Starring Milly Alcock, Matthias Schoenaerts, Eve Ridley, David Krumholtz, Emily Beecham, David Coronswet and Jason Momoa

Directed by Craig Gillespie

Warner Bros, out now

Kara Zor-El (Milly Alcock) and Krypto the Superdog are on Kara’s annual birthday bender. Consumed with grief over the loss of a Krypton her cousin never knew, Kara travels to red sun worlds where she can get drunk and parties the pain away. Until Ruthye Marye Knoll (Eve Ridley) finds her. Ruthey’s family have been butchered by Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthia Schoenaerts) and Ruthye wants vengeance. Kara isn’t interested until Krem poisons Krypto. Now, with three days to find a cure, Kara and Ruthye must track down Krem to get the antidote.

The second feature length DC universe movie under James Gunn’s reign is a fascinating companion piece to the first. David Coronswet’s Superman cameos here, and it works in a way very few Marvel cameos have; as an ideological book end rather than a promise of something more to come. Clark is Clark, good-hearted, open and deeply profoundly human. Kara is Kryptonian, the coldness of her uncle’s family cut through with the compassion shown by her parents Zor-El (David Krumholtz) and Alura In-Ze (Emily Beecham). In stark contrast to the cheerful bigots who sent Clark to the stars to conquer, Zor-El and Alura are heroic scientists who work to save their entire city. A splinter of Krypton, held in amber, an ideal which Kara is raised by and almost destroys her. The tragedy of Argo City is a vital counterpoint to the original movie, Clark’s loving upbringing contrasted with desperate, cold duty. Clark gets to be kind. Kara has to be good.

That emotional difference is key to a very different movie, one with more in common with Mad Max in some ways than the original. It evokes the cheerful weirdness of the DC universe’s space characters but cuts it with the growing sense of Kara running from herself. These are the scenes Alcock truly excels in, and she moves Kara from a traumatised teenager into a young woman looking her trauma dead in the eyes and daring it to try and drink her under the table. The Guardians of the Galaxy comparisons you’re seeing are superficial at best, but the two movies use music in fascinatingly opposed ways. Kara uses music to blot out her past and mask her powers. Quill uses it cling to a past he barely remembers and as a selling point as a mercenary.

That surprising emotional nuance is present throughout, and time and again it comes back to Alcock and the interiority she gives Kara. The Han Solo swagger is to fool her as much as us and the movie plays with her abilities. How she uses them and how she approaches the suit. The idea that the powers and the suit are very different things gives the action sequences a very different feel that reinforces how different a person Kara is, as well as how much like her cousin she is. Both save people first. Both are painfully aware of how powerful they are, but where Clark’s abilities are defined by his compassion, Kara’s are in dialogue with her rage. The final action scene here brings that into relief, as Kara, now in uniform, battles kryptonite poisoning, a green sun, the needs of vengeance and mercy and a battle for Ruthye’s soul. She’s brilliant and terrifying. She’s Supergirl. Not always kind, but always good.

There’s a lot more here that works too, especially Beecham, Coronswet and Krumholtz. Jason Momoa, in the first of his hard drinking hard fighting badass roles for the year is also surprisingly fun as Lobo. The immortal alien bounty hunter is a one note character and that note is Momoa roaring ‘YAAAYUUJH!’ as something explodes behind him but it’s a really, really fun note. He also gets arguably the best gag in the movie with a surprisingly fun, sweet line reading I did not see coming. Ridley impresses too, but she’s given the least to do which is a real shame. The original comic, written by Tom King and with staggering art by Bilquis Everly is very much Ruthye’s story and has a far more measured, episodic tone. This understandably abandons that format but loses a little too much of Ruthye along the way. There’s also some worth to the criticism of Krem being a little flat, but I’d argue how he’s dealt with and the real world overtones introduced here, counter balance that.

I do have to agree with the criticisms of visual choice though. Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow is one of the most vibrant, beautiful comics of the century to date and that doesn’t quite translate as much as I’d like.

Verdict: Fundamentally though this is Kara’s movie, and Alcock knocks it out of the park as much as Coronswet did lasty year. It’s untidy and grimy and furious and has a massive heart, and you shouldn’t worry about the dog. That’s Kara’s job. That, and being a far better person than she thinks. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart

 

Supergirl is in theatres now.

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow is available now from your local book and comic shops.