In and of itself, the notion that Kara-El (Milly Alcock) has become a self-destructive tear-away is appropriately poignant.
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| Kara (Milly Alcock, left) repeatedly tries to protect Ruthye (Eve Ridley), by insisting that she remain safe, but the plucky, sword-wielding young woman refuses to be left behind. |
(That said, the notion that she wasn’t killed long ago, while hanging out amid such ill-advised company, is the first sign of trouble in Ana Nogueira’s lamentably uneven and illogical script.)
Kara’s current multi-day bender is prompted by her 23rd birthday, an occasion that merely reminds her of the long-gone friends and family members no longer able to celebrate with her.
Meanwhile...
Elsewhere on Holzherr, the red sun planet where Kara has made her home, Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts) — the savage, remorseless leader of the vicious, Viking-like Brigand scavengers — gleefully murders weapons craftsman Elias (Ferdinand Kingsley), his wife Delilah (Emily Piggford) and their son Edmond (Bruce Lennox), while younger daughter Ruthye (Eve Ridley) watches in horror.
By activating booby traps, Elias destroys Krem’s ship before being cut down. The killer and his remaining men trudge away, certain of finding some alternative means of transportation.
Since we later learn that Krem and his all-male Brigands have been kidnapping young women, in order to force them to bear male children, it makes no sense that Krem fails to snatch Ruthye on the spot ... and yet he doesn’t. (Let’s call this the second of the many awkward hiccups raised by Nogueira’s sloppy script.)
While getting happily blasted at her favorite local pub, Kara is surprised when the grimly determined Ruthye shows up, offering her father’s sole remaining sword to any mercenary willing to help her track down Krem.
This alien-laden setting is a cross between Australian Outback pub, East Asian dive bar and Western American saloon, and laden with ooky aliens that make Star Wars’ Mos Eisley Cantina look like a kindergarten class. No surprise, one of the largest and ugliest pubgoers simply snatches the sword, irritating Kara enough to demand its return ... with predictably violent results.
But wait ... red sun planet, remember? Kara has no powers, yet we’re supposed to believe that this 5-foot-5 twentysomething slip of a woman could defeat such a huge pug-ugly? (Shall we call this the script’s third awkward hiccup?)
The grateful Ruthye follows Kara home, much to the latter’s annoyance. “Home” actually is an RV-like spaceship: more college-dormish refuge than mere transport vehicle, filled with retro Earthly comforts such as a record player and coffee maker. Right on cue — because, on top of everything else, Nogueira loves unlikely coincidences — Krem shows up and steals the ship.
Before departing, he poisons Kara’s dog, Krypto, with a dart filled with liquid Kryptonite. Ruthye takes them to a local healer, who warns that Krypto will die if he doesn’t receive an antidote within three weeks. That puts Krem in Kara’s sights, as well.
Lacking any other means of transport, Kara and Ruthye head to the nearby interplanetary wormhole bus stop (a particularly droll touch by production designer Neil Lamont). This vehicle also is laden with a universe-spanning menagerie of passengers in all shapes and sizes. Alas, it’s soon attacked by a trio of wickedly nasty female Sklarian space pirates (Clara Rosager, Alice Hewkin and Heather Agyepong).
Their subsequent fracas with Kara, abetted by somewhat unpredictable teleporters, is cleverly staged within the bus’ tight confines. It’s pretty much this film’s sole genuinely fun and exciting fight scene ... because the skirmish takes place just before this solar system’s yellow sun rises above a nearby planet’s horizon.
I won’t belabor the rest of Nogueira’s coincidence-laden and often idiotic plot, in part because it’s so predictable. Since Kara is virtually invincible when supercharged by the rays of a yellow sun, those cathartic (but quickly tiresome) battle royales are — of dramatic necessity — intercut with contrivances that strip her of those powers.
The latter’s worst-case scenario hits when Kara and Ruthye track Krem and the Brigands to Barenton, a barren alien world orbiting between two stars: one that delivers yellow sunlight for only one hour each day ... and green sunlight for 11 hours, the radiation from which functions like massive-scale Kryptonite. (This, too, is established Superman lore.)
The most blatantly glaring problem in Nogueira’s script hits during this climax, when it has been established that Kara has only scant hours to find the antidote and get it back to Krypto ... and yet events on Barenton clearly take much longer than that deadline. That’s just sloppy.
Director Craig Gillespie and editors Fred Raskin and Tatiana S. Riegel do their best to conceal the uneven story’s shortcomings, and — to their credit — they hold the film to a reasonable 107 minutes.
All this aside, the Australian-born Alcock — likely recognized as young Rhaenyra Targaryen, in the streaming series House of the Dragon, along with her fleeting cameo at the end of last year’s Superman — is an engaging presence. Alcock conveys the necessary blend of feisty recklessness, grinding despair and emotional withdrawal. She also matures credibly, ultimately unable to resist becoming Ruthye’s companion and protector.
When Alcock’s Kara finally bursts into a wide smile, that moment has been worth the wait.
That said, Ridley is the film’s strongest performer. She gives Ruthye a delightful blend of innocence, stubborn defiance and quiet dignity. Her resourcefulness aside, we’re occasionally reminded that she’s still a child in some ways, and sometimes the target of Kara’s snarky sense of humor.
Schoenaerts, impossible to recognize beneath makeup designer Peter Swords King’s deliberately repulsive work, makes Krem appropriately menacing and ruthless. Schoenaerts’ scariest moment comes early, when Krem turns eating a slice of Delilah’s freshly baked cherry pie into an ominous theatrical prelude to what follows.
Jason Momoa is note-perfect — and hilarious — as the cigar-chomping Lobo, a rock ’n’ roll super-villain mercenary who isn’t entirely bad, and has long been a fan favorite in the DC universe.
David Corenswet’s Superman makes a few very welcome appearances, most notably during the film’s epilogue. We know, from his own 2025 film, that Kal’s relationship with Kara has been rocky at best.
Sadly, though, all the actors are overshadowed by Lamont’s marvelously creative and whimsically detailed production design, along with the very impressive makeup, costume and special effects teams that brought the myriad aliens to life.
Gillespie and music supervisor Susan Jacobs also get points for interlacing composer Claudia Sarne’s bombastic score with cheeky pop tunes, none better used than when an alien pub chanteuse entertains the crowd by crooning “The Girl from Ipanema” and Irving Berlin’s “Cheek to Cheek.”
(Intriguing how much Earth culture seems to have saturated this entire universe.)
This is by no means the worst superhero movie made during the past several decades. More than anything else, it’s a sad case of missed opportunities. Given all the talent in front of the camera, and behind it, a better script could have made Supergirl a well-deserved hit.
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