Supergirl (2026) Review

What we do get of greatness pretty much all comes down to Milly Alcock…

Jul 13, 2026

Supergirl (2026)

Director: Craig Gillespie

Screenwriter: Ana Nogueira

Starring: Milly Alcock, Matthias Schoenaerts, Eve Ridley, Jason Mamoa, David Krumholtz, Emily Beecham, David Corenswet

by Sam Sewell-Peterson

From her DC Comics debut in 1959, Kara Zor-El/Supergirl rapidly became one of the most prominent female superheroes, perhaps only just behind Wonder Woman and Batgirl. There are going to be a lot of complaints that Craig Gillespie’s Supergirl is a bit derivative and doesn’t do much new, but when your main character’s previous big screen appearances are an unintentionally hilarious 80s disaster and an embarrassing miscalculation of a multiverse crossover, “good enough” is a relief.

Loosely inspired by Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s Woman of Tomorrow mini-arc from the comics, we follow Kara/Supergirl (Millie Alcock) who interrupts her 23rd birthday inter-planetary bender when her dog Krypto is poisoned by brigands under the command of the ruthless Krem (Mathias Schoenaerts). Tagging along with Kara in pursuit of the antidote in the bad guys’ possession is the young Ruthye (Eve Ridley) who also has a very personal score to settle with Krem…

Yes, both DC Studios movies released so far are to a large extent about rescuing a dog, and that’s OK.

What we do get of greatness pretty much all comes down to Milly Alcock, who completely gets Kara’s outsiderness, having to live up to her cousin Superman’s reputation while being a decade his junior, more impulsive and headstrong and very much not sharing the same positive default view of everyone she meets (unless you’re a dog). The contrast is particularly marked in the handful of warm and funny scenes where Kara interacts directly with her heroic relative and he attempts to guide her through her coming of age and understanding of her powers.

It’s a joy to spend even a small amount more time with David Corenswet’s Superman, but other supporting players impress as well. Eve Ridley brings pain and determination to the young, cruelly orphaned Ruthye and Jason Mamoa is pretty much perfect for alien biker bounty hunter Lobo, and his character is used just the right amount to avoid becoming irritating, turning up a handful of times to coarsely crack wise and beat up bad guys before jetting off to his next morally dubious job. Who knows whether he’ll fit in to any of the other DCU movies going forward, but he’ll be welcome when he does next appear. Matthias Schoenaerts plays an irredeemable monster well, though you do get the impression some more interesting material with his character was left on the cutting room floor.

The more compelling section of the film is its first half where Kara gets reluctantly sidetracked from her extended pub crawl and has to confront some hard home truths. She goes from falling asleep midway through her morning hangover piss to shambolically fighting bad guys while trying and failing not to throw up and is dressed permanently in a ratty trenchcoat and rocker chick tee. It’s a shame that some of the more daring moments from the comic storyline (particularly in regards to the ending) didn’t make it to screen.

Anyone curious about what this DC Universe’s version of the planet Krypton which remained unseen in the 2025 Superman looks like, wonder no more. It’s not quite the spotless retrofuturist aesthetic of the Richard Donner Superman or the bio-tech grit of Man of Steel, but something more imposing and art deco. Kara’s city breaks off and escapes the destruction of the rest of her planet when her parents (David Krumholtz and Emily Beecham) foresee Krypton’s annihilation, but end up suffering an even more tragic and drawn-out fate that shapes her forever. Though the film touches some pretty dark material, even here ut still feels a little like it’s pulling punches at some of its most potentially dramatic moments.

As always when dealing with Kryptonian characters, a writer has to contrive a variety of ways to make things an even playing field. Usually here it depends on what colour sun the planet Kara is currently fighting is orbiting (yellow gives Kara her powers, red takes them away), or how inebriated and or/debilitated by alien poison she is at any given moment. This generally works, until they pull a convenient variation out of their ass in the final act that makes next to no sense with the comics mythology and could have easily been smoothed over with a re-write.

The action is slick but pretty standard, and doesn’t quite pop in the same way as James Gunn’s Superman because of a muted colour palette, some choppy editing and generic brown locations for super-fights (I think we’re about done with Iceland’s volcanic planes as a location for sci-fi and fantasy worlds). The best of these bust-ups is the first time Kara gets to bust out her full range of powers as she clashes with pirates aboard a space bus, haphazardly teleporting around the vehicle jammed full of alien passengers then unleashing her full might in space against their warship.

There’s a lot to like in Supergirl, but some narrative stumbles and uninspiring stylistic decisions keeps it from reaching its full potential. We now know almost for certain that this is a box office bomb and that there were clashes behind the scene between Gillespie and the studio over which cut to release to audiences, the director’s or producer’s (they went with the producer’s version). DC Studios may well alter their plans in response to its reception, but it would be a shame if this movie not 100% working meant a pivot away from further Kara stories because Alcock deserves better than that.

Second Cut

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