When James Gunn‘s Superman was released last year, I thought this was not only a huge course correction from Zack Snyder‘s “grimdark” vision of DC superhero films as a whole, I also thought it was, overall, a good start to this soft reboot of the DC Universe. Of course, while Superman got the ball rolling, one movie is not enough to keep an entire universe of interconnected superhero films going. No, it needs the support of other movies and other superheroes to keep the ball rolling until it eventually snowballs into that universe.

Well, we now get to see if Superman will have a good supporting cast as his cousin, Supergirl, has her turn in the spotlight as she recently got her own movie! So, does the Supergirl movie have what it takes to help lay a solid foundation for the entire DC Universe? Read on to find out!

Now, Supergirl has already started its theatrical run here in the Philippines, which is why I was able to get to see it before most other countries have. But, as such, it would definitely be unfair if I would mention any major plot points. So this will definitely be a SPOILER FREE review. You can read on and rest assured I won’t be revealing anything big about the film. This also goes for people who read the Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow miniseries as, while it does follow the bones of the story, the film veers off in totally different directions.

Supergirl takes place around Kara Zor-El/Supergirl’s 23rd birthday and she “celebrates” by going to planets with red suns so she can drink herself stupid. When a young girl name Ruthye asks for her help to track Krem of the Yellow Hills as he and his group of Brigands killed her parents. While Supergirl initially declines the invitation, she changes her mind when Krem shoots Krypto with a poisoned dart. Supergirl and Ruthye then join forces to track down Krem of the Yellow Hills, each with their own reasons for doing so.

First off, I do have to talk about Milly Alcock, who plays Kara Zor-El/Supergirl. She does a tremendous job in the role. Now, I’m not really familiar with her body of work as I don’t watch House of the Dragon. This Supergirl is definitely not like her cousin but I can’t really reveal much about it as this is a SPOILER FREE review. Let’s just say she’s experienced more tragedy than just the planet Krypton exploding when she was a baby. As such, there’s a certain kind of youthful brashness to the character but, underneath it all, there is a layer of pain she’s trying to conceal and Milly Alcock does do a good job of letting you know it. Essentially, you do feel the weight of the character’s pain.

Besides Milly Alcock performance, the rest of the main cast do an adequate job with their roles. The actress who plays Ruthye, Eve Ridley, is generally okay. Matthias Schoenaerts is trying his best to make Krem of the Yellow Hills as evil as possible. And Jason Momoa looks like he’s having a lot of fun as Lobo. The problem is the script really doesn’t do a good job in fleshing them out. This is especially true for Krem of the Yellow Hills as, despite being the big bad, he’s so uninteresting! Matthias Schoenaerts is trying his best to make the villain scary and give him some kind of personality. But the writing makes him come off as incredibly generic, so it ultimately doesn’t work.

I do like the entire concept of the film, however. Like Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, the movie is kind of a neo-Western where Supergirl and the young girl traipse to several planets and get into several adventures on their way to find Krem of the Yellow Hills. It’s important to note that I said I like the entire concept of it all. I did not like the execution but I understand the direction they were going. Like I said, the movie is like a neo-Western so I get the idea that every planet they go to is kind of run-down and dingy. But, because of this, it’s not that exciting to actually visit these worlds as they all look the same! There is one brief exception but it’s fleeting and more of a stopover than an actual important location. They really needed to add a little more variety to the sets to make each planet stand out more.

The action scenes are a little hit-or-miss for me. I do think the fight scenes are good overall. And I appreciate the writers trying their best to put in the work as creating exciting action sequence for someone as powerful as Supergirl can be difficult because of how overpowered she should be. They overcome this by putting her in situations where she can’t really rely on her super abilities to just out-punch the baddies or find some macguffin to weaken her superpowers just enough so she looks like she can be taken out. This works out fine for the first couple of action scenes but the novelty kind of wears off when it keeps happening over and over again. They also did try to do a little too much with some of fight scenes as you’re trying to follow several things all at once and they cut between what each character is doing at that time abruptly, making it difficult to get a good rhythm on what’s happening or to really appreciate the action.

There are a lot of problems with the new Supergirl movie. No doubt about it. But, even with all of the issues I’ve mentioned, I still had fun with it for the most part. I do think Lily Alcock’s rendition of Supergirl is appropriate for what they were going for here. And Supergirl is definitely an interesting character as she’s not the boy scout Superman is. The action scenes can be a little hard to follow but they’re fine for the most part. However, I don’t think DC was just going for “fine” for this movie as this is their second outing for the DC Universe as it’s lacking that certain something to make it a must watch. I really wanted to love this movie but all I can muster for Supergirl is I liked it fine. At this point in time, I don’t think that’s good enough for me to recommend you go rush to see it in theaters. I guess if you do have extra cash on hand, you can go buy a ticket. But, overall, I would say just wait for it on streaming.

Have you seen Supergirl (2026)? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments section below!