The second “new DC” offering under the guidance of James Gunn. An interesting thing to remember here is that he has stated explicitly that he wants every project to look and feel unique.
With that in mind, I have to say this is a dark movie. Visually and thematically. This Supergirl isn’t the WB tv show one. For me, it’s not one I have ever seen before. We got a glimpse of her in Superman with her drunken cameo. And this picks up with that plot. She has gone to a red sun system where she can get drunk. She seems to be pretty good at that. To the point of her character being an alcoholic.
While there, a family has been slaughtered by Krem, and the lone survivor, Ruthye, shows up where Supergirl is drinking. Ruthye is trying to get some badass to help her exact revenge on Krem. There is a bit of a fight scene which was fun but had me wondering just how good of a fighter should drunk nonpowered inexperienced Supergirl really be. Supergirl refuses to help the girl though.
The next morning Ruthye is hounding Supergirl for help, and while they are talking outside her ship Krem steals it. As a parting shot, he literally shoots Krypto with a poison arrow. Here is where I have my first big problem with the plot. Because instantly I thought “take him to a yellow sun system and that should kickstart his healing.” Instead we get Kara going on a quest to find Krem because he carries the only known antidote.
Jumping a bit, there is a fight on a transport then they get to a planet where Krem and his crew are located. Supergirl is protective of Ruthye, but she isn’t really good. This is a yellow sun planet. As such, she is fully powered. So when she gets into a bar fight with everyone in the place, she goes to town. Then we get Lobo. Jason Momoa is really good in this role. He kinda steals the show the way Green Lantern and Mr. Terrific did for me in Superman. Also not gonna lie, how could would it be to see a DC movie with Lobo and Aquaman both played by Momoa!
The bar owners offer to protect Ruthye and set up a meeting with someone who can get them to Krem. Felt like a double cross from the get go to me, and it was. But it didn’t really go the way they were hoping for. Again, this is a very dark movie.
Turns into a fight with Krem and his goons, who turn into a massive horde. They are like the War Boys from Mad Max Furiosa. And honestly the ships and crew of Krem felt very Mad Max. In her quest to get the antidote from Krem, Supergirl saves a bunch of young girls and stops Ruthye from killing Krem. Who then escapes.
She then coerces the dude who helped the bartender double cross her into telling her where Krem and crew went off to. A trip that requires her to wear a hood. They get to the planet and dump her off. The planet has a twin solar system. One green sun and one yellow. But they arrived during the green sun “day time.” So she is super weak and starts dying. So…. First the hood. She can use x-ray vision and just see anyway. They didn’t say it was a special hood to prevent that. And wouldn’t she have felt the sickening of the sun as the ship approached?
Luckily Ruthye stowed away on the transport, and she drags Kara to a cave where she is sorta protected from the green sun effect. But then later when the yellow sun rises the cave lets her get strong. Hmmmm…
Ruthye gets captured by Krem and his crew, who also have captured Lobo in a scene that we didn’t see. Because really? This misfit gang of thugs took down Lobo. Hmmmm… Anyway. Ruthye helps Lobo escape. And just when it looks like Ruthye is going to get her revenge, Krem captures her again. Then just as it looks like Krem has tired of this game and is going to kill Ruthye, Supergirl shows up. In her suit and fully powered. Because the bad guys thought it made sense to bring her where the green sun would weaken her and hopefully kill her before the yellow sun powered her up. Stupid terrible idea on their part. But Krem has a bunch of Kryptonite poison arrows he shoots her up with. Which slows her a bit, but yellow sun makes her better pretty quick. Again, why not just bring Krypto to a yellow sun instead of all this drama? Krem keeps getting away as Supergirl wails on his goons. And when I say wails on them, something to remember about Kryptonians. They are super powered. When they punch, they can break through walls. Do that to someone’s face and they die. Or their chest. Kick them in the head and they die. So all the goons that she has been scrapping with aren’t going to be getting back up. In the bar. Outside the bar. On Krem’s ship. After the ship crashes and they are on the ground. In the three days of story time from this, Supergirl tallies up a kill count that makes Jason Voorhees look like an amateur. Ok, they aren’t random people, they are bad guys to a degree. But still. Damn. Quicksilver and the Flash have both had moments where there powers were shown to require a delicate approach. In the speed force, just gently flicking or lightly pushing. Because if they were more forceful they would easily kill people. There has been discussion in the past about how Superman instinctively pulls his punches. I really don’t get that vibe from Supergirl though. She isn’t pulling any punches.
As the final battle plays out, Ruthye gets another opportunity to kill Krem. Supergirl stops her again, but this time by talking her down. Explaining to her why it isn’t a good thing to do. Then as Ruthye walks away, Supergirl goes over and murders Krem then claims her antidote for Krypto.
In this movie, the only “good” person is Ruthye. Hell, Lobo is more good than Supergirl is. She has one drive in this movie, and that is to get the antidote for Krypto. All the good things that happen in the wake of her search for the antidote are just collateral damage. What would the opposite of that be? Collateral Benefits! She didn’t care that Ruthye needed justice for her family. She didn’t care that Krem and his bandits were running a human trafficking ring. She didn’t care about the raiders on the transport stealing from everyone and getting ready to abandon them without power in space (until they took the watch she had that was from her dad and she was using as her Krypto countdown.)
This is a very dark Supergirl. Not saying I don’t like that. She is quite the opposite of the Superman Boy Scout persona. In the end, she returns to Earth and is looking at turning over a new leaf. There is a bit of an AA feel to this. Her drunken selfishness throughout suddenly being turned into a “One day at a time” sort of drive. But I hope she doesn’t stay on Earth. Becoming a Girl Scout under the tutelage of Clark would take away what makes her interesting. Let her roam the galaxy and be Dark Supergirl.
Another thing that seemed peculiar to me was how the bandits talked about and referred to Kryptonians. In the comic DC universe, Superman has been around for a long time and all over the galaxy. He has a reputation. And thus Kryptonians do, even though there aren’t really others. So in this new DC cinematic universe where Clark hasn’t gotten around, why is there knowledge of Kryptonians and their powers? Why do they understand about Kryptonite? And the different sun effects on them? Seems like there would have needed to be some sort of exodus of Kryptonians throughout the galaxy a long time ago. So that their powers were known far and wide. But hell, even Kryptonians didn’t really understand Kryptonite it seems (as shown in the movie with the city Argo.)
Did I have issues with this movie? Of course I did. You just read about them. Did I enjoy this movie? Quite a bit, yeah. It was fun. And in spite of my nitpicking the hell out of it, this was a good story. Well done. Moved along really good. I liked it much more than the Superman movie. I’m going with an 8 on this. And can’t wait for the next installment of this new DC. Clayface horror movie!