Because she dies of sickness. Which isn’t a spoiler, you know her family is dead. But before she does she tells her daughter that she doesn’t have to be nice or happy but she does have to do her best to be good. Which is a nice message. It felt a little corny, but that’s okay.

Clark Kent AKA Superman – David Corenswet
Speaking of corny… I mean, he’s great. There’s no question there. Surprise, surprise, the guy who did a good job playing Superman in his own movie is still good at it. I will say, and I noticed it while rewatching Superman recently as well, his face is a little weird. Maybe it’s the way they film him, often in the Arctic or in that black apartment where he owns a few 10 pound weights, which is very funny. But his face ends up, more often than not, a bit washed out, and he looks pale and bug-eyed. He’s still a very handsome man, but it’s definitely an odd choice.
I’m also still getting used to this portrayal of Superman, who is definitely more flawed and goofy and human than most comic portrayals. He’s certainly less stoic and unknowable than Christopher Reeve tended to be. Reeve’s Clark Kent was a performance and his Superman was just kind of an idealized version of a golden man. Whereas this Superman feels like a dorky Midwestern guy who happens to have insane powers in an insane world. Sometimes that leads to lines that hit my ear the wrong way. I’m still thrown during the great interview scene in Superman when he says “Super-Shit?! Come on, Lois!”
All that being said, I’m obviously a big fan, I just have too many thoughts. And his scenes in this are some of the best scenes in the movie, getting to see his interplay with Milly. He by no means steals the film, because Milly is really good in her own way. I just hope they get some good scenes together in Man of Tomorrow. It’s funny watching him try to be a welcome committee for Kara when he can’t speak Kryptonian and there’s clearly beef between him and Krypto from minute one. Though I will say, he has the last line in the movie, and it’s one I take issue with. But we’ll deal with that in spoilers.

Soundtrack/Score –
Okay, so… it’s bad. The score is probably fine, I didn’t notice it, because it’s mostly just bad needle drops. Lots of girl power rock songs that don’t fit in the scenes they’re used in. And they lean into how weirdly edited the movie feels. There were two that stood out though. I am not the first to say this. During the climactic fight sequence, they play a slowed-down cover version of “The Middle” By Jimmy Eat World. And it’s shit. It really does not work. It actively makes the movie worse. I have heard it was James Gunn’s choice to use that song, which is insane to hear. Anyway, bad choice. But other than that, the thing that bugs me about this movie is that there are multiple diegetic songs in this film played in space bars or sung at space bars that are from Earth. The one that really got to me but also makes me laugh is in a space bar there’s an alien lounge singer who starts singing “The Girl From Ipanema” during a fight. There’s no Ipanema in space!!! That’s absolutely ridiculous! Funny though.

Supergirl spoiler time…

Down below

We’ll be there soon

Supergirl spoiler song

Lobo’s there

And Ruthye too

Spoiling movies is so fun

Especially when

Nobody cares

Supergirl Spoiler Review
I mean, it’s fine. I think it’s odd when I saw spoiler review because I’m really just getting into the finer plot details. It’s been a week or so but I still think this is a pretty okay movie. So you know the setup. Ruthye’s family is dead and she’s out for revenge. And Supergirl was old enough to be cognizant when her planet died. But also Zor-El knew his brother wanted Kal-El to be a God on Earth with lots of kids and thought it was a stupid bad thing to do. Additionally, this movie added the wrinkle that Kara was not alive when Argo City broke off from Krypton. Zor-El built a force field to protect this one chunk of Krypton while it floated in space and then he and his wife decided to have a kid. Which is an insane choice. And then everyone dies of radiation poisoning while Kara is sent to Earth.

Oh and Ruthye doesn’t kill Krem but Supergirl does. They go on a bus that gets hijacked by criminals but also has a little CGI alien Seth Rogen bus driver. Then they eventually find out that Krem and his pirates are kidnapping little girls to have sex with them and breed more evil pirates, like Mad Max: Fury Road but on a larger scale but also like Black Widow when they rescue a bunch of women from a ship in the sky. Also Lobo kills his bounty and then leaves but doesn’t because he’s watching the movie like I said. I don’t know. There’s not much to it.

Oh and they keep nerfing her, which I don’t like. She gets poisoned at one point. She lays under a kryptonite sun and then somehow Krem has had time to make kryptonite darts and he gets her during the final battle and temporarily makes it harder for her but then she just kicks ass again. You know how Superman (2025) fixed the problem so many other Superman movies have had by letting him be at full power but simply overwhelmed because they are also powerful? Yeah, well that doesn’t happen here. It’s the same issue as before. It’s like when Bryan Singer made multiple X-Men movies where Professor X is unable to use his powers. Don’t make superhero movies if you can’t think of a better way to challenge your characters than “They just don’t have powers for a while”. That’s super uninteresting. And don’t do the other things Bryan Singer does either.

Comic/Movie Differences
Okay, so there’s a few things. In the comic Krypto isn’t really sick, he’s cured immediately but Kara wants to help Ruthye because she’s a good person. Although either way Krypto is still pretty inconsequential to the plot. And I didn’t feel anything emotionally about him being in danger, especially since he got kidnapped in Superman. There’s some fun stuff that didn’t happen in the movie that did in the comics. She takes a red kryptonite pill that turns her into a cosmic phoenix or something. The Krem stuff is better. Kara has to hammer lead plating into the ground of Argo City to block the radiation poisoning from getting to everyone.

Krem’s death is more fun too. He doesn’t get killed. Supergirl sends him to the Phantom Zone and has Ruthye write a book claiming that Supergirl killed him so the space pirates leave Ruthye alone. He spends 300 years in there, and when they let him out, he’s remorseful and no longer a bad person, but Ruthye who is now an old woman just hits him with her cane anyway. Oh, and the main thing. In both the movie and comic, there’s a planet with a green kryptonite sun. In the movie it’s a world with two suns and she just has to lay down in a cave and wait for one to set and the other to rise. But in the movie she had to wait until the sun set but had to fight off dinosaurs additionally. It’s much more interesting. That’s the main issue with this film, obviously. Picking the less interesting option.

Should there be a sequel?
I would watch one, but preferably with a different writer or editor or whatever it is that went wrong with this one. I like Milly Alcock a lot. She should play this character more.

More Thoughts
Internet people suck and movies are fine. Here’s what I’d say. Everyone should go watch The Sheep Detectives! It’s on Prime Video and it’s really really really good. But this was fine too.

Overall Rating – 7.2/10 (I don’t know. Sorry the review petered out. It’s just an okay movie and there’s not much to say. Ah, well.)
Rudd Rating – 0/10 (His friend Seth Rogen is in this! Where is he?!)

Next time… The Flying Nun probably? I don’t know. Brand New Day is out at the end of the month. Thanks for reading!