Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Supergirl’ on HBO Max, a Theatrical Flop Squeezed In-Between Two ‘Superman’ Movies

By John Serba

That WHUMP you heard was Supergirl (now on HBO Max) crashing at the box office. In reality, $126 million is many personal fortunes, but inside the Hollywood tent, it’s the pole snapping in half. As a Continuation Of A Previous Superhero Epic (Yawn), the movie spins off 2025’s Superman, which introduced us to the title character, played by House of the Dragon star Milly Alcock, and her annoying-ass CGI dog Krypto; they get their own adventure, with drop-ins by David Corenswet as Superman, and Jason Momoa as crazed space-biker Juggalo Wolverine clone, Lobo. For many, this wasn’t worth the (increasingly pricey) trip to the theater, but maybe at home it’ll justify your time?

SUPERGIRL: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

The Gist: Supergirl, Christian name Kara Zor-El (Alcock) is on the get hammered/wake up in your damp jorts carousel. Or should that be a rollercoaster? With all the ups and downs? Fine – it’s a rollercoaster that spins in a circle. Either way, she’s stuck. Will she ever get out of this manic-depressive sitchamation? Well, that’s why this movie exists, Holmes. Now, I’ll jump to the flashbacks that cut up and slow down the narrative: Her parents escaped Krypton before it went kablooey, gave birth to her, then succumbed to radiation poisoning. But before she could get sick, they rocketed her to Earth, puppy Krypto in her arms, to hang with her cousin Kal-El, a.k.a. Superman (Corenswet). But she couldn’t leave behind the baggage of her tragic backstory.

Hence, the boozing and the perpetual wearing of giant bug-eyed Hangover Sunglasses. One of her drunken nights down the poob (note, the poob is on another planet) is interrupted when some Fury Road design rejects tag Krypto with a poison dart and orphan a local girl, Ruthye (Eve Ridley). Their leader, Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts), has the antidote, and a bullseye on his back – Ruthye has her father’s fancy sword, and wants revenge. So the two ladies reluctantly team up for a cross-galaxy excursion, Supergirl hoping to save her dog and Ruthye’s soul, the latter by stopping the kid from killing this ruthless space thug, who’s part of a gang of shitbirds who enslave women to propagate their society. This looks like a job for… two orphans who need to discover that common ground. Oh, and Lobo (Momoa), who turns up for some reason.

©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection

What Movies Will It Remind You Of? DC movie honcho James Gunn’s fingerprints are all over this – it’s like Guardians of the Galaxy-coded down to its DNA, and flirts with being Mad Max in Space.   

Performance Worth Watching: It’s clear Alcock has enough Right Stuff to carry this film and character, but the unengaging writing tends to fail her.

Our Take: Supergirl is more of a mediocre sci-fi movie than a mediocre superhero movie, so it has that going for it. Director Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya, Lars and the Real Girl) and screenwriter Ana Nogueira gin up some fun alien designs – some neat and rubbery, some passably CG – and guide us through some Guardians-ish settings (read: it plays like gently reheated Star Wars), doling out a few Superman cameos and introducing a Momoa character that’s surely more interesting in concept than execution, in order to Link This Movie To Other Movies In The Franchise (Yawn). Action sequences play out perfunctorily with the occasional zingy bit, as Supergirl lightly wrestles with her trauma and prevents young Ruthye from future regrets. 

So there’s a little something here beneath the sometimes ugly, sometimes nifty visuals. But the film flirts a little too persuasively with our indifference. It’s slightly more of a determined, occasionally spritely, chug to the finish line than a character-driven journey. And the stakes? Do you really think they’ll let Krypto die as Supergirl exacts slo-mo ubercarnage upon a collection of gormless, anonymous bad guys, to the tune of a cutesy cover of an already slightly too cutesy Jimmy Eat World song? No spoilers, but c’mon, get real. Oh, and believe it or not, Momoa is likely only recognizable here by his dental records. 

Our Call: I can’t muster more than a verrrrrryyyyy marginal STREAM IT for Supergirl, which has just enough juice to pass the time without entirely wasting it. Keep those expectations in check, though.

John Serba is a freelance film critic from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Werner Herzog hugged him once.