Milly Alcock plays the titular Kryptonian, or Kara to her friends (not that she has any). Still mourning the loss of her home and family, and disillusioned with life on Earth, she is celebrating her birthday alone on a planet with a red sun. The lack of yellow sunlight hampers her superpowers meaning she can get drunk, but it also means she unable to stop her beloved dog Krypto from being poisoned when bad guy Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts) turns up to steal her ship. With three days to get the antidote she embarks on a mission to hunt down Krem and his crew while begrudgingly chaperoning a young girl named Eve, who wants revenge for her murdered family.
As the "True Grit" -esque plot signifies, the idea here is to treat the film as a space-set western. Tonally and textually, this doesn't pan out. The lone gunslinger up against the odds dynamic doesn't work when your main character can move faster than the eye can see and punch through mountains, so the writing keeps finding ways for Kara not to be at full strength. First she is on a planet with a red sun, then she is poisoned, then there's a green sun..... Sure, you want jeopardy but it gets to the point where you wonder why they wanted to make a film about this character at all. In terms of western visuals, the film is often fairly ugly to look at, with desaturation and an off-putting brown hue standing in for the sun bathed vistas the genre is known for.
This missing of the stylistic mark applies to a lot of the film. The characters taking a space ride on what is essentially an intergalactic bus and visiting "alien" locals that are clearly just 7-Elevens and truck stop diners undermines the big wide galaxy feel the movie is trying to create, as does an overbearing soundtrack. Constant needle drops feel unnatural and forced, as if director Craig Gillespie feels obliged to ape the style of Gunn's own superhero movies. The reason the songs work so well in "Guardians of the Galaxy" though, is because they are Starlord's connection to Earth and his mother. Here, the whole thrust of the story is that Kara HAS no connection to Earth and the conceit that she listens to music to dull her super hearing doesn't excuse the barrage of non-diegetic music.
Fortunately, Milly Alcock seems to have a much better handle on the character of Supergirl than the script does. She sells all facets of the character; from jaded cynic to wounded orphan to reluctant role model and kick ass superhero. She even manages to make it feel like Kara has some growth despite a very muddled character arc (she starts the movie distrustful of everyone despite the fact everyone in her life seems to have done the best they can by her, then a run in with some people traffickers makes her more open to bonding with people?). Hopefully the lukewarm reception to this movie doesn't sideline her from future films.
The same can be said for Jason Momoa, who appears as immortal bounty hunter Lobo. Fans of the character have remarked for years that Momoa would be perfect casting and it proves to be true, his larger than life personality is an exact match for the over the top intergalactic biker and he is entertaining whenever he is on screen. The problem is, it's never clear quite why he is on screen as he plays no significant part in the story. Again, it feels like a studio mandate to introduce a popular character in the hope he clicks and can be used again at a later date. His screen time here might have been better served going to Schoenaerts who does his best to make Krem a compelling villain with the limited space he is given.
That's the story of Supergirl. It feels undercooked, with more effort put into furthering this new cinematic continuity than making a good film. It's a shame, because their leading lady is more than up to the task of anchoring a tentpole superhero movie but there is nothing around her to lift this above passably watchable.
5 sun tans out of 10
Comments
Post a Comment