PG-13 | 1h 47m | DCU, Action, Comedy | 2026
The good news—Milly Alcock as Kara Zor-El (Supergirl) is outstanding. It’s absolutely a star-is-born moment. The bad news is that “Supergirl” is not the summer blockbuster vehicle that deserves her.
Director Craig Gillespie’s “Supergirl” is a serviceable but underwhelming affair of generic, over-the-top superhero bombast that has about as much soul-nourishment as a Twinkie.
Young, Depressed, and Unmotivated
The movie kicks off with Kara on the verge of her 23rd birthday but acting more like a latchkey 16-year-old with a fake ID. She’s getting plastered on various types of galactic alcohol across a series of red-sun planets, all of which have bars that look exactly like the infamous Mos Eisley interstellar cantina from the original “Star Wars.”
In the DC Universe, there’s apparently a rainbow’s worth of colored suns that power different solar systems, and Kryptonians like Kara need yellow suns to activate their superpowers. Hence her hanging out in red-sun locations—they mute her superpowers to the degree that she can catch a good buzz. This is all an attempt to drown her trauma.
Trauma? In the DCU that began with 2025’s “Superman,” the Man of Steel—Kara’s cousin (David Corenswet)—has no memories of his parents or the planet Krypton. Amusingly, rough-and-tumble, hardcore Kara thinks her cousin is a nice guy but also a bit of a naive nerd.
She, on the other hand, vividly remembers how her planet imploded and her parents, Zor-El (David Krumholtz) and Alura (Emily Beecham), and all its other inhabitants, got Kryptonite poisoning. They put her in a space pod and blasted her into outer space before she could be affected.
Ruthye
Kara soon meets a young, Mulan-like girl named Ruthye (Eve Ridley), who is seeking vengeance for the death of her family of famous swordmakers at the hands of Krem, the multitudinously face-pierced brigand (Matthias Schoenaerts).
Kara’s not interested in Ruthye’s petition for her help, but then Krem poisons Krypto (Superdog) and annoyingly runs off carrying the only antidote. Well! Kara’s not having that and now has a personal reason to help her young charge.
So now it basically becomes a version of “True Grit,” with Kara in the inebriated authority-figure role and Ruthye as the pesky girl who drags her unwilling older counterpart around.
Fails to Deliver on Multiple Levels
Milly Alcock has fire-hose-strength charisma, and it’s a good thing she does because there’s not even one other interesting or vibrant character in sight here—not Ruthye, not Krem, and unfortunately not even dreadlocked, cigar-chomping, intergalactic-biker and antihero Lobo (Jason Momoa).
This was especially disappointing because I’ve been watching Momoa campaigning like loco for the role of Lobo for over 10 years. “Lobo,” of course, means “wolf,” and Momoa starred as alpha-werewolf Connor Slaughter in 2014’s “Wolves.”
That same year he directed, cowrote, and starred in the drama-thriller “Road to Paloma,” his feature film directorial debut. His Native American drifter and biker character’s name was, naturally, Robert Wolf—often referred to simply as “Wolf.”
Momoa comes across as a giant, bearded-muscled-tatted Harley-riding goofball, but the man is intensely shrewd, savvy, and ambitious when it comes to his showbiz career: He set his sights on Lobo long before he landed “Aquaman.”
He also set his sights early on former wife Lisa Bonet. He famously spotted her on “The Cosby Show” when he was 8 years old, developed a huge crush, and told his mother, “Mommy, I want that one.” He landed her, too.
The only thing that needed (and still needs) more work was his acting chops, but he did finally nail down his acting brand with “Fast X.” Momoa’s an action behemoth who, with the right director, can be hysterically funny. Not in “Supergirl,” though. And not his fault.
No B-Story
“Supergirl” has no alternate story line to cut away to, and without a “meanwhile,” the only plot left to hold our attention is whether or not Superdog will get his antidote in a timely fashion. Does anyone really imagine that a summer blockbuster lets the cute doggie die?
Pros: There’s some sporadic fun. There’s Kara’s fight on a crowded space bus with punk-rock space-pirate babes, who carry X-ray-equipped crawling spider-bots to ascertain who’s carrying something loot-worthy on their personage.
Kara’s hangover-chic look is fun, featuring a Western-style duster plus Dyan Cannon’s sunglasses from “The Love Machine.” I kept thinking Alcock is kind of a slightly taller, blonde, Aussie version of Jenna Ortega.
Alcock deserves a do-over, because while “Supergirl” isn’t terrible, it’s an assembly-line studio blockbuster with no distinct flavor or personal stamp other than her performance. It’s a subpar launch for a character who deserved something far more distinctive.
However, it does whet the appetite to see what happens when Milly makes a movie that she can get much more mileage out of. And mountain-moving Momoa has certainly earned himself a standalone “Lobo” blockbuster with a top-notch director. Make that a franchise. To go with his other franchise.
‘Supergirl’
Director: Craig Gillespie
Starring: Milly Alcock, Jason Momoa, Matthias Schoenaerts, Eve Ridley, David Corenswet
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 1 hour, 47 minutes
Release Date: June 26, 2026
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
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