Supergirl is the newest hero flick from DC Studios and stars Australia’s own Milly Alcock. Photo: DC Studios.
Following the moderate success of its franchise-building blockbuster Superman (2025), the DC Universe was hoping to continue the momentum of its freshly rebooted franchise with its second film, Supergirl.
Despite being first published in 1958, 20 years after her undie-inverted cousin debuted, Supergirl has never quite garnered the same critical or commercial response.
Book sales have never been as high, she’s been the subject of far fewer movies (only two, including this one, if you’re not including 2023’s Flash, to Superman’s nine) and hasn’t been the crux of a heartbreaking tune by Five for Fighting.
In light of all of this, DC Studios pushed forward anyway, and now we have Supergirl (2026).
DC’s newest flick follows a depressed and struggling Kara, aka Supergirl (Milly Alcock), following the destruction of her home planet or what remained of it.
While drowning herself in vices to distract from the pain, she comes across the young and revenge-seeking traveller Ruthye (Eve Ridley), who is looking for Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts), the man who killed her father while raiding his farmland.
Kara reluctantly agrees to partner with Ruthye after her companion and superpowered canine Krypto is also poisoned by Krem, and the pair set off on a planet-hopping adventure to slay Krem before time runs out.
Supergirl is a very interesting film; unfortunately, it is also very messy.
The film draws heavily on the very successful graphic novel Woman of Tomorrow. Similar to the book, it explores grief, vices, loss and seclusion, but unlike the source it’s adapting, it is nowhere near as poignant.
This is by no means the cast’s fault, as Alcock, Ridley, and even Schoenaerts, are all very solid. The issue lies clearly with the poor script and messy editing.
As much as I hate comparing novels to their film counterparts, it does feel, in this case, that it is important to highlight to paint a clear picture.
The book spends a lot of time before the main call to action familiarising audiences with Kara’s current state of mind and the tragedy Ruthye experiences, adding real weight to its central narrative.
It creates a clear inroad for readers to understand its characters. Whether by circumstance or by trying to adhere to a runtime, the film jumps right into the action. It still covers the book’s ground, but in such rapid-fire fashion that it creates a whiplash effect when it eventually does slow down.
It’s like watching a highlights reel of a football game, but only seeing all of the tries scored and none of the build-up.
It leaves every character and plot point feeling undercooked.
This is especially frustrating as the book was so good and the performances are much better than its script.
The production side of the film is mostly very solid. Costumes, sets and makeup all look fantastic without feeling derivative of other space-hopping flicks like Guardians of the Galaxy.
Unfortunately, the score is very disappointing, especially given Superman’s track record, and the licensed music choices are among the worst I’ve ever seen/heard.
The songs are fine, but the moments in which they are used, in the context of the film or the accompanying visuals, make little sense and, again, feed into the whiplash-style of the movie.
Ultimately, Supergirl is not better than Superman (2025). A more faithful adaptation of Woman of Tomorrow, along with a more focused, revised script, could have really elevated the hollow film we actually got.
It is by no means a train wreck, and some of the discourse online is extremely harsh, but when you are adapting one of the best graphic novels in the character’s history, it’s only fair to expect a little more care from the filmmakers and writers.
Supergirl is now showing at cinemas across the country.
