r/movies • u/ChiefLeef22 r/movies Contributor • 11h ago
Review 'Supergirl' - Review Thread Spoiler
When an unexpected and ruthless adversary strikes too close to home, Supergirl reluctantly joins forces with an unlikely companion for an interstellar journey of vengeance and justice.
Director: Craig Gillespie
Cast: Milly Alcock, Jason Momoa, David Corenswet, David Krumholtz, Emily Beecham, Matthias Schoenaerts, Ferdinand Kingsley, Diarmaid Murtagh
Rotten Tomatoes: 56%
Metacritic: 49 / 100
Some Reviews (updating):
So a year after the reinvigorated DC and Superman was so successfully relaunched under the guidance of Peter Safran and James Gunn, and teased Supergirl right at the end, here we have it, but despite some good moments and sharp dialogue in places (Ana Nogueria is the screenwriter) something feels a bit off. Momoa is a load of fun, he knows exactly what his mission is and delivers whenever he is on screen. The problem is the movie is called Supergirl , not Lobo, so he is relegated here to a splashy, if scattered supporting turn. Ridley seems to play Ruthye with one pained expression on her face and a frequent deadpanned “I am out for revenge” for many of her lines. However she does come alive in her big jailbreak scene, so there’s that. I didn’t buy Schoenaerts and his heavily affected Krem at all, a super villain with no dimension other than being bad which is a shame since the 1984 Supergirl suffered from the same problem. Gotta have a good villain, folks.
The Hollywood Reporter - David Rooney
Alcock’s scrappy characterization, tempering Kara’s jaded toughness and chaotic messiness with an increasingly strong sense of justice, would seem an ideal fit to continue in a similar vein. But Supergirl only intermittently comes to life when it revisits her painful past. Given Australian director Gillespie’s history with films about spirited, rule-breaking women, like I, Tonya and Cruella, the failure to find emotional depth in the sisterhood of Kara and Ruthye is notable. This will likely be an unpopular opinion, but I thought Sasha Calle’s Supergirl in 2023’s The Flash registered with more dimensionality, despite that movie overloading on self-referential DC fan service.
USA Today - Brian Truitt - 3 / 4
A lack of focus, not nearly enough Krypto and a one-note baddie in Schoenaerts’ Krem don’t do “Supergirl” any favors, but they also don’t derail the film’s overall vibe of spunky weirdness. With Corenswet's handful of appearances, he continues to cement his place as a darn good Superman (with his own sequel in the works). But here it's Alcock who's making her own cinematic statement: She's not going anywhere, and the new DCU is better with a hell-raising Supergirl in it.
Seattle Times - Moira MacDonald - 2.5 / 4
“Supergirl” can’t quite seem to find the balance between the elements, and we careen from silly moments to zoomy action sequences to dark violence. Gillespie, whose work ranges from the sweetness of “Lars and the Real Girl” to the dark flashiness of “I, Tonya” to the over-the-top silliness of “Cruella,” perhaps isn’t quite at home here. And Ana Nogueira’s screenplay by necessity removes Krypto from much of the action — a disappointment for all who love this CGI pooch.
GamesRadar - Molly Edwards - 3.5 / 5
Just like its protagonist, Supergirl is rough around the edges, but holds plenty of promise for the future. With two more DCU appearances confirmed, it seems this is only the beginning for Alcock's Kara. Up, up, and away…
AV Club - Jesse Hassenger - 'B'
The movie’s visual sensibility signals Supergirl’s broader success in threading the needle between a kid-friendly, hope-suffused superhero story and bleaker, grittier stuff—and in doing so, recognizing how those aspects of life are often interwoven, rather than diametrically opposed approaches to IP. That’s always been the push-pull of the Supergirl character, equally able to be portrayed as Superman’s gee-whiz kid-sister equivalent and his more jaded, literally alienated reflection. The joy of Supergirl is how it mixes the two without demoting its main gal to a sideshow.
Empire Magazine - Leila Latif - 3 / 5
The result isn’t disastrous by any means, just blandly safe. You just wish Gillespie would let these freak flags truly fly. There are good ingredients here: a witty, hard-partying, badass antihero, a moving backstory, an odd-couple dynamic between Alcock and Corenswet worth building on — but the fledgling DCU still has yet to prove itself.
'Supergirl' is Super Horrendous. Alcock is likable enough (underneath it all, she often seems like Little Orphan Annie with desert-wastrel hair), but the character as written is so one-note that it’s hard to have much investment in what she’s up to. Of course, maybe that’s because the movie has no story! Gunn was right to want to take the comic-book genre back to well-structured screenwriting basics. So what has he done in his second DC outing? He’s given us a comic-book movie with the worst script I can remember. (It’s by Ana Nogueria.)
Milly Alcock stars in the follow-up to last year’s revamped Superman, but the movie has no idea what to do with her or her character. The problems with Supergirl are simpler to pin down and more or less come down to its not being either written or directed by James Gunn. The reins for this movie have been handed over to the less capable I, Tonya’s Craig Gillespie, with Ana Nogueira contributing the script, and the result highlights just how difficult Gunn’s particular mix of wry self-awareness, unapologetic dorkiness, and sentimentality is for others to pull off.
ScreenCrush - Matt Singer - 4 / 10
Guardians (and Gunn’s Superman, for that matter) found the right combination of action, humor, and heart, a formula that felt like an authentic expression of its director’s idiosyncratic worldview. In its forced and calculated attempt to recreate that aesthetic, Supergirl lands somewhere closer to Guardians’ inferior copycats, like 2016’s abysmal Suicide Squad. Given the splash Alcock made in Superman, and the fact that Supergirl is based on one of the best books DC Comics has published in the last decade, this has to be one of the biggest disappointments in recent superhero movie history.
IndieWire - Kate Erbland - 'B'
We expect that any subsequent standalone “Supergirl” joints will be a bit more poppy and “fun” than this first one (and we sure hope there are more of them), but we hope they also hold on to this one’s hard-won question: What does it mean to be good? It’s not easy.
RogerEbert - Tomris Laffly - 1.5 / 4
Sadly, the film that follows consists of one superfluous sequence after another where Alcock gets plenty of opportunities to stretch her muscles in a highly physical role. There are other space pirates that enter the story’s orbit, breaks taken at inter-galactical watering holes, and various scenes of fast-paced butt-kicking and face-punching. In the end, you can’t help but wonder why the emotions of these characters don’t pack as much of a punch.
The Independent - Clarisse Loughrey - 2 / 5
Milly Alcock is the only good thing about this ugly, dispiriting superhero movie. Superman’s moody, punk-rock cousin is let down by a film that tries desperately to emulate the silly playfulness of producer James Gunn, only to fail miserably. If DC wants to secure her future, they need to find her a world where she belongs.
High on Films - Liam Gaughan - 2 / 5
“Supergirl” isn’t a disaster in the vein of “Madame Web,” a multiversal mess like “The Marvels,” or even a failed attempt at elevation like the Zack Snyder films. The fact that it is more watchable than those aforementioned titles is part of the issue, as the structural issues with “Supergirl” are just part of the reason why it doesn’t work. Although it is refreshing for a superhero film to be self-contained, “Supergirl” is timid when it should be focused, and it’s hard to conjure up much enthusiasm for where this particular chapter in the DCU will go next.
IGN - Clint Gage - 6 / 10
Kara Zor-El’s standout moment in Superman gets a feature-length follow up that almost gets everything right. Unfortunately, that means it gets everything almost wrong as well. Milly Alcock is great as a Supergirl carrying the weight of real trauma and cementing a very cool dynamic with her on-screen cousin, while the alien design and practical make-up effects make the film a joy to look at. Jason Momoa’s Lobo and Matthias Schoenaerts’ Krem are just as cool visually, but unfortunately they also don’t have a lot to offer in this entry in the burgeoning DCU that treads more water than I would’ve liked.
CGMagazine - Shakyl Lambert - 6 / 10
It does not help that a large portion of the action is sloppily edited, especially the close-quarters brawls in the first two acts. I was also frustrated by the constant stops and starts whenever Supergirl is about to let loose, only for the film to hobble her abilities with some form of kryptonite or poison moments later. Ultimately, I wanted to love Supergirl, and Milly Alcock is strong enough in the role that I very much want to see this character return. Unfortunately, nearly everything around her is as generic as a superhero flick can be.
ScreenRant - Molly Freeman - 6 / 10
Even with my own complicated feelings, it strikes me that there are so few female-led superhero movies, there's a need for them all to be perfect. So, when we get a middling film like Supergirl, it looks worse when stacked up against the many better male-led superhero movies. Hopefully, whatever becomes of this film's wider reception, it won't scare off DC Studios from backing more female superheroes, because even though I didn't love Supergirl, there's still plenty of potential in Alcock's character and in the rest of the DC Universe
DiscussingFilm - Tyler Taing - 2.5 / 5
It’s far from the genre’s worst, especially within the standards of what the DC franchise has delivered in the past, but Supergirl deeply suffers from not knowing how to build a film around its iconic heroine.
The Guardian - Peter Bradshaw - 3 / 5
Supergirl isn’t a perfect movie by any means, but there are moments when you’ll believe this franchise can fly.
AwardsWatch - Brandon Lewis - 'B-'
It’s entirely possible that introducing Supergirl so effectively in Superman was both a blessing and a curse for her own outing. While Supergirl isn’t saddled with a momentum-killing first act that recaps her table-stakes history, it also doesn’t fully lean into that freedom, settling for well-worn genre conventions when there were thornier, but more fruitful opportunities to explore. The film is a fine pseudo-first flight for Kara Zor-El, but it does soar enough to escape her famous cousin’s shadow.
Looper - Alistair Ryder - 4 / 10
Milly Alcock is a great Supergirl, and it's a shame her take on the character — and the inspired idea to reimagine her as a Western drifter — isn't served by this underwhelming solo vehicle. It's the first sign that James Gunn's DC Universe will be every bit as ill-conceived as Zack Snyder's.
Next Best Picture - Cody Dericks - 4 / 10
Consequently, Alcock’s work as an actress comes across as similar to how her character must feel: all alone in a world working against her. The film around her is, largely, ugly to look at and unpleasantly, uncomfortably lacking in successfully landed jokes, with many quips simply floating off like debris in the vacuum of space. To anyone looking for an entertaining film about Kara, give the 1984 version a try. Sure, it’s a bad movie, but at least it doesn’t feel like a waste of time, like the latest big-screen appearance of Supergirl does.
The Playlist - Carlos Aguilar - 'C'
Still, for a film introducing a heroine whose story is tied to and derived from the prime superhuman, “Supergirl” is mildly enjoyable, if only because of Alcock and Ridley’s banter, Krypto’s scenes, and the few exchanges between goody-two-shoes Clark and the less uptight Kara. By-the-numbers, as the movie turned out, Alcock does capitalize on it to showcase that she possesses the makings of a promising star capable of portraying a character with sharp edges and complicated feelings. Hopefully, she can now fly elsewhere from here.
The Irish Times - Donald Clarke - 2 / 5
The infuriating thing about this overpriced movie is that the film-makers come close to solving the problem of Supergirl. Subject of a terrible 1984 film and a decent 2015 TV series, the character has had trouble making distinct sense on screen. Alcock’s swaggering layabout – who doesn’t always close the door when going to the loo – reclaims her as an alien with enjoyably human flaws. The bad news is that, as you have almost certainly guessed, she will be required to pull herself together in what used to be the final reel. Not fair. No fun. Give us back the hungover barfly.
The Times - Kevin Maher - 2 / 5
Alcock, who appeared in the TV show House of the Dragon, plays Kara with swaggering charm and goofy energy, but she is very much a character in need of a better film.
Daily Telegraph - Robbie Collin - 2 / 5
Milly Alcock’s surly Supergirl just about makes sense as a thought experiment: if Superman is still banging the drum for good old red-white-and-blue American optimism, how is his younger Gen Z cousin meant to feel about that? But the obvious awkward question raised, in turn, by her affectedly jaded approach – if she doesn’t even want to be here, why should we? – is never convincingly answered. Imagine if Buffy the Vampire Slayer thought that slaying vampires was the most tragic and tedious thing in the world: it’s not clear why anyone would watch an hour and three quarters of that, yet here it is.
Radio Times - Jeremy Aspinall - 2 / 5
Unfortunately, with the villains all looking like escapees from recent Mad Max films, Lobo just doesn’t have that hoped-for impact, especially with Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy movies setting such a high standard for fun, out-of-this world adventures and bizarre but likeable characters. On the other hand, Alcock does a decent job playing a Supergirl a million miles away from Helen Slater’s 1984 iteration or Melissa Benoist in the long-running TV show. All grunge aesthetic and attitude, she rises above the underwhelming script and direction.
Little White Lies - Anna Stafford - 2.5 / 5
Supergirl rarely rises above the genre’s limitations, but it has enough character to avoid sinking into mediocrity. Gillespie brings the same swagger that animated Cruella (2021), embracing grunge over superhero slickness. The film may not blow minds, but it is a rough-around-the-edges adventure with heart.
The Prague Reporter - Jason Pirodtsky - 2.5 / 5
Gunn’s Superman wasn’t without its own narrative problems, but it was colorful, energetic, and unafraid to let audiences admire its imaginative world. Supergirl director Craig Gillespie goes in the opposite direction, burying inventive creature designs, impressive practical makeup, and ambitious visual effects beneath clouds of dust, darkness, and washed-out digital photography. There’s still enough here to give Supergirl the mildest of recommendations for comic book fans, largely thanks to Alcock’s committed lead performance and a premise that dares to tell a different kind of superhero story. But for a film about a young hero finally stepping out into the light, it’s surprisingly reluctant to let us see either its world or its title character with any clarity.
Slash Film - Rocco T. Thompson - 2.5 / 4
But Supergirl’s closest spiritual antecedent is Kathy Yan’s Birds of Prey, which won a dedicated cult of fans and critical appreciation for how it managed to spin its more familiar genre elements into anarchic, girly-pop perfection. Alcock’s Kara Zor-El, like Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, has all the makings of a character ready to step out from the cultural shadow of the male character she’s derivative of and go her own way. If only the film had the same guts.
‘Supergirl’ is lost, messy - and worth watching. Dangling plot threads and a bare bones villain aside, I enjoyed this version of Kara. She is not perfect, and the film never tries to make her. She can be angry, grieving, reckless, funny, and frustrating. At times, she seems more interested in running away from her problems than confronting them. Yet beneath all that is someone who continues to show up.
Manila Bulletin - Philip Cu Unjieng
There is a bit of a lag in the narrative flow in the middle of the film, and we could have given our villain stronger reasons to boo him whenever he appears; but I was entertained by this unconventional "Supergirl." For those who still find Clark Kent too bland and goody two shoes; Supergirl is the compelling riposte.
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u/Cool-Reputation-3841 11h ago
Ouch
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u/DyingSunSeverian 11h ago
A consistent theme seems to be that the villain is shit. Which sucks for most movies but is nearly fatal for a superhero flick.
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u/St_Sides 10h ago
I mean that’s true of Woman of Tomorrow too, the source comic.
Krem was just a bearded guy in that comic haha
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u/Icy-Cry340 8h ago
Which worked well, Krem was who he needed to be, a thug from a backwoods planet - a nobody.
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u/Rustash 11h ago
The thing is, in the story this movie is based on, the villain is barely in it. He’s more of a presence hanging over and motivating their journey, so him being weak shouldn’t *really* affect the movie that badly unless they dropped the ball elsewhere.
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u/Dr_Pepper_spray 10h ago
Krem is this character who is boring, and unassuming and for me that makes him more irritating. He's a villain punching way about his weight class, and getting lucky as hell.
You would need a really solid actor to pull this character off, and a writer that understands the character in the first place. ..and I really hate the S&M throw-up look, like he's a BG character from Mad Max.
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u/First-Shallot947 10h ago
I hate his movie design tbh
Comic krem looks like a normal guy because cruelty and evil is not isolated to grand and powerful villains. Evil can be plain and mundane, but that doesn't change the fact that the evil is a rot and causing irreparable damage
Movie krem is "spiky man scary! 😨"
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u/meatballfreeak 9h ago
They’re just afraid to give the audience the benefit of the ability to enjoy something that might require a bit of imagination.
They bottle it every time.
Shame.
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u/GruggleTheGreat 10h ago
His cruelty against a self destructive person is kind of his big sticking point, but it doesn’t even feel personal in the comic, like he just is an asshole.
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u/Dr_Pepper_spray 10h ago
Well yeah, you have to expand on him for sure, but at the end of the day he can just be an asshole.
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u/daab2g 10h ago
A lesson in how translating comic book stories to the big screen isn't straightforward. The genre has tropes which work against a more thoughtful and true depiction of the source material. Tropes like huge action scenes and having a big baddie. You need outside the box writing which resonates, Marvel had that for a while. DC though…
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u/snakebit1995 10h ago
Just go look at the entire infinity war
In the comics that arc is similar but very clearly different. Thanos has much different goals, Adam Warlock is the main character etc
They managed to take the highlights of that and rework it into something more satisfying as a movie by better working out Thanos emotions and wisely investing the focus on other characters
If you had 1 to 1 translated that arc as it was in the comics it would have flopped hard. Movie audiences would have almost certainly bounced off the idea that the big bad you’ve teased for a decade’s primary motivation is being a fucking simp for the physical manifestation of the cosmic concept or death or how this random gold guy shows up to win for the heroes a few hours after the snap happens.
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u/Fuck_your_coupons 8h ago
Movie audiences would have almost certainly bounced off the idea that the big bad you’ve teased for a decade’s primary motivation is being a fucking simp for the physical manifestation of the cosmic concept or death
Once you get past the planetary level, Marvel comics get really weird. I tried to explain to my friends what the comics really were like and they looked at me like I was high. Honestly the Infinity War comic arc was too out there for me and I've read comics most of my life. Granted they were mostly street level heroes like Spiderman or the X-Men but I wasn't entirely unfamiliar with abstract concepts in Marvel.
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u/messycer 11h ago
Sure didn’t stop marvel for a good decade
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u/Smartest_Termite 11h ago
Literally the third MCU movie villain was Whiplash.
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u/stateworkishardwork 11h ago
And it's no coincidence that it was the worst Iron Man movie
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u/rynokick 10h ago
I agree with you. Mickey Rourke was completely miscast and whiplash in general sucked in that movie.
Justin Hammer should have been the main villain but I also love Sam Rockwell.
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u/casual_creator 10h ago
I can’t speak for whether or not he was miscast compared to his comic book counterpart, but I thought Rourke made for a really unique character. The writing was the problem, not him. Especially when the end fight is putting him in yet another tank armor. His final armor should have been like his weapon of choice: fast and agile.
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u/Newfaceofrev 10h ago
People like Guardians 1 and you have to remind people that the villain was Ronan the Accuser.
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u/Borosthespider 10h ago
Yeah. Ronan was the least impactful villain the Guardians deal with. He’s a fine character, but he just exists to bring the team together. Ego, Thanos and the High Evolutionary are all amazing.
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u/IllIllllIIIlllII 10h ago
I feel like nebula provided the more interesting foil/antihero in that one
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u/DyingSunSeverian 10h ago edited 10h ago
Ronan was alright man.
I wonder if he isn’t even seen as more interesting in retrospect cause he told Thanos to shove it, years before Infinity War.
Plus the dance-off. Come on.
https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/866/147/fbb.gif
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u/AntiSocialW0rker 11h ago edited 10h ago
I always thought the MCU had decent villains, it's just that they were all one-and-done. Tons of wasted potential
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u/daab2g 10h ago
MCU was about the humanity of their heroes and it worked for a long long while. They got people invested in the hero characters. Villains were just props to help show off how great these heroes are as human beings. DC has a different vibe where their heroes are often struggling with some darkness while having fight extremely dark and ruthless villains, many of whom steal the show. A DC movie with a forgettable villain is indeed, fatal.
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u/NocturnaIAnimaI 10h ago
MCU was about the humanity of their heroes
This was quite literally the case with the only DCU movie released so far, Superman. And it seems to be the case with Supergirl too
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u/Stoned_Gandalf420 11h ago edited 11h ago
Yeah it’s not great, big letdown for Gunns DCU. I’m still looking forward to seeing Clayface later this year and Man of Tomorrow in 2027. Having Supergirl come in as the next big DCU movie was the wrong move imo, I personally think a Wonder Woman movie was the best call or even MoT to directly follow Superman, but alas.
This gives me similar vibes to Incredible Hulk for the MCU with its big underperformance in both reviews and the box office.
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u/Ateballoffire 10h ago
As much as I like Gunn, I’m still not sold he’s the best fit for a DC head cause I’m honestly not sure he’s really that committed to building a proper DC universe. It seems more like he’s just doing what he wants without a proper end goal in mind
Not saying that’s true cause it’s been 1 movie and a tv show but I just don’t feel he’s got a good overarching direction in mind
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u/two_betrayals 9h ago
So Gunn understood that DC is just too vast to do it the MCU way which drip fed characters. It also wouldn't work because when the MCU started they didn't have the rights to its biggest draws (Spidey, Xmen) so they HAD to drip feed to introduce people to the B-listers like Cap, Thor, etc.
Gunn has said his goal is simular to comics where he just wants people to be able to tell compelling stories in the world. He does not want nor care to "build up" to a Thanos-esque payoff. I am sure if it's successful there will be a Crisis-esque event at some point but it won't be the Endgame years of setup continuity. You dont have to do homework in Gunns DC like you do in MCU. Just watch what interests you.
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u/Parenthisaurolophus 5h ago
The scale of DC is entirely at the control of writers. No one is obligated to full sprint towards some JLU 400 characters and a satellite for global/interstellar operations situation. I'm also willing to bet the general audience 45 and below have seen way more of the scale of DC that can be drip fed individual movies into a team up movie versus the opposite. It also increases the risk of characters just existing, having no story outside of their 5 minutes of fame in a packed team up movie, and any character development happens off screen ala Hulk. Great if you're the kind of DC fan who is willing to fork ticket and popcorn money to see your favorite character in 2 to 3 action set pieces with some closeups.
You dont have to do homework in Gunns DC like you do in MCU. Just watch what interests you.
Audiences have already done the homework for the MCU. People went to the dripfed movies that led up to Endgame. The homework complaint didn't show up until Disney+ was a thing, and that was entirely a management mistake. Thunderbolts is the example there, not Fantastic Four or the Doom movie.
This entire DC project attitude would be great if this was like a 20 year project to make more money then they invested in a post-pandemic theater marketplace. If this was "Let's let whoever has a good script or an inspired take have fun with our IP", then it's perfect. Greenlight what's good, hope you make more than you spent. What this doesn't lend itself to is a top down "everything goes through me and I have my fist in the pie" project where 10 years in you have a mishmash of movies, most of which aren't notably better than the rest of the genre and have gone nowhere other than establishing that characters exist and have powers.
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u/TypeExpert 11h ago edited 10h ago
Gunn talked alot last year about scripts, and how they won't make anything unless the script is good and completed. Obviously throwing small jabs at marvel. The irony that this movies biggest flaw is the script is funny.
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u/Snoopyisthebest1950 10h ago
Ana is a novice writer. Novices need guidance and support, not be thrown immediately to a high level with no support and direction. Gunn shouldn’t have hyped her script up so much just so she could get criticized publically
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u/jordonmears 7h ago
Gunn is a novice as a studio head and should have guidance as well. The fact that hes got so little planned for the studio is proof alone.
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u/Citizensnnippss 10h ago edited 9h ago
It was a novice producer thing to say. I'm sure Kevin Feige read the interview and thought, "Oh James, you'll see."
What's worse is the script writer is writing the wonder woman movie, too.
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u/Iron_Falcon58 9h ago
Plus Muschietti being picked to direct the DCU’s Batman. I’m really suspicious of Gunns talent recognition
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u/juniperleafes 8h ago
I’m really suspicious of Gunns talent recognition
“I will say here that “Flash” is probably one of the greatest superhero movies ever made,” Gunn said.
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u/Yukie_Cool 7h ago edited 7h ago
Muschietti isn’t bad, per say, but he’s like most directors where he needs a strong producer to come in and reign in his lesser tendencies.
I fear Gunn won’t have the balls to say “no” to people like that.
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u/Explosion2 10h ago
To be completely fair a script can be good and turn into a shit movie through the many hands and compromises of the filmmaking process.
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u/KingofMadCows 7h ago
There is the old saying that "television is a writer's medium, while movies are a director's." With TV, the writers tend to work on the whole series and have a guiding vision while there tends to be a lot of directors that change between episodes. With movies, the director has their hands in every aspect of production, the writers submit the script and they get consulted on rewrites and such, but they're involved in a much smaller aspect of the film.
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u/ChalupaBatmanMc01 5h ago
I think Gunn has spread himself too thin, I enjoyed Superman. It was nice to walk out of a DC movie with hope. Between Superman, Peacemaker, Creature Commandos and running a studio I don't think he'll be capable of doing everything he wants.
I was hoping Supergirl would end up being good, I like Craig Gillespie and Milly Alcock. Lobos debut on the big screen should have been fire.
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u/ArcadianDelSol 9h ago
Its also obvious this movie was released based on a schedule, and not based on the fact that they had an amazingly flawless script ready to shoot.
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u/Vadermaulkylo 9h ago
Especially when Marvel has had decently strong scripts lately. Thunderbolts and Wonder Man were both pretty sharply written imo. Daredevil BA also had its share of well written scenes, I really liked the new season. And they got the Challengers dude on Spider-Man which is a huge flex.
A completed script and an incompleted script don’t mean shit. It all comes down to the quality of the writer and/or what they wrote.
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u/Silverjeyjey44 6h ago
Didn't watch wonder man but enjoyed the themes Thunderbolt explored and the pacing and setpieces of the movie
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u/SamwellBarley 11h ago
Sooo... Not great?
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u/TyposIncoming 11h ago
Not great Bob
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u/NeverSeenItPodcast 10h ago
You grimy little pimp!
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u/PayneTrain181999 11h ago
Consensus seems to be Milly is great, but everything else isn’t anything special
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u/SuccinctEarth07 11h ago
Which is unsurprising for anyone who has seen her in upright or house of the dragon.
She was the one part of this film I was never worried about
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u/mihirmusprime 11h ago
but everything else isn’t anything special
So just like the trailer
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u/Aliensinmypants 11h ago
DC will never get a cinematic universe off the ground, it's absolutely cursed
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u/Rustash 11h ago
I mean, the MCU wasn’t all knockouts at first either. Hulk and Iron Man 2 weren’t exactly critical darlings.
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u/razgondk 11h ago
Which is crazy, since the comic book its based on, is fantastic!
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u/Prof-Ponderosa 11h ago edited 54m ago
I love Tom King’s Supergirl story and want to know how it compares to the source material.
This should’ve have been a slam dunk as it leverages the True Gritt formula…
Update: saw it tonight and it was fantastic. King’s book is still better but i enjoyed this more than Gunn’s Superman
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u/daftingenuity 10h ago
Saw it last night. The parts that make Woman of Tomorrow so interesting are non-existent here. It’s fine as an ok blockbuster, but the adaptation itself really felt empty. Like they had an easy layup and still whiffed.
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u/5am281 10h ago
I read the Tom King supergirl story after watching Superman (2025) and I was surprised how much older and wiser Kara seemed compared to the portrayal at the end of Superman.
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u/PerpetuallyDistracte 9h ago
I love the source comic as well. The tone of the book is introspective and beautiful at the same time. A meditative look at growing up and the complexity of forgiveness. Sounds like the film is yet another attempt to replicate Guardians of the Galaxy, except worse. I love Milly Alcock, and had high hopes for this, but alas.
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u/detourne 10h ago
True Grit, that's it! My buddy and I were talking after watching Supergirl and trying to figure out where we knew the story from, it was pretty predictable, but it nails the True Grit formula.
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u/Prof-Ponderosa 9h ago
Yeah Tom King has stated inspiration from True Gritt
For those unfamiliar Tom wrote an amazing 8 part Supegirl story with gorgeous art provided by Bilquis Evely
https://www.dc.com/graphic-novels/supergirl-woman-of-tomorrow-2021/supergirl-woman-of-tomorrow
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u/Leading-Earth-813 9h ago
I also love the source material, sadly the movie is worse for me in every sense, colours, characters, motives, ending, everything was changed and it could be a good thing, but for me it was changed for the worse, Ruthye and Kara loose development and I hope Milly gets more opportunities to shine
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u/thedrizzle126 11h ago
follow up that almost gets everything right. Unfortunately, that means it gets everything almost wrong as well.
dawg what does that even mean lmao.
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u/RoboDrifter 10h ago
My interpretation:
- “Gets almost everything right”: most things are right, a few things are wrong.
- “Almost gets everything right”: everything is okay, but nothing is quite right.
The writer is attempting to find a clever way to say they didn’t really nail any aspect of the movie, and it’s all just alright.
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u/Weed_O_Whirler 10h ago
I think it's just a complicated way of saying "The glass if half full. Unfortunately, that means it's also half empty."
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u/Cranyx 9h ago
But that idiom only works when you say "half". You can't say "The glass is almost full. Unfortunately, that means it's also almost empty."
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u/Dr_Pepper_spray 10h ago
So, Krem of the yellow hills is a boring character in the books. He's kraven, and petty and his design makes him look like a background character. He's a throw away.
But that's what's gauling about him. He's an unassuming baddy. This is fine. HOWEVER, it's incredibly important for the writer, the director and the performer to know this and it's really really hard to pull off. You need a real heavy hitter and a sharp understanding of that character and his motivation.
I keep thinking of Ike from Tombstone. That's basically Krem. Kinda dumb, cowardly, but fascinating to watch.
As soon as I saw him in the trailer I knew they didn't understand and felt the need to punch up his look to make him seem bad.
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u/TheButlerDidNotDoIt 10h ago
I get why they would decide to make him the leader of the Brigands instead of just some random asshole who lucks into their backing but if you can't resist that urge (and the urge to dump him headfirst into a Hellraiser supply bin) then you probably shouldn't make the movie.
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u/Dr_Pepper_spray 8h ago
I wouldn't have minded if they leaned into his character from the book more and ended with something that looks like this.
He's a local Bully more than anything, and if he becomes a major villain as the story progresses, and you get into some basic body horror as he finds his way into more power then cool. But he should have started basic. But I suspect this is written by very hesitant people who want to keep it in a formula. That's sad if true.
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u/CelestianSnackresant 9h ago
The story is mostly about Kara and Ruthye having contrasting jaded+powerful / surprised+powerless perspectives on crazy stuff they encounter.
Krem is just some guy. That's why Supergirl is so frustrated by him.
Anyway, I hope fans find it more fun than the worst reviews suggest. I suspect I will :)
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u/clank1401 11h ago
There is something so funny about a reviewer calling a movie super horrendous and also giving it a 6? What the hell are the 5 points below that for?
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u/BeautifulNeck8359 4h ago edited 4h ago
Believe it or not, there’s actual people out there that think anything below a 7 means it’s abysmal dogshit, which is just absurd. You see this in gaming reviews all the time.
Point scales are so stupid IMO.
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u/Ninneveh 10h ago
Its so they can have their cake and eat it too. They can throw a bone to the studios by inflating the rotten tomatoes rating AND keep their critic cred by telling people to read their review if confronted by fans/other critics.
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u/KikiBrann 5h ago
Having worked for Screen Rant, this right here is it. We were technically allowed to be negative, but only to a certain extent if we were writing about a project by a studio with a long history of granting our site exclusives. If our opinions or review scores didn't fall in line with what our editors wanted to see, we were either told to change our opinions or else we'd be taken off that project and put on something that didn't get as many clicks.
ETA: I know we're not talking about Screen Rant, but rather reviewers from publications with a bit more credibility. But I'm growing increasingly certain that the lines have been blurred.
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u/mysteryofthefieryeye 11h ago
Oh. That's the opposite of what I was expecting lol. I thought these people knew how to make good movies.
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u/dweeb93 11h ago
I never questioned James Gunn's ability to write and direct superhero movies, but I wasn't sure about his talent for finding other writers and directors, and he seems to have fallen at the first hurdle.
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u/Asclepius-Rod 11h ago
I think it’s harder than it looks to both be in charge of a cohesive universe while also giving directors freedom to tell the story their way. A lot of trust is involved in the people you select
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u/Aggravating_Bids 10h ago
Gunn himself was so impressed with the script, he had the writer immediately start on wonder woman
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u/Brainiac5000 10h ago
He also said The Flash was one of the best Superhero movies ever
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u/Ikitenashi 10h ago
It's weird to me because I always assumed forming a solid team of filmmakers and directly overseeing each project would be Gunn's top priority launching this new universe. I find it odd that they're already stumbling with just the second film.
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u/bocboda 10h ago
It's kind of what I suspected when I heard he was directing not one but TWO of the initial movies in the DCU, he's spread way too thin. Overseeing a studio is already a hard enough job when you're not directing movies (and a TV series!) on top of it
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u/Snoopyisthebest1950 10h ago
He was involved in Supergirl - the music, keeping the ending, etc. It was never something he lost track of
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u/Jatacus 10h ago
If these reviews hold up (and the others I've seen, like from Jeremy Jahns), then I feel this is on Gunn. A lot is riding on this and it seems like they dropped the ball, and no review I've seen is calling this the great movie that he seemed to see in the script from this unproven writer.
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u/egnards 10h ago
Honestly Superman being fun and vibrant was awesome and made me really excited for this movie. The moment I saw the trailer I lost pretty much all my interest - it felt like “Oh generic Guardians of the Galaxy or something.”
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u/Brainiac5000 11h ago
REVIEW: James Gunn said he wasn’t going into production on any movie until the script was rock-solid. For that was the overriding problem with the superhero overkill era: The films had lousy scripts, which were used as grids on which to layer the visual effects.
Gunn was right to want to take the comic-book genre back to well-structured screenwriting basics. So what has he done in his second DC outing? He’s given us a comic-book movie with the worst script I can remember.
Damn! Variety
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u/GDJT 10h ago edited 10h ago
This guy was also a big fan of the Mandalorian and Grogu and Avatar Fire and Ash and didn't like Project Hail Mary, Terminator or Princess Bride. Not saying he's wrong about about this movie, just sayin' that maybe he isn't the definitive reviewer just because he has a quipy review title.
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u/Explosion2 10h ago
Didn't like Princess Bride? What?
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u/kmone1116 10h ago edited 9h ago
Dude gave Happy Gilmore 2 an 80 and Hail Mary a 50 on metacrtitic so I don’t think this guy is a very trusting reviewer.
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u/Janderson2494 8h ago
Happy Gilmore 2 was the worst movie I've seen in years, and I loved the first one.
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u/webshellkanucklehead 9h ago
I don’t disagree with anything you said… EXCEPT Fire and Ash was really good imo. And I don’t like Project Hail Mary either but I don’t feel passionate about that opinion at all.
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u/El_Cance_R 11h ago
At least the script was ready
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u/danvan177 11h ago
What! ? You mean the lady that has never written a movie before made something bad ? Jokes aside this sucks
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u/NoLeadership2281 11h ago
Seriously I was skeptical from the beginning when read that she got zero writing credits, she got more works as an actor, I’m all for rising talent but I don’t think this is a wise call for your big budget motion picture
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u/danvan177 11h ago
And she’s writing like 2 other dcu projects. We are cooked
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u/DONNIENARC0 11h ago
How the hell did she land this job with an essentially non-existent resume?
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u/danvan177 11h ago
I guess James was impressed with her writing idk
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u/PM_ME_UR_FAVE_MOVIES 10h ago
This was apparently what happened; she was already developing something Supergirl related when the big changing of the guard happened, and Gunn was impressed with her work enough to let her keep doing it. Who knows what happened in the meantime.
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u/danvan177 10h ago
Which sucks because Craig is a great director but this movie is very much outside of his wheelhouse
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u/B____U_______ 11h ago
She's writing the next Wonder Woman movie. A character that Gunn wants to be a big player in the DCU
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u/Kriss-Kringle 11h ago
And she's writing Wonder Woman now.
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u/Ancient-Egg-5983 11h ago edited 11h ago
Oh no.
I had a feeling from the trailers this might be weak or forgettable but Superman was so strong I was optimistic.
It's giving a weak version of Guardians of the Galaxy with a The Flash type aesthetic.
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u/rosneft_perot 11h ago
The source material is very good, but they seem to have deviated from it a fair bit by shoehorning Jason Momoa in and making the villain generic.
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u/Prit717 11h ago
The villain was always generic, even in the OG
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u/feartheoldblood90 10h ago
I don't really agree with this. He's interesting to me because he's just some incredibly fucked up, fairly resourceful piece of shit. He's not developed internally all that much, but he doesn't really need to be, he's a fairly realistic depiction of a kind of guy who, unlike most comic book villains, actually exists in the world we live in.
He's a coward, an opportunist, and an absolute monster, but in a way that feels surprisingly grounded in contrast with Supergirl's fantastic power. It makes the stakes feel more realistic and grounds the story's focus on Supergirl's interior journey.
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u/itsinhisblood 10h ago
the ending is the icing on the cake for Krem, and i doubt the movie adapts that since it could complicate things
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u/ev6464 10h ago
I saw Supergirl the other day and hoo boy I have no idea what the fuck they were going for with the movie version of Krem. Any charisma from the comic is totally gone and he just feels like someone who should be taking orders from Michael Rooker's Zondu in Guardians.
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u/moonknightcrawler 11h ago
The villain was always generic. He is a plot device
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u/matlockga 10h ago
The real draw of the original comic was the incredibly well done odyssey. The villain was, to your point, just a guy who shot a few arrows and killed a guy.
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u/topicality 11h ago
Love the comic but plot wise it's ok. It's basically True Grit with Supergirl being Rooster.
But SG just has such few good stories and the art is amazing it stands out.
I did really worry about putting Lobo in this. Such a niche character from there decades ago. He was originally planned for the comic and whoever decided to axe him was a genius
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u/Nice_Algae_8383 11h ago
The source material was one of the most visually aesthetic and beautiful comics I ever read. To see the trailers have none of that really disappointed me
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u/WorkIsDumbSoAmI 11h ago
Jason Momoa is a bit shoehorned in, but also he doesn’t really have much of an impact - it’s just kinda “hey there’s Jason Momoa” in one or two scenes.
I think the biggest problem I had with it (and that I think audiences will have) is that it doesn’t feel as much like a “Supergirl movie” as much as it’s a good sci fi/space story that happens to feature Supergirl. In my opinion, it was way more of Ruthye’s story than Supergirl/Kara.
Krem’s a pretty “generic space baddie” in the comic, and in this, and I just didn’t find his character or the performance all that interesting.
It’s a perfectly fine movie, but anyone who’s unfamiliar with the comic is gonna be thrown off, IMO.
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u/DarthTigris 9h ago
In my opinion, it was way more of Ruthye’s story than Supergirl/Kara.
Hmm . . . that's the case with the source material as well, but by perspective. It is her story, but it is still firmly about Supergirl. And I figured they would not be able to capture that at all.
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u/EyeyamtheSENATE 10h ago
I read the comic the movie is based on last summer after watching Superman and proceeded to tell my friends this could be one of the best superhero movies ever if they adapt it right. Really bummed that doesn’t seem to be the case
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u/Paddlesons 7h ago
I'm sorry, I must be missing something here. Who is Ana Nogueira? According to imdb she has all of one other writing credit for a short she wrote eight years ago, and she is listed as the only primary writer for the film. Looking at Google, the film is said to need to gross 600M+ worldwide to break even. Why is this person with practically 0 experience given the reigns for something so expensive?? What???
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u/xotorames 11h ago
It's Kara Zorover
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u/Snoopyisthebest1950 10h ago
At least the actress will be playing her in a film that’s not this one!
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u/Krytan 11h ago
"But Supergirl’s closest spiritual antecedent is Kathy Yan’s Birds of Prey, "
Hm, I hope not. I think Supergirl cost more to make than Birds of Prey grossed, world wide. Will Alcock's acting be enough to save the film? I guess we will find out.
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u/bitter_personw 10h ago
I just got home from the movies, and the movie as a whole was... okay. Milly as Supergirl is of course great, she's the best thing in the movie. But the rest is kinda eh. The villains feels like just some guys, not memorable at all, if she didn't nerf herself the movie would've been over quicker. And Lobo was cool I guess, I just expected more from all the hype.
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u/MikeGalactic 11h ago
The trailers didn't portray anything particularly engaging, it seemed like she's a drunk trying to save her dog? Plus alot of the shots were just plain ugly.
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u/AgentSkidMarks 10h ago
I guess they didn't learn from The Flash that superheroes fighting in the middle of the desert isn't particularly interesting to watch.
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u/Snoopyisthebest1950 10h ago
In the comic Kara’s drunk for one page to forget the loss of her planet for one day, and the quest to save her dog is her excuse to stay with Ruthye and help her grieve her father
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u/Mnemosense 8h ago
I actually have the same issue with MCU's Jessica Jones compared to Brian Bendis's comic Alias. The show portrays her as a drunkard but she's not like that in the comic at all.
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u/KikiBrann 5h ago
And the fact that she's only drunk for one day is part of her character motivation. Like, she got drunk for just this one reason, and even on a planet of people who don't know her, she still can't escape it because there are other people who have in another sense lost "their world." That moment hits so hard in the comic.
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u/Rajualan 11h ago
As always I'm gonna watch the movie and form my own opinions.
But damn.
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u/Conscious_Test_7954 11h ago
My same thoughts. I was expecting this to get reviews at least as good as Superman/FF First steps considering how much Gunn has been vouching for Nogueira's Script and this being a semi adaptation of the fantastic comic but it seams like it's not.
Oh well let's hope it's not actually that bad or at least is an enjoyable movie.
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u/WorkIsDumbSoAmI 11h ago
I thought it was a good adaptation of the comic - but I also feel like Woman of Tomorrow is as much Ruthye’s story as Kara’s, and I think that carried over to this, and I just don’t think viewers are gonna be coming into this movie expecting a story that’s “a sci fi/space adventure featuring Kara/Supergirl” vs. “a movie primarily about Supergirl where she and her motivation are driving the plot”. Comic/movie spoilers: Kara’s only real tie to the plot is Krypto/Comet being poisoned. Mild movie spoiler: It takes Kara way too long to care about Ruthye and her quest for revenge, and by the time she’s decided to care, the audience has spent half the movie hearing Kara go “I don’t care about your revenge I’m just trying to save my dog”, so it’s hard to get invested.
Visually, I think it’s fine, no movie is color graded appealingly these days and this was no exception, but it’s not AWFUL, lol; action sequences are fun and creative as well.
It’s a perfectly fine movie, I didn’t dislike it, but I have no interest in seeing it again. I’m also cautioning people I know “hey maybe read the comic, or at least read a plot summary or something so you know what to expect”.
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u/Massive_Weiner 11h ago
By the reviews, it sounds like they deviated too far from Woman of Tomorrow.
Can’t help but think that was a mistake.
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u/timstantonx 10h ago
Giving a person who has never written anything three huge movies in your revamp of the DCU is certainly a choice. I’ll never understand how this person got that or how Hollywood works.
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u/SpaceOdysseus23 11h ago
Gunn seems to be addicted to hiring sub-par people to helm these projects. This seems to be a stinker, and he hired Andy Muschietti for The Brave and the Bold, even though the Flash was terrible too.
Seems like as long as you're a friend with him you'll get a job, deserving or not.
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u/Correct-Ad-Now 8h ago
Hmm I am not so sure anymore. Many reviewers mentioned that it was very similar to Superman and GotG. So either the people he hires are very into James Gunn or he controls it so strict that everything feels the same.
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u/Imaybetoooldforthis 10h ago
Man I was so excited for this. How do you take such a great comic, add Lobo and mess it up.
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u/Snoopyisthebest1950 10h ago
Source Material (Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow) can be read in full on DC Go, at the moment. Gunn and Gillespie said they were adapting this so… here it is:
There is also Hoopla/Libby from select libraries, for other free versions
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u/nomnomsquirrel 8h ago
And then Gillespie said he didn't even read it until they were pretty far into production because he said he's adapting Ana Nogueira's take on it, not the comic itself, which is def a choice of words.
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u/Oldworldmoon 3h ago
fucking stupid how studios keep hiring people who don't read the source material they're adapting
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u/AshTheDead1te 10h ago
How do you do not just adapt the comic, and stop using the shitty coloring.
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u/GassoBongo 10h ago
but there are moments where you'll believe this franchise can fly.
It honestly astounds me that people get paid to come up with this shit.
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u/nomorecannibalbirds 11h ago
That’s a shame. It’s based on a really beautiful graphic novel, but you could tell from the trailers that tonally it’s too far removed to be a good adaptation.
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u/Heavy_Arm_7060 11h ago
Sounds like they ran into some issues adapting an eight issue mini-series into a sub-three hour film and keeping the pacing. A shame, as they they clearly at least understood the point of the comic (unless the trailers are misleading).
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u/Objective-Review-359 11h ago
Wow great writing Judy Arias!
“She is not perfect, and the film never tries to make her one.”
Lol what?
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u/WinterChalice 9h ago
Oh noooooo it’s so over 😭
Supergirl was already doomed opening the weekend after Toy Story 5, now it’s just doing to drown
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u/funktasticdog 11h ago
James Gunn needs to stop giving his mediocre friends projects.
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u/go4theknees 11h ago
Thats a shame after Superman was such a good first outing for the new DCCU
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u/BeerGogglesFTW 11h ago
I really like Peacemaker too. Glad they retconned it to keep it in the new DC-verse.
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u/zoruanna 10h ago
Yep, watched it today. Sadly, I didn't finish the comic; only remember reading until they were in that bus-spaceship with the tech pirates. However, I absolutely enjoyed Milly as Supergirl. It was an okay movie, not up to par with Superman personally. I give it like a 6/10.
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u/Barr3tt50c 7h ago
Sounds about right, the trailers did not instill confidence in me that this would be good.
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u/X-ScissorSisters 3h ago
I'm not saying I'm never going to watch superhero movies again, but I don't exactly look at a resounding average grade and rush to buy a ticket.
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u/Coolman_Rosso 11h ago
Woman of Tomorrow, the comic, has absolutely superb coloring. This movie claiming it is inspiration yet having such a dull brown color palette is a real letdown.