Supergirl's Villain Corrects One Recurring Flaw From Zack Snyder's DC Universe

The DC Extended Universe struggled on many levels. The box office highs of this franchise (via titles like "Wonder Woman" and "Aquaman") were tremendously lofty and gave the DC brand some of the most influential superhero movies of all time. On the other hand, especially in the 2020s, the Snyder-era DCEU kept tripping over itself with flops like "The Flash" and "Shazam! Fury of the Gods." It's no wonder Warner Bros. opted to reboot this entire saga with the DC Universe, which kicked off (in the movie realm at least) with July 2025's "Superman." Following up that motion picture is "Supergirl," which sees Kara Zor-El/Supergirl (Milly Alcock) going on a crusade against the film's primary villain, Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts).

Inevitably, the DC Universe's movies and TV shows will feature elements that feel like responses to details across the entire DCEU timeline. With "Supergirl" villain Krem, it feels like director Craig Gillespie was offering a rebuke and an improvement over an especially frustrating recurring DCEU shortcoming. This franchise's titles, like "Suicide Squad" and "Black Adam," were always deploying underwhelming CG villains for their respective finales. The interesting elements that do come through on Krem, meanwhile, are made possible by him just being a guy covered in prosthetics.

That isn't enough to make Krem as imposing as Heath Ledger's Joker. However, this non-digitized foe does provide a welcome counterpoint to one of the DCEU's most irritating and inescapable shortcomings.

Whenever the final half-hour of a DC Extended Universe movie rolled around, it was time for the leads to contend with a towering CG monster. "Wonder Woman" had to include Ares, the God of War who appeared on screen as a digital creation. And whether Steppenwolf was being punished in the "Snyder cut" or dropping quips in the film's theatrical cut, the primary "Justice League" villain was still a gigantic CG alien. Then there was "Black Adam," which had Marwan Kenzari's Ishmael Gregor transform into a version of the Satanic Sabbac that looked like a generic "Diablo" enemy.

These motion pictures offering so many climactic CG beasties didn't just make it hard to tell these projects apart. It also zapped these individual adversaries of much-needed personality. Villains were looming collections of pixels, not living, breathing characters. Not even an esteemed performer like Ciarán Hinds could lend either palpable intimidation or an interesting vibe to either Steppenwolf incarnation. Reducing all the tension in these DCEU productions to such inert CG creations sucks all the fun and entertainment out of the room.

Even the otherwise solid "Wonder Woman" suffered when its focus turned to a CG baddie. The DCEU kept misfiring with these climactic foes, yet never corrected the problem. The DC Universe's second film makes some crucial steps towards rectifying this issue.

In some ways, Krem of the Yellow Hills suffers from the same screenwriting problems that plagued the worst DCEU villains. There aren't many dimensions to the guy and his wickedness lacks specificity. While being a run-of-the-mill comic book villain in many respects, Krem is a genuine improvement over the third act CG baddies in typical DCEU movies. For one thing, being just a guy in intergalactic biker gear means he actually feels like he's in the same room as "Supergirl" characters like Ruthye Marye Knoll (Eve Ridley). Compare that to Incubus (Alain Chanoine) in "Suicide Squad," who always looked like he'd wandered away from a PlayStation 2 game whenever he shared shots with live-action characters.

The fact that it doesn't inherently cost a fortune every second Krem is on-screen (as it does for CG baddies like Steppenwolf) also means that "Supergirl" can show this adversary engaging in tiny bits of eccentric behavior, like his proclivity towards snacks (such as bowls of cereal or pie). Eschewing the unnatural CG barrier between character and audience also ensures actor Matthias Schoenaerts' frenzied eyes can appear vibrantly on-screen. Those pupils do radiate real chaos, and it's unnerving.

These qualities aren't enough to mitigate the larger artistic problems plaguing Krem in an otherwise flawed superhero movie, but delivering that humanity is something the endless parade of third act CG DCEU baddies could only dream of. If nothing else, Krem embodies the virtues of flesh-and-blood performers, and that's a great change for the better.