Supergirl (2026)    Warner Bros./Sci-Fi-Action-Adventure    RT: 107 minutes    Rated PG-13 (sequences of strong violence, action, language)    Director: Craig Gillespie    Screenplay: Ana Nogueira    Music: Claudia Sarne    Cinematography: Rob Hardy    Release date: June 26, 2026 (US)    Cast: Milly Alcock, Mathias Schoenaerts, Eve Ridley, David Krumholtz, Emily Beecham, David Corenswet, Jason Momoa, Seth Rogen (voice).

Rating: ** ½

 I went into Supergirl expecting a total train wreck. It looked like one in all of the trailers. A majority of the reviews I heard beforehand were negative. Still, a part of me hoped I was wrong. It happens. I thought the same about Masters of the Universe and look how that turned out. I enjoyed it very much. I steeled myself for the worst.

 Are you ready for some good news? Supergirl isn’t a total train wreck. Not totally. It has its fair share of flaws, but it’s also kind of fun. You see, this is a different kind of Supergirl. It doesn’t take the same campy approach to the material as the 1984 one with Helen Slater and Faye Dunaway. It’s darker and more dystopian. It pits the titular heroine against a villain not bent on world domination. The stakes are smaller and more personal here. It’s not what you’d call epic.

 There’s been a lot of fuss about the casting of Milly Alcock (House of the Dragon) as Supergirl/Kara Zor-El. People have been throwing shade on her. Let me address that right now. The Aussie actress is pretty good in the role. This is Supergirl as you’ve never seen her before. She’s a troubled girl. She’s never fully gotten over having to relocate to Earth after the destruction of her home world Argo City. She still doesn’t feel at home. She spends a lot of time off-world, mainly on planets with a red sun so she can feel the effects of alcohol. For a while, she has two states of being; drunk and hung over. In other words, she’s a train wreck with super powers (on planets with a yellow sun). It’s a different and interesting interpretation. Milly makes it work.

 Directed by Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya), Supergirl doesn’t have much in the way of plot or a villain. The story, written by Ana Nogueira, pits her against an alien baddie named Krem (Schoenaerts, Rust and Bone). He’s not nice. We first meet him when he murders a family for no good reason. He leaves behind a sole survivor, youngest daughter Ruthye (Ridley), who swears revenge. She goes looking for help and finds Kara who doesn’t want to get involved. That changes when Krem shows up and steals her ship after shooting her dog Krypto with a poison dart. Now it’s personal John Wick-style.

 She’s told by a healer she has only three days to find Krem and get the antidote before it’s too late. She goes after him with Ruthye in tow. This is bad for many reasons, the main one being Krem runs a trafficking ring, kidnapping young women and girls to help propagate their all-male alien race. She doesn’t want to have to worry about the angry, vengeance-minded kid while trying to save her dog, but the 13YO isn’t about to give up her quest. Teen girls are funny that way all throughout the universe.

 Speaking of Ruthye and her quest, Kara spends a lot of time trying to talk the younger girl off the ledge. She keeps explaining that revenge won’t bring the relief she expects it will. It’ll just leave her feeling worse. Of course, it falls on deaf ears leading up to that final moment of truth when the teen will have to make a decision that will set the course for the rest of her life.

 Along the way, the ladies bump into Lobo (Momoa, Aquaman), an alien intergalactic bounty hunter looking for one of Krem’s guys. He does what he does for the money only. Justice doesn’t factor into it. Eventually, he’s put in a position where he has to rethink his values.

 Supergirl, an adaptation of the “Woman of Tomorrow” comic book miniseries, is a throwaway entry in the new DC Universe. I wouldn’t call it an origin story even though it gives us a quick synopsis of her backstory (in flashback form). I’m not sure I’d call it an introductory film either since we were introduced to her briefly in last year’s Superman. To be honest, I don’t know how to classify it. It’s simply a disposable superhero movie that should tide fans over until next year’s Man of Tomorrow. Yeah, that sounds about right. We’ll go with that.

 There’s nothing great or earth-shattering about Supergirl. It’s entertaining enough, but it is far from perfect. Let’s start with the CGI. That’s one thing that hasn’t changed in the rebooted DCU. It’s still plentiful and still bad. Krypto is completely CGI. That is truly disappointing. It takes the viewer out of the picture. Couldn’t the makers have found a real dog for some scenes? The dark tone tends to weigh down the proceedings. The movie isn’t as fun as it should be. The action scenes, loud and overedited, are fairly unoriginal. We’ve seen all of it before. The villain Krem is just lame. He’s just some random alien scumbag.

 Then there’s the whole feminist thing. Supergirl handles it in the most shallow, superficial way possible. Whereas 2017’s Wonder Woman got audiences talking about it as it relates to the superhero genre, it’s of little to no importance here aside from one conversation about why Supergirl isn’t called Superwoman. After all, her cousin is called SuperMAN, right?

 At the same time, Supergirl has a shaggy, silly appeal. It’s a mix of True Grit, John Wick, Mad Max: Fury Road and Guardians of the Galaxy. It has a strong, flawed heroine trying to find her place in the universe while fighting the forces of no-good. And boy, can she ever fight! It definitely has value as entertainment, but it never fully steps up as a kick-ass superhero movie. It’s a good matinee picture, but that’s about it.