Film Review: Supergirl

4 Stars

By Joseph Beyer | July 11, 2026

She’s slurred, she’s profane, she’s Supergirl!! And in the hands of director Craig Gillespie of Lars and the Real Girl (2007) and I, Tonya (2017) fame, the latest DC Comics big screen adaptation manages to feel fresh, confident, and somewhat punky. The director and screenwriter Ana Nogueira deliver a story thin on dialogue, but not substance, in this modern movie reboot of the character first introduced in 1959.

Credit the 26-year-old actress Milly Alcock with much of the praise, as she steps (or leaps) into the starring role here after a brief introductory cameo in 2025’s Superman reboot from director James Gunn.

Alcock is hot to the comic-book franchise from her stint on the Game of Thrones spinoff House of the Dragon. Here, Alcock brings all the “rizz” to her portrayal of Kara Zor-el (aka Supergirl)—the young Kryptonian from outer space sent unwillingly to planet Earth to save her life—becoming a lone wolf Sigma, who feels isolated and out of place, even as her cousin Clark Kent (Superman) tries to delicately help her find her way.

When the film opens, she’s on a 20-something intergalactic bender, heavily drinking in extraterrestrial bars, avoiding her fate, and haunted by her past. Her “aura” is foggy, unguided, and lost, and her only space companion is her beloved dog, Krypto, sent with her to Earth from the remnants of her lost world. Krypto is clumsy, impulsive, and destructive, but far too adorable to punish. Their bond is strong, and without him, Kara would be entirely alone in the universe.

So it’s a perfect plot device (sown early in the narrative) when Krypto is poisoned by the evil and ugly space-pirate Krem, starting a ticking clock to steal the antidote from and save the dog’s life. This sets off the search and rescue mission that will test Supergirl’s sobriety, her grit, and her powers.

Along the way, Supergirl’s motivations become aligned with a young wannabe-warrior named Ruthye (played wonderfully by the actress Eve Ridley), who is seeking her own revenge against Krem. The duo forms an unlikely alliance of quasi-sisterhood against a background of poetic violence and a world that constantly underestimates women.

Like all good hero journeys, Supergirl has to change in order to prevail: abandoning her WTF mentality for the responsibility of facing her painful past and growing up to face the future. She evolves from loner to protector, from The Dude to The Renewed, and Alcock is the perfect vessel for the task as she brings a younger Natasha Lyonne bratness to the role, complete with Liz Taylor eyewear and a Barbara Kruger attitude. In fact, the least appealing sequences were the ones where she finally donned the famed cape and tights.

Supergirl has such an easygoing energy (without trying too hard), that the simple plot is still complex enough to satisfy—and its Fast Times at Ridgemont High style comedy depicting alien airlines and bodegas didn’t hurt either.

Sure, George Miller of Mad Max fame may claim visual plagiarism for some of the film’s success, and yes Jason Momoa as a cigar chewing bounty hunter was delightfully OTT, but Supergirl delivered a real cultural story of female oppression and women literally fighting back that felt uniquely vibrant and satisfying in a post-Epstein world.

Now showing exclusively in theaters, Supergirl is rated PG-13 for violence, language, and smoking and runs a respectable 1 hour and 48 minutes.