SUPERGIRL (2026) Review

Review

Almost one year on from Superman, this week cinema goers are returning to the DCU for only the second DC Studios release, Supergirl. Cruella and I, Tonya director Craig Gillespie is building on Milly Alcock’s DCU debut alongside her on-screen cousin David Corenswet and taking on Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s legendary Woman of Tomorrow comic book in the process. It’s DC’s first fully-fledged intergalactic adventure on the big screen, breaking new ground for the company and showing a very different side to the Maiden of Might.

Ana Nogueira, tasked with building the script for Kara Zor-El’s (Milly Alcock) return to the big screen, uses Tom King’s story as a foundation rather than a blueprint. The Woman of Tomorrow comic book presents a complex and broken hero who has lost her place in the world. Whilst drifting across the galaxy from dive bar to dive bar Kara encounters Ruthye (Eve Ridley) and Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts), putting her in a conflict of her own. Broadly speaking that all remains intact in Nogueira’s script. But where King digs unflinchingly into the PTSD and loss of purpose at Kara’s core, Nogueira uses those same wounds to underpin a more crowd-pleasing interpretation of that journey.

Supergirl finds a neat way to balance the expectation of comic book readers with the needs of a general audience. Both its characters and its planet-hopping story are welcoming to the uninitiated. Taking on influence from Mad Max, True Grit and yes some of Guardians of the Galaxy, the film gets to grips with its story quickly and finds an effective hook on which to hang its swiftly paced adventure. After Krem shoots Krypto with a poison dart he has only 3 days to live. Kara is forced to track down the evil group of Brigands in order to get the antidote in a twist on how the same plot-line plays out in the comic book.

The framing of the plot in the race to save Krypto works well in instil a sense of urgency. It also goes a long way to justifying Kara’s hotheadedness, particularly in the search for information about Krem’s whereabouts. With the film clocking in at a mere 108 minutes there’s a need to keep things moving, but that doesn’t mean Supergirl completely ejects all of the book’s character nuance to replace it with generic big screen bombast. Quite the opposite in fact. Supergirl really shines when it explores the relationship between Kara and her cousin Clark. Their dynamic on screen, even when they are only speaking over video call, reads like siblings and signals fun times ahead for appearing together in Man of Tomorrow.

But the film truly comes to life when it explore Kara’s history and life on Krypton. The scenes with Zor-El (David Krumholtz) and Alura (Emily Beecham) are absolute highlights. The complexity of conveying so much emotion and loss without ever speaking a word of English speaks to the talents of both actors and Alcock. All three are able to devastate on multiple occasions as Krypton collapses and the floating city of Argo finds itself at the mercy of a mysterious plague. Gillespie and production designer Neil Lamont bring a new look to Krypton which makes it feel organic to the DCU’s already established design language. It’s also in these moments that Claudia Sarne’s score really shines through, culminating in perhaps the most distressing version of these events seen on film.

It’s not all perfect though. Despite what is one of the best performances in a villainous role in recent comic book movies, Krem of the Yellow Hills feels diluted from his source material counterpart. Schoenaerts is having a blast being evil. He is clearly revelling in the moment and the energy he brings to Krem is easily felt by the audience. But Krem and the Brigands come and go from the story with little motivation other than chaos. It’s a little directionless and compensated for with a much more dramatic look than they have on the page. The performance is spirited, the dialogue is credible and the Brigands feel like real threat. It just doesn’t land with the power it should have had.

In a complete polar opposite situation is Milly Alcock. Firstly, she has one heck of a future ahead of her as an actor based on how she melts away into Kara. Secondly, she makes the role appear effortless whether it’s speaking alien languages, fighting bad guys or mourning the loss of everyone she has ever known. Alcock imbues Kara with everything that made Woman of Tomorrow a hit book. The tragedy she carries in her eyes is truly devastating and I was beyond fully invested in her performance. In the third act when she dons the super suit and rises up as Supergirl it’s exhilarating and made all the more impactful because we truly believe that Kara has begun to find her place again.

Backing up Alcock are Ridley who finds the fun in Ruthye despite her tragic backstory and Jason Momoa taking on his dream DC role, Lobo. Ridley has some really beautiful shades of light and dark to her characterisation. It fleshes out Ruthye’s arc well and means that when she finally accepts her grief it lands well within the narrative. While Momoa is having the time of his life riding his Spacehog around various new planets in the DCU. The makeup is ripped directly from the pages of DC Comics and Momoa uses decades of fandom to bring the right amount of swagger and arrogance to make the character feel real rather than a caricature.

Supergirl features an hefty mix of both practical and visual effects. There’s an impressive range of alien races on display which are mostly practical with the occasional VFX enhancement. Only one or two creatures are fully created using visual effects and when they are they are done well and integrate into the film’s practical sets naturally. There’s equally an impressive amount of practical stunt work during the film’s larger set pieces with Brigands hanging from cables between ships whilst Milly zips around them on her flight rig. Occasionally in these moments the practical elements can feel a little unnaturally placed but it’s nothing that comic book movie fans aren’t used to in any mid-budget film.

As an introduction to Kara in the DCU, Supergirl is an excellent place to start. Tonally, visually and even sonically unique when compared to Superman it might not break new ground for the genre but it does take the DCU to places we’ve never been before in a film DC has never tried to make before and that’s important. As James Gunn and Peter Safran continue to build out this universe it’s important to see it from different angles and in that respect Supergirl is flawless. It has deeper, richer characters than Superman but conversely is less bombastic. But having seen what Craig Gillespie has conjured up here I cannot wait to see where the DCU goes next.

Verdict

Supergirl is a phenomenally fun time at the movies, anchored by an incredible performance from Milly Alcock. The film breaks new ground by taking DC’s characters out into space, widening the scope of the burgeoning DCU infinitely. With an outstanding mix of practical effects, huge fights and fun needle drops it’s easily the perfect film to kick off summer 2026.

⭐⭐⭐⭐