“I know it’s pretty colorful, but that’s just so everyone knows we’re good.”

When the new DC Universe slate was first announced in early 2023, one of the things that puzzled me was that the Supergirl movie was going to be based on a comic book that had only come out two years prior. I read Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, the comic book that this movie heavily bases its story on, around the time that the first teaser trailer came out, and it was absolutely incredible and took all that skepticism away. This film is getting super mixed reviews online, a lot of it for legitimate reasons, but also a lot of reasons that have to do with creative liberties with the story compared to the comic. I can understand why that would be frustrating for some, but frankly, at the end of the day, what matters to me most is if you tell a good story. For example, Dune is my favorite book of all time, and Dune: Part Two is (currently) my favorite movie, and that film takes several creative liberties (not that Dune: Part Two and Supergirl are comparable in any way).

So all that being said, I thoroughly enjoyed Supergirl. Millie Alcock completely sold me on this character, even though I was relatively unfamiliar with her before I first saw her in her very short scene in Superman, and she continues to impress as Supergirl/Kara even more here. What I love about her character is that even though she and Superman/Clark come from the same heritage, they couldn’t be any more different. This character theme is echoed throughout the movie, but the way that Clark Kent grew up made him have an extremely positive outlook on life, hence why he is such a beacon of hope, while Kara had to endure a massive tragedy that literally ended her own kind from a young age. Her view on life isn’t necessarily pessimistic, but it’s certainly a little too grounded because of where she came from, where she doesn’t usually see the bright side of things.

This inevitably leads Supergirl to have a much darker tone than Superman, which is good because it’s starting to show that almost every project brings something unique and new, while still very much feeling like it fits in the same universe. Thankfully, the theme of hope is never lost, but the plot of the movie is that Krypto is shot and poisoned by the main villain, Krem of the Yellow Hills, where the rest of the story is about Kara and a new side character named Ruthye hunting him down, though both for very different reasons. It adds a ticking clock to the movie, which helps make the stakes feel heightened. Kara wants to get the antidote that only Krem and his gang, called the Brigands, have, while Ruthye simply wants revenge for him killing her family.

The two main side characters, one of whom is obviously Ruthye, as well as Lobo, are both fantastic. Ruthye’s want for revenge, while Kara’s knowing that it will only haunt her, creates a very compelling dynamic between them. They are also very fun to watch together because of their somewhat similar backgrounds, that being traumatic pasts that shaped them into who they are. Yes, the revenge storyline where “revenge is not the way” has been done to death, but seeing it through the perspective of a young girl, guided by a compelling lead who knows what is best for her, makes it interesting. Lobo, on the other hand, is unsurprisingly played fantastically by Jason Momoa. It was one of the most obvious casting choices in recent memory because Momoa has so much of the same energy as the character in real life, and it’s safe to say that it paid off just as well as you would have hoped. He isn’t in the movie as much as you might expect, but that’s honestly a good thing because it would have very likely distracted from the central story. His amount of screen time is still definitely satisfying, I just want to make that clear.

There is also a tremendous amount of worldbuilding done for this universe in Supergirl, which I think, on top of the Woman of Tomorrow storyline being so good, was another reason why Gunn chose that comic to base this story on. This is still a very visual-effects-loaded movie, but there are a lot more practical effects here than there were in Superman, the best of which were easily the different creature designs. There are numerous different aliens and all things of that sort that Kara and Ruthye encounter, and they really do help to flesh out this universe quite significantly. The planets and locations were also a standout, with each being distinctly different from one another.

And even though I easily prefer Superman, the main thing that Supergirl surprisingly does better is its visuals. Sure, just like any other comic book movie nowadays, are there some spotty CGI moments? Yes, but they are honestly much fewer and farther between, and similar to Superman, they don’t really stick out because the vast majority of the visuals are pretty fantastic. The main standouts in this regard are related to what I just talked about a second ago, that being the planets and locations. Not only are they very different from one another, but the visuals were executed extremely well, with some being shockingly accurate to the comic. The action is also a blast, but that’s not really a surprise.

There are two big things that hold Supergirl from being great, however, and the first one is Ruthye’s arc. While she is a very compelling character who is played really well, the writing lets her down quite a bit. The theme of revenge is repeated numerous times across the course of the runtime, but the movie leans far more heavily into telling you just how full of hate and anger she is, rather than really showing you, so the arc isn’t very gripping. By the end of her character’s journey, the big emotional payoff doesn’t land nearly as much as it should have because it frankly wasn’t earned.

The villain, Krem of the Yellow Hills, was also a big letdown, though honestly not a surprising one because he was a weak point in the comic as well. He’s supposed to be this very edgy and hateable antagonist, but really just comes off as pretty silly. He doesn’t feel very threatening, either, because we don’t really get a grasp on how powerful he is until the second half of the film, which I found to be a really odd oversight with the writing.

Maybe the mixed reactions I saw online tempered my expectations a bit before I went in, but I genuinely thought his was another really good addition to this newly-established universe. I just hope it does okay enough at the box office.