What’s it about?

Kara Zor-El (Milly Alcock) is having a rough week. It’s her birthday (which is not a fun time for her), she’s very hungover, and a dirtbag has poisoned her dog. She’s now got three days to sober up and find the antidote.

What’d we think?

Krypto the naughty superdog was a highlight of last year’s Superman movie, with the reveal that he belonged to Clark’s cousin Kara serving as some wonderful shorthand in characterising her as a reckless party girl in contrast to Clark’s Boy Scout persona. Having her own movie should have provided plenty of opportunities to flesh out this characterisation, but a patchy script and unfocused direction sadly don’t do the character justice.

The plot kicks into gear in True Grit style, with young Ruthye (Eve Ridley) seeking revenge against Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts) for killing her family, seeking out a killer to help her. Kara has no intention of getting involved until Krem poisons her dog and steals her ship, giving her three days to track him down. This is actually a pretty tidy setup, but it is let down by the supporting players – Ruthye comes across as flat and emotionless most of the time, and Krem is a one-note villain with no hint of self-awareness to his “bad for bad’s sake”. Jason Momoa pops up as fan favourite character Lobo, a larger-than-life cigar-chomping bounty hunter with a heart of coal – he’s great in the role and clearly having a blast, but he’s barely in the movie and doesn’t have much to do when he is. If the movie were just about pivoting from Kara drowning her sorrows to hunting down the dirtbag who poisoned her dog, there might have been time to focus on what makes her tick and what sets her apart from her more famous cousin, but the middle of the movie drags under the weight of these other moving parts.

Milly Alcock is genuinely great in the role; she’s a terrific fit for the character, and one really gets the impression that she understands Kara; it’s just a shame that the script doesn’t provide many opportunities for her to show it. The patchiness also extends to the movie’s visual style. It’s not a bad-looking movie by any means, but for all the practical alien effects and colourful wierdos, there’s also plenty of person-in-a-void green screen scenes. We get plenty of fight scenes, but none are especially memorable, which is insane given the toolbox they have to draw from.

Supergirl isn’t great, and isn’t terrible. It’s a shame that Milly Alcock didn’t get a better platform to take the character for a spin, and I really hope that it’s not too long before she gets another chance to show us what she can do.