Supergirl is a superhero movie from 2026. There are also other variations, both a series and an earlier movie featuring Supergirl. The latter leaves quite a lot to be desired, but if you’re a completionist like me you might enjoy it. This new version, reboot or whatever you would like to call it, explores a different way to tell a story. It’s a little bit more coming-of-age than a regular superhero movie. At first, she doesn’t even seem to have a leading part and when she gets involved in the story she’s very much an anti-hero.
She starts out seeking her purpose, and I get that. She is Kal-Els (Superman aka Clark Kent) younger cousin after all. I’m not entirely sure how the canon has treated her arrival to earth compared to Superman historically. Obviously I know that Superman was a comic by itself first for many years before she was “invented”. But the exact details is another matter.
In this take of the story she arrived years later and Superman is already an established concept on earth. In fact, it’s quite funny as they really can’t understand each other. She speaks Kryptonian and he doesn’t know the language at all, as far as he’s concerned he’s a countryboy from Kansas. Of course, this could be analysed into detail, compared with the early comics and so forth. But the important part is that he has acclimatized himself to earth already, even if he’s aware of his roots, and she’s a newcomer.
All this is really a footnote in the movie though. What we really start with is her out somewhere in the galaxy trying to find herself. We start the story under a red sun, and as we all know the red sun takes away the superpowers Kryptonian has compared to us humans. She’s out drinking and partying and essentially couldn’t care less about the world around her. That’s of course not entirely true because when she sees an injustice that bothers her she doesn’t think twice before stepping in and taking the weaker party’s side, even though she is under a red sun and doesn’t have her true superpowers.
The place (and sun) varies a bit during the film. Of course, when she’s under a yellow sun, she’s more or less unbeatable but there are other variations of the sun rays as well, including one I never heard of before and which I thought was a very inventive way to render her harmless and almost dying. And it takes, in fact, most of the movie before we even see her in the Supergirl costume. So, once again, this isn’t the typical superhero movie and I think that’s kind of a saving grace. It becomes something else, something we haven’t seen a thousand times before.
Of course there are villains and other characters as well throughout the movie. I like the way it’s set up. The main storyline becomes that she’s helping a little girl seeking revenge and even applying some moral aspects on how revenge would even make her feel better or not.
I was kind of fooled in the very beginning though, when I saw that Jason Momoa had a part in it. I was thinking that Aquaman would enter at some point. But that’s not the case at all, he plays an entirely different part. It’s not a big role but I think he does a good job with it and it doesn’t ruin anything despite that he’s mainly the Aquaman in the DC universe.
All in all, I think that Supergirl was an entertaining movie. I was expecting it to be more of a normal superhero movie and was pleasantly surprised about the originality.
