Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl, joins forces with an unlikely companion on an interstellar journey of vengeance and justice when an unexpected adversary strikes too close to home.

I have to be honest, I really don’t get the hatred this film has been getting. I’m a huge superhero nerd, where it on my sleeve proudly, but I’m getting as tired of the glut of superfilms as a lot of people. This is one of the few films of that ilk (Marvel and DC) that I didn’t manage to see opening weekend much less early or opening night. And hey, I’m as surprised as anyone that I liked it as much as I did. I don’t particularly care for Supergirl as a character, and while I’m cautiously optimistic for the new DC universe of movies, the switch hasn’t yet flipped to me being overly excited for what’s coming (and I’m someone that’s also not at all looking forward to Avengers: Doomsday, but that’s another conversation).

Supergirl centers around Milly Alcock’s heroine, briefly introduced in last year’s Superman. She’s young, brash, kind of a mess, drunk a lot of the time, and doesn’t have the same sense of wonder and optimism that her super cousin does. This is the core of the movie – why should we care about a female knockoff of the male hero the entire DCU is built on? And it’s because of those differences and her unique outlook that makes the character (and film) engaging.

Supergirl pops around planets with red suns because it lets her get drunk, something her invulnerability on earth doesn’t allow for. While on a bender she gets tangled up with a young orphan, Ruthye (Eve Ridley) looking for a hero to help her avenge the death of her parents and brother at the hands of evil alien trafficker Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts). They also cross paths with Lobo (Jason Mamoa) a foul-mouthed cigar-chomping alien bounty-hunter who is sometimes tangentially on their side.

Is the villain thin? Yeah. But that didn’t bother me, because the story isn’t about him. It’s about Ruthye’s quest for vengeance and Supergirl’s attempt at preventing her young charge from being irreparably damaged by this quest. There are some great special FX sequences, and Alcock really steps into her leading-woman era. David Corenswet’s Superman pops in very briefly, mostly in video or flashback, to reinforce their connection and their differences. The ending of the film and Supergirl’s response is 100% not what Superman would do, but it felt right, well-earned, and perfectly exemplifies what makes her interesting. Even more so than after Corenswet’s film I’m looking forward to what’s next with more excitement. And not for nothing, I thoroughly appreciate how slowly James Gunn is approaching this shared universe and taking the time to build the characters up with smaller stories and focused movies.

Jonathan’s grade – B

Oh yeah, and about the music. Much has been made about a bad needle-drop choice in the film (a slow-moving cover of Jimmy Eat World’s “The Middle” during a key action sequence. I don’t get it either. If it was a hard-pumping rock song it would’ve played out exactly like too many action sequences we’ve seen before and it was because of this bold choice that I became more fixated on the action scene in question. I was much more offended about the space alien tavern playing “The Girl from Ipanema.”