Supergirl (2026) Review: Milly Alcock's Cool Confidence Overcomes Dark Tale of Grief
Not as good as Superman (2025) but far superior to Supergirl (1984)
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There's a lot of baggage already at the door of Supergirl (2026). The 2025 rebooting of Superman last year gave us a colorfully fun exploration of immigrants and family bonds, with a solid performance by new Superman David Corenswet that was enjoyable. There's also the 1984 interpretation of Supergirl proper, a wildly bizarre story with an inert performance by Helen Slater more undone by its '80s trappings. So Supergirl (2026) is placed in a unique position: to be just as good as her new cousin, and overcome the stink of a 42-year-old movie. Does it succeed? On the latter, a resounding yes. On the former, close but not quite.
Where Superman (2025) was a story of reinvestigating one's cultural heritage, and breaking free of the bonds of familial obligation, Supergirl (2026) is a heartbreaking story of grief, trauma, and the ways women have been forced to put aside their anger in order to survive the constant inequities of life. At time it holds more in common with Maggie Gyllenhaal's recent The Bride in how it examines feminine rage and frustration. These are the moments where Supergirl sets itself apart, particularly with Milly Alcock's unrestrained confidence masking a broken heart. Couple that with a story of murdered parents and dying dogs and Supergirl can feel darkest before dawn has even started to arrive.
Kara Zor-El (Alcock) has just turned 23 and is still grieving the loss of her people on Argo City. She spends her days on an endless pub crawl throughout the galaxy with her trusty dog, Krypton, in tow. When her dog is poisoned by an evil space brigand named Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts), Kara must find him and secure the antidote in 72 hours. Along the way she picks up Ruthye Knoll (Eve Ridley), a young girl also looking for Krem in order to avenge the murder of her family. The two will be forced to band together to achieve their individual goals, meanwhile attempting to heal their broken parts.
In spite of its opening sequence wherein Krypto pisses on a newspaper bearing Superman's image, Supergirl is a melancholy movie. Kara is a space nomad, content to hole up in a planet with a red sun – that decreases her powers to that of a mortal – so she can get wasted, do karaoke, and do it all over again the next day. There's a vibe akin to Birds of Prey in how Kara struggles to find a purpose in life and ultimately finds it in creating a community of similarly broken people, particularly Ruthye who comes in a local bar one night seeking a warrior to help her destroy Krem.
The PG-13 rating only means deaths are bloodless, but there is a lot of violence perpetuated in this movie and some of it so brutal it's a bit ridiculous that no a drop of blood is spilled. (The audience openly watches a young girl's throat being slit but, don't worry, the camera shows it from far away.) This undermines the overall mission of the two characters in that they're able to avenge violence but, god forbid, the audience actually see that. Ruthye, especially suffers, in a Western-esque sequence wherein she watches her mother, father, and brother be slain by Krem before being left to burn in their house. Eve Ridley is good, even if she seems to come from the Arya Stark School of Revenge, complete with "Inigo Montoya"-esque speech and a posh accent that seems at odds with nearly everyone on the planet.
Kara is initially resistant to helping Ruthye, short of getting her father's sword back from an alien-faced jerk. It isn't until Krem shows up on her doorstep – the movie relies on narrative convenience to explain the how – and shoots Krypton with a poison-tipped arrow that Kara becomes determined to stop him. Though she isn't content with killing Krem, more so getting him to give her the antidote. Kara must put aside her hard drinking ways to go on a planet-hopping mission with Ruthye and that's where Supergirl starts to falter. The various planets come off more like side quests, with Kara and Ruthye (feeling like a gender-swapped Mandalorian and Grogu at times), searching for various NPCs to give them information, ending up in scrapes, and then fighting their way out before moving onto the next.
Alcock, like Corenswet, has an effortless charm to her. She strides into a situation with a catty rejoinder and a cocky smile and it's hard not to want to watch her use her laser vision. At the same time, when things slow down and flash back to Kara's time on Argo City, it's the most depressing (if engaging) parts of the movie. We watch Kara struggle to stay strong in the wake of her parents dying from Kryptonian poisoning. "I am one tiny life," she tells her father after he asks her to leave the planet in order to save her life. Alcock's ability to tie in and balance her hurt and vulnerability is fantastic. It's enough to make you wish the narrative was a straightforward origin story. (It'd certainly help those uninitiated to the character.)
It is this side narrative, peppered into Kara and Ruthye's space journey, that yields the most interesting questions that the movie, unfortunately, never takes the time to answer. Kara and Clark Kent are cousins, yet the script tells a fascinating story of two disparate refugees without really mining the distinctions in their upbringing. We catch glimpses when Kara lands on Earth and meets Clark for the first time, her unable to understand English and he having never learned to speak Krypton. Clark has the benefit of never really knowing what he left behind, starting fresh on Earth as a child. Whereas Kara has years of memories of her home and is forced to learn an entirely new way of life. It's a shame when the movie returns to the main plot as there's plenty to mine of Kara just trying to live on Metropolis. Also, kudos to Ruthye asking why he's SuperMAN and she's SuperGIRL but unless you're gonna go on a tear about gender politics it comes off a tad pandering.
That being said, there is certainly gender issues at play, specifically once the two reach Bilquis, a dying planet wherein girls are trafficked to repopulate the "all-male race." The saving of "the brides" never overwhelms the central narrative, and the audience has to be reminded of it in the third act, but does touch on the continued gender horrors women deal with on the daily. Kara as a savior to sex-trafficking victims can be a bit pointed but it gets her from planet A to planet B. However, considering she's on a planet where sexual violence is prevalent, some of Kara's decision making skills come off as incredibly dumb, from drinking tea from people she obviously knows are sketch, to blindly trusting an alien to take her to Krem only to end up on a planet that could kill her. A moment of triumphant return in the third act almost immediately sees Kara poisoned...again. These moments feel less like character decisions and more the script's inability to find a compelling reason to get her to where she needs to go.
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Bilquis is also where Kara and Ruthye meet Lobo (Jason Momoa), an "immortal with a god complex." If you know the comic origins of the character – he's an interstellar mercenary and bounty hunter – you'll probably derive the most enjoyment out of him. To the uninitiated he has a tendency to come off like Jason Momoa in Crow makeup. This is mostly because Lobo feels ancillary to the plot, an attempt to shoe-horn in a fan favorite character. He spends more of his time in side plots to Kara and Ruthye, with gimmicky plot devices meant to put him the same locations as them and, eventually, becomes a God's device in the third act. He's good, but it's hard to fathom why he's here at all.
As it stands, Supergirl is a solid entry in the new DCU franchise but never feels as focused as Superman. The "girl and her dog" plot line yields a lot of tears throughout and can, at times, feel emotionally manipulative, but it accomplishes its goals. That being said, Milly Alcock is fabulous and I'm eager to see her in future installments. What works achieves its aims and what doesn't can be cast aside fairly easily.
Grade: C
Supergirl is in theaters Friday.
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