Joel on Film

The most interesting character in Supergirl, the second film in the rebooted cinematic universe of DC Comics, is not the one we might anticipate. It’s not the eponymous heroine, though the character’s introduction in 2025’s Superman certainly hinted at an unorthodox protagonist on whom to hang an entire movie. Kara Zor-El stumbled drunkenly into her Kryptonian cousin’s story right at the very end, and Milly Alcock’s performance in the character’s own movie builds on that energy, before an extended flashback introduces another couple of aspects to her personality—deep, bubbling guilt and numbing grief.

It’s not the guy in the red cape himself, though David Corenswet does stop by for a cameo or two to remind us he’s still out there ahead of the sequel to his own movie. It’s not this film’s villain, although Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts) receives quite the punctual introduction, murdering most of a family in spite of their cooperation with him. It’s not a side character named Lobo, played by Jason Momoa in a distracting bit of casing on account of having played a superhero in the previous iteration of this particular franchise of comic-book movies.

There is no doubt that each of these characters holds some potential in their appearances here: After all, Superman’s own movie was an exceptionally entertaining and even awe-inspiring paean to what the character might mean in a world that already knew and admired him. For her part, Supergirl’s attitude and Alcock’s performance provide a lot of personality to what becomes a fairly standard example of what this genre has to offer. Momoa might play Lobo with more than a bit of the attitude that drove his other DC Comics character, but he does provide a devilish edge to a character who could be the villain in another story somewhere down the line.

Krem might be a worthy villain in some context, and while Schoenaerts is playful in his villainy, the movie doesn’t really know what to do with him or how to communicate why his particular skill set is actually a foil for Kara when she’s in superhero mode. That early moment of callous savagery, coupled with the fact that he poisons Kara’s dog Krypto with a paralyzing agent that kills its host in three days, establishes quickly that he is, in fact, the antagonist of this story. What follows in Ana Nogueira’s screenplay is a routine riff on an old Western trope, as well as a slight twist on the usual structure of a buddy movie.

That leads us to the character who is, by far and truly without any competition, the film’s most fascinating. Her name is Ruthye (Eve Ridley), the only survivor of that attack on the family in the scene introducing Krem, and of course, the villain is whom she is after. She’s interested in one thing, and one thing only—the pure, sweet release of unadulterated revenge.

In case that doesn’t exactly communicate why this character is so fascinating, well, it’s the degree to which Nogueira poured all of her heart and soul and creative energy into giving us a character as intelligent, cunning and resourceful as she is righteously angry and determined. It’s one thing, of course, to blithely give these characteristics to a protagonist in your story, only to undermine all of them with a sense of familiarity or place an undue amount of trust in a relative newcomer of an actress, who lets the material down through little fault of her own. Nothing of any sort happens here, because Ruthye is skilled in spite of her diminutive size, tactical even in the heat of battle or when dangling from a rope, and thoughtful in her pursuit of vengeance that she sees as justice.

Ridley conveys all that in an ably calibrated performance, but it’s sort of a shame that Nogueira and director Craig Gillespie have shoved her into a movie that otherwise just showcases a lot of routine action with questionably convincing special effects. There are some clever bits early on, such as a fight scene in which Kara learns to teleport—with the caveat that she has no control over where she will reappear in the scene. The final confrontation, though, is a lot of digital commotion against some pretty unfortunate green-screen backdrops.

As for Kara herself, she’s a lot more interesting as the intentionally distant and numb sole survivor of the attempt to flee Krypton before its destruction than she is as the dully inspiring hero known as Supergirl—whose elemental weakness is the same as her cousin’s but whose ability to bounce back from it is even more hilariously easy and barely inconvenient. Supergirl is competent but, where it counts, thoroughly unexceptional.

Rating: ** (out of ****)