A super-powered young heroine takes a break from her alcohol-fueled birthday bender to save her dog, rescue a horde of sex slaves, and spare a young girl from the horrors of bloody revenge in Supergirl, now playing in Prague cinemas (in Czech-dubbed and original English-language versions) and opening worldwide this weekend. This latest DC film takes a refreshing break from the usual superhero tropes to deliver something more like Mad Max: Fury Road, but the character work is sketchy, the themes are muddled, and the visual presentation is a murky mess that hides all of the wonderful creature effects. Bummer.
Supergirl stars Milly Alcock as the titular heroine, a.k.a. Kara Zor-El, who was jettisoned from a dying chunk of Krypton to join her cousin Kal-El (David Corenswet) on Earth and was briefly introduced at the end of last year’s Superman. She’s still getting over the collective death of her entire race—detailed through about 15 minutes of backstory featuring David Krumholtz and Emily Beecham as her parents, awkwardly interspersed throughout the film at all the wrong moments—and for her 23rd birthday, she goes on a galaxy-hopping pub crawl to all the red-sunned planets that sap her powers but allow the alcohol to really take hold.
Alcock is quite wonderful as Kara, including multiple scenes where she invokes valleyspeak as a strategic method of self-isolation, and after years of bland altruistic DC superheroes, here, finally, is one with some interesting character flaws. But tragically, Supergirl is not the focus of this Supergirl movie. No, that would be Ruthye Marye Knoll (Eve Ridley), a young girl whose family is murdered by space pirate Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts) in an opening scene and vows bloody revenge.
Attempting to recruit a vicious scoundrel to assist her in her quest, Ruthye heads to the local Mos Eisley-like cantina, where she offers a bounty of one of her slain father’s valuable swords to whoever can bring her to Krem, and happens across our title character. An inebriated Kara isn’t interested in the weapon, but she does take pity on Ruthye when a hulking monster lifts the sword from her hands and heads out of the saloon.
Here’s where one of Supergirl‘s biggest problems becomes apparent: there’s a fight outside the bar between Kara and the monster, who rides atop an even bigger monster. But it takes place in the dark of night, and we can’t even see these creatures let alone follow what’s happening during the action. It’s one of a few sequences in the film that expands to take advantage of a full IMAX scope, and while whip-pan camerawork and choppy editing don’t help, the visuals are just so murky that we can’t take any pleasure in looking at what’s unfolding onscreen.
This will repeat across all of Supergirl‘s action scenes, set in dark and decaying junkyard cities, dust-filled deserts, and the empty void of space. Just in case there’s a light source handy, and we would otherwise be able to see what’s going on, the filmmakers make sure to envelope half the screen in a giant lens flare to further reduce the visibility. It’s a real shame, because there’s some imaginative creature design and terrific makeup and costume work, and it’s all been buried in hazy post-production effects.
To get Kara to finally give a shit, Ana Nogueira‘s script has her independently run afoul of of Krem, who shoots her dog Krypto with a paralyzing slow-acting poison and flees the planet in Kara’s ship. She has exactly three days to locate him and retrieve the antidote he wears around his neck to save the poor pup, and if that’s not bad enough, Krem and his band of Brigands also deal in human trafficking, and keep a harem of sex slaves they use to populate their all-male society.
Now, the whole theme of Supergirl involves Kara attempting to ward young Ruthye against the perils of revenge, which would make sense if revenge was an element of her own backstory (it isn’t). But nevermind all that. This Krem guy has senselessly murdered two entire families onscreen, poisoned a lovable dog—and the film goes out of its way to let us know that the Krypto is in incredible pain—and he has imprisoned a legion of sex slaves? Yeah, this guy is a real jerk, and it’s not like he’s going to space jail. C’mon, movie.
A relatively streamlined revenge tale set against a sprawling space-western backdrop makes for a refreshing change of pace from the usual multiverse superhero spectacle. But Supergirl never quite figures out what it wants to say about Kara herself. Her emotional arc—moving past grief, ending her self-destructive spiral, and rediscovering a sense of purpose—feels more like something that happens after the plot than because of it. Ruthye’s journey consistently drives the narrative while Kara often seems to wander through it, and the film’s murky visual presentation ends up mirroring its equally muddled character work and themes.
There are bright spots elsewhere. Jason Momoa brings a manic Beetlejuice-like energy to his too-brief scenes as Lobo, and Claudia Sarne’s melancholic, synth-infused score gives the film an emotional texture that frequently elevates quieter moments. Even the soundtrack, however, is often drowned out during action scenes by an endless stream of pop needle drops that never land with the same impact as those in James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy films.
Gunn’s Superman wasn’t without its own narrative problems, but it was colorful, energetic, and unafraid to let audiences admire its imaginative world. Supergirl director Craig Gillespie goes in the opposite direction, burying inventive creature designs, impressive practical makeup, and ambitious visual effects beneath clouds of dust, darkness, and washed-out digital photography.
There’s still enough here to give Supergirl the mildest of recommendations for comic book fans, largely thanks to Alcock’s committed lead performance and a premise that dares to tell a different kind of superhero story. But for a film about a young hero finally stepping out into the light, it’s surprisingly reluctant to let us see either its world or its title character with any clarity.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
About | Contact | Terms | Privacy
© 2005-2023 The Prague Reporter. All rights reserved.
Leave a Reply