Supergirl Review: Milly Alcock Shines In A Flawed Superhero Movie

So far, the most consistent criticism of James Gunn's rebranded DC Universe is that he's been trying too hard to get each individual franchise to fall in line with the "Guardians of the Galaxy" formula; out with the brooding of the Snyderverse, in with the quirky humor, bright colors, and nostalgic needle drops that defined that trilogy. The trailers for "Supergirl" have promised more of the same, and Milly Alcock certainly rises to the challenge of being more of a bumbling Star-Lord than an authoritative daughter of Krypton, drunkenly stumbling from one fight to the next.

What the trailers have kept a secret is that this offbeat heroine has been thrown into a darker story that feels like a hangover from Zack Snyder's overly gritty take on the DC universe, feeling far closer to his space opera "Rebel Moon" in tone than the brighter Marvel clone we've been primed to expect.

This is a movie with a bland, dark, and desaturated color palette that still made me need to squint to work out what was happening in IMAX, and a revenge plot involving child sex trafficking villains — a heavy theme director Craig Gillespie doesn't know how to handle, and that the movie struggles to balance alongside lighter action-comedy. I doubt any kids won over by Gunn's bright and optimistic take on "Superman" will be won over by this, especially with canine sidekick Krypto sidelined and given 72 hours to live right off the bat as an inciting incident; it's more of a joy-free "John Wick" than a spiritual sequel to that. The worst thing you could say is that "Supergirl" feels more interested in proving its worth to sexist male comic book nerds than its actual target audience, striving for importance instead of delivering on the light, colorful fun that was promised.

Set in the week of Kara Zor-El's (Milly Alcock) 23rd birthday, the reluctant heroine has her drunken partying interrupted when the young Ruthye (Eve Ridley) rocks up at her bar, looking for someone to help her get revenge on the man who killed her parents: human trafficker Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts). Ruthye's family sword is promised to whoever helps her, but when it's stolen, Kara is left with no choice but to help this in-over-her-head tween — when she does recover it, this triggers a chain of events that leads Krem to poison doggo Krypto. With only 72 hours before the poison will kill him, the two girls have to chase Krem across the galaxy on a dual vengeance mission: saving Krypto and getting justice for Ruthye's slain parents.

Like Zack Snyder's "Rebel Moon," this film is heavy on intergalactic locations (you'll think of the Cantina more than once) and wacky alien species that feel as close to Star Wars as you can get without risking copyright infringement. It never quite finds a personality too distinct from its influences, however, with Alcock's protagonist the only source of life in a movie torn between opposing comedic and quasi-Western revenge movie instincts, failing to land the satisfying middle ground between either. The lighter set-pieces — such as Kara taking on a group of "tech-pirates" who have infiltrated a space bus with the help of a teleportation device — are let down by clumsy staging and blocking that make them visually incoherent, with that sequence also featuring dozens of costumed extras who don't move or react to any of the action unfolding around them. If they're not moved by a fight happening right next to them, then why should the audience be?

"Supergirl" has more to offer when it returns to revenge Western mode, although this is entirely through the characterization of Kara and her reluctance to be a hero. An extended flashback to her final years on Krypton — which features David Krumholtz as her doomed scientist father Jor-El — is the movie's highlight, delivering ambitious, apocalyptic spectacle while getting deeper into the heroine's jaded psyche after being forced to abandon the only home she'd ever known. It also adds weight to her interactions with her cousin in Metropolis (David Corenswet's Superman), whose plucky and naive characterization feels a lot stronger when contrasted with its polar opposite; he needed a foil like Kara in his own vehicle to add weight to his defiantly uncool optimism.

Unfortunately, the movie wants to go further than simply recontextualizing its famous hero as the brooding drifter we've seen in many a Western. It feels self-consciously desperate to be seen as darker than other recent female superhero vehicles, in what I can only assume is an attempt to silence the strawman arguments of misogynistic comic book fans, but not everybody onscreen got the memo. We're introduced to villain Krem murdering a young girl's parents in cold blood and are just as quickly told he's leader of the Brigands; a gang of space pirates who kidnap women and young girls to help breed more children for their dying race. Although a relatively faithful adaptation of the acclaimed "Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow" storyline, it doesn't know how to handle dark and heavily charged subject matter, and tries to brush each contextual detail about Krem's ultimate intentions under the carpet as fast as they're brought up.

It isn't helped that Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts — previously seen as a brooding hero in Euro arthouse titles like "Bullhead" and "Rust and Bone" — hams up his performance to the point of feeling tasteless, approaching his role as a pantomime villain in a way that suggests he hasn't taken the darker implications of his character seriously either. As the revenge mission against him draws closer, the movie struggles to square the seriousness of having a sex trafficking villain with the humanistic moral about the destructive nature of revenge and never feels more tone deaf. Whoever decided to make the "Supergirl" movie a girlboss "Sound of Freedom" should probably start clearing out their desk at DC headquarters — they won't need one once the underwhelming box office totals come in.

Milly Alcock is a great Supergirl, and it's a shame her take on the character — and the inspired idea to reimagine her as a Western drifter — isn't served by this underwhelming solo vehicle. It's the first sign that James Gunn's DC Universe will be every bit as ill-conceived as Zack Snyder's.

"Supergirl" flies into theaters on June 26.