Supergirl, much grittier than its predecessor, absolutely embraces chaos. The adventure in this outing is all over the place, and it leans into that. It's messy. It's funny. It is surprisingly emotional. But, best of all, it remembers something that too many comic book films have forgotten: these stories are supposed to be entertaining. It's not ironic fun. Not self-aware fun. Genuine, wide-eyed, comic-book entertainment.
Milly Alcock walks away with the movie. She doesn't play Kara Zor-El as a female Superman, nor does she spend two hours trying to convince us she's tougher than everyone else in the room. Instead, she gives us someone who's still figuring herself out—a little impulsive, a little bruised, occasionally reckless, but impossible not to root for. It's a star-making performance. Jason Momoa, meanwhile, crashes into the film as Lobo like he wandered in from another movie after polishing off a case of beer and deciding gravity was optional. Every scene he's in gets a jolt of glorious anarchy. Matthias Schoenaerts makes an imposing Krem without slipping into cartoon villain territory, while Eve Ridley gives the story its conscience. David Krumholtz and Emily Beecham round out the supporting cast with performances that give the emotional moments real weight.
Director Craig Gillespie and writer Ana Nogueira understand that spectacle only works when people matter. The action is kinetic without becoming visual wallpaper, and the quieter scenes aren't treated like speed bumps on the way to the next explosion. More importantly, Gillespie embraces the strange corners of DC mythology instead of sanding them down into generic blockbuster mush. Giant monsters? Alien bounty hunters? Cosmic weirdness? Bring it on. This movie wears its comic-book DNA proudly, and it's all the better for it.
Now, let's address the Kryptonian elephant in the room. The screenplay is uneven. Sometimes Supergirl glides effortlessly from humor to heartbreak, and sometimes it changes gears with the grace of a shopping cart missing a wheel. A few subplots seem to evaporate just when they start getting interesting, and there are emotional beats that could have landed harder if they'd been allowed another five minutes to breathe. It's the kind of movie that occasionally feels like someone trimmed twenty minutes from the middle and hoped nobody would notice. You notice—but you also don't really mind because the film keeps earning your goodwill.
David Corenswet's Superman appearance is brief, but it's exactly what a cameo should be: it enhances the story instead of hijacking it. There's no desperate wink at the audience, no giant neon sign screaming, "Here's your shared universe!" He's simply Superman - warm, confident, and reassuring - reminding you why this character has endured for nearly ninety years. Better still, he never steals Kara's thunder. This is her movie, and Alcock owns it from beginning to end.
Supergirl isn't perfect. It's too ambitious for its own good in places and occasionally trips over its own cape. But I'd rather watch a movie that reaches for the stars and occasionally misses than another assembly-line superhero film assembled by committee. This one has personality. It has heart. It has imagination. And when the credits rolled, I realized something that hasn't happened after a comic-book movie in a while: I wanted to see it again.
MPAA Rating: PG-13.
Runtime: 107 mins
Director: Craig Gillespie
Writer: Ana Nogueira; Jerry Siegel
Cast: Milly Alcock; David Corenswet; Eve Ridley
Genre: Action | Superhero
Tagline: Look Out
Memorable Movie Quote: "We haven't been formally introduced."
Distributor: DC
Official Site:
Release Date: June 26, 2026
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
Synopsis: Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl, joins forces with an unlikely companion on an interstellar journey of vengeance and justice when an unexpected adversary strikes too close to home.
