I’m a big fan of the SUPERGIRL: WOMAN OF TOMORROW graphic novel on which the current SUPERGIRL film is based. I loved the idea of making Supergirl a punky, self-destructive young woman with issues, who heads off to planets with red suns so she can get good and proper drunk; and I think Milly Alcock is excellent. Screenwriter Ana Nogueira has woven in all these proto-feminist elements, the relationship between the super-powered young woman and the young girl out to avenge her family; making some of their biggest adversaries also be powerful women; a sub-theme of young women abducted by macho fascists for child-rearing purposes…..I’m beginning to see why so many young men of a certain type disliked the film. But there is more, more reasonable people may dislike. The director seems tone deaf to the story’s capabilities. A film called SUPERGIRL and Jason Momoa as a who-knows-what drunken semi-God has to rescue HER? Are you kidding? There are too many flashbacks, too much context-telling. But I love Milly Alcok’s bruised, determined, face, fuelled by rebellion. I wish the film had been better. Matthias Schoenaerts is wonderful as the villain (though again the film could have better showcased his performance). David Corenswet, who I love as the most recent Superman, is not only wasted here, but rather diminished, something this director seems to have a knack for.
José Arroyo


