Milly Alcock in Supergirl

After swooping in to pick up her dog at the end of Superman, Supergirl follows Kara Zor-El (Milly Alcock), Clark Kent’s wayward cousin, into her adventures in outer space. Though Clark (David Corenswet, as much a scene-stealer here as Alcock was in his film) wants his cousin to find her place on Earth, like he did, it’s harder for Kara. She is one of the last survivors of Krypton, and though she is only 23 Earth years, she lived long enough to see the end of her people. She is stricken with a grief Clark only knows tangentially, and she struggles to settle down as a result.

Instead, Kara spends most of her time frittering around space, drinking and partying. She is celebrating her birthday in such fashion when Ruthye Marye Knoll (Eve Ridley) appears to offer her dead father’s sword to anyone who will help her defeat a bad dude called Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts). Krem is the leader of the Brigands, space traffickers who kidnap girls to be their “brides” and reproduce with them. It’s a little bit Mad Max: Fury Road and a little bit Epstein Island, but Kara isn’t keen on helping until Krem poisons Krypto the Superdog, a very good boy and Kara’s best friend. Suddenly, Kara needs the antidote only Krem has, and she teams up with Ruthye to defeat Krem.

Supergirl is directed by Craig Gillespie and written by Ana Nogueira, and they make for a slightly uneven match. Nogueira concisely pares down the comic mini-series Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow into an action-driven revenge quest underpinned by Kara’s grief and struggle to find a place after losing the only home that she’s ever known. Gillespie, while a good director of actors, proves a little bland for a comic book movie set mostly in space. The action in Supergirl is mostly forgettable, which is a shame because there is something inherently fun and pleasing about petite Milly Alcock slinging bad guys around like they weigh no more than feathers. It’s a little bit funny but also a satisfying power fantasy, one Nogueira seems to understand by making Kara’s chief antagonists abusers of women.

There is also no getting around how similar Supergirl looks to Guardians of the Galaxy. It’s not really surprising, given that Supergirl is produced by James Gunn, the writer/director of the Guardians trilogy, but it does mean that the visuals here don’t look as impressive and spectacular as freshly imagined space stuff would. The film also does a girl-group heavy soundtrack, like Captain Marvel and Birds of Prey before it, which renders the needle drops more tired than desired.

When focused on Kara and her trauma journey the film clicks along, and Milly Alcock is really wonderful as Kara. Jason Momoa is also great as Lobo, an intergalactic bounty hunter who gets tangled up with Kara and Ruthye (Aquaman swam so that Lobo can fly). And Matthias Schoenaerts makes for a great villain, and the entirely too real evil plot of the Brigands lends the film some dramatic heft. It all just feels so borrowed, and the blandness of the action undercuts Alcock’s performance.

It’s not a bad film, but not unlike Captain Marvel, and especially its sequel, The Marvels, before it, Supergirl feels sanded down from rougher edges. Some of that blandness feels deliberate, robbing Kara of deeper, darker emotions in favor of girl power pop songs and a weird ending in which Kara decides Earth is okay, after all, even though she spends most of the movie not on Earth. It’s actually jarring to remember she has some kind of life there, because the movie is so very much not about that life. It feels a bit like the finale of Supergirl speedruns some character and plot development solely to deposit Kara where she needs to be for a sequel. Again, Supergirl is hardly the only superhero movie to do such a thing, but it is disappointing that after almost 20 years straight of superhero cinematic dominance, people are still relying on these shoddy techniques to force the pieces of their cinematic universe together.

Overall, though, Supergirl is mostly a good time. It’s not the most memorable film, but Milly Alcock is outstanding as Kara, as is Jason Momoa as Lobo. If nothing else, Supergirl succeeds in launching them into James Gunn’s DC Universe, though that does come at the expense of the film itself. Like most superhero movies, Supergirl is a bit of a mixed bag.

Supergirl is now playing exclusively in theaters.